On The Meandering Road: October 3, 2015 - Keystone Heights, FL A Surprise Potluck Party

It was a misty morning, but not threatening enough to cancel our plan for the day. We were really excited about the geocaching workshop at noon.

After breakfast we along with other campers got together to chat some more. Bon said she needed to go back to the ranger station to talk about reserving one shelter for us to use tonight. Edith offered to go along, but Bon said no and she will have other things to do.

Little before noon Edith decided to prepare slow cooked country style ribs. When Edna heard about it she wanted to come over and watch her prepare it. She saw that the table was set up with dinner napkins, wine glasses and silverware and asked me what the special occasion was for. “Just feel like it”, Edith replied.

Edna asked if she and Jack could ride with us to the pavilion because everyone else had already left. We were getting ready to leave, but Jack left without Edna. Edna said she had to do a couple things that won’t take too long, so we waited.

When we got to the pavillon area Erwin asked me where #16 was and I said I did not know where and would have to look at the sign posted at each pavillon. Erwin saw one where it had balloons decorated around and there were people there. “Must be that one”, he said. Edith did not think so and said “I think it is a birthday party, not that one”. However, Erwin went ahead and parked the car.

Before getting out of the car Edith saw a familiar face walking toward his car and thought to herself “He is interested in learning about geocaching?”. After we got out of the car Edna was walking behind us. Little did we know she started videotaping the entire time we were walking up to the pavillon. Erwin was already few paces ahead of Edith, turned around to look at Edith. Faces we recognized.. Took us a while to figure out it was a SURPRISE Lil’ Home Journey party for us. Bon and Marilyn did fool us big time! Good actresses they were. Did not know they could fib big time, lol...

We were completely surprised about the surprise Lil' Home Journey potluck party

No wonder why Bon did not want Edith to take her to the pavillon early this morning.

It was nice seeing friends once again. We were completely surprised and did not suspect a thing. Bon explained that she contacted Keri for help with the Evite. More than half guests were not able to attend due to conflicts, but a nice number of friends were here to share the celebration with us.

Giving speech about why we decided to go RVing full-time

It was a potluck style dinner: teriyaki chicken, creamed pea casserole, pasta salad, watergate salad, potato and many more. Everyone of us enjoyed the meal.

We gave a short speech about our decision to go RVing full-time. Then gifts were opened. We thanked everyone of them for attending the party and the gifts. We really appreciated their kindness.

Billy and Holly had a game for us to play. Chairs were set up and “boys” were seated on one side and “girls” were on the other side. The game is called “Electric Hands”. How is it played? First two people watched a quarter being flipped to see which comes down heads or tails while everyone else watched in the other direction. If the coin comes up heads you squeeze the hand of the person next to you sending a ripple down to the other end. Then the person at the end grabs a rag that Holly holds. If you squeeze when the coin comes down tails you are penalized a turn. The “boys” won the game. It was evident that everyone really enjoyed the game.

Bon had a game called “Two Truths One Lie”. Each person comes up and tells two things that are true and one thing that is not true.

Time for socialization, then we walked down to where Big Moss Man was and had a picture taken of us all.

We thanked every guest for coming to the party. Few guests wanted to follow us to see what our Lil’ Home is like, so we led them over. Gave a brief tour. “Wow”, “Amazing”, “Awesome”, “Big”, etc were commented.

Rosalee and Clark stayed a while to chat with us. Rosalee and Edith knew each other from the time they were 3 1/2 years old when they attended an hard of hearing clinic in Jacksonville, FL.

After they left we went over to Edna and Jack’s site where there were foods from the party being served along with hamburgers and hot dogs.