The Tin Can Tourists (TCT) winter rally was being held at the Sertoma Youth Ranch about 15 miles southeast of Brooksville, Florida.  It started on Thursday, February 20 and was scheduled to conclude on Sunday, February 23.  TCT rallies almost always include a public open house.  For this rally the open house was Saturday, February 22 from 11 AM to 3 PM.

I left WCRV Resort around 10:15 and took the fast route down US-27 to I-75 and then south to exit 293.  From there it was a couple of miles on back roads to get to the Sertoma Youth Ranch.  There was a $5 charge to park, which I knew about in advance and gladly paid.  This is the second TCT open house that I have attended.  Although smaller than their main gathering in May at Camp Dearborn in Milford, Michigan (10 miles from our house) they had good participation with more than 50 rigs.  (I could have been as high as 70, but I didn’t count).

There were a few folks there that I knew.  Cherie Ve Ard and Chris Dunphy (Technomadia) were there with their 1961 GMC 4106.  Forrest and Jeri Bone were there, of course, as Forrest runs the TCT organization and planned the rally.  Hunt Jones, who I met at the Arcadia Bus Rally, was there, and so was Al Hesselbart, the historian for the RV/MH Museum in Elkhart, Indiana.  I had a brief visit with Al and a longer visit with Chris and Cherie.  I learned that the super secret project they are working on (RV social network) is scheduled to “go live” on March 1^st.  Assuming that happens, I will have more to say about in my post for that date.

Almost all of the rigs were available for viewing.  Some allowed visitors to go inside; others had the door open but blocked so you could see in but not enter.  Many of the units were beautifully restored and others were somewhere in the restoration process.  Most were “staged” for display with table settings and items arranged on counters.  The owners were all very welcoming and enthusiastic about their vintage RVs.  I photographed most of them and have include some of those photos in the gallery at the end of this post.44

Al invited me to join him and some friends from Breezy Oaks RV Park for Chinese buffet in Brooksville, but I decided to pass, a combination of still being a bit tired from my long day on Thursday and not wanting to over-eat, which I tend to do at buffets.  I left at 3 PM, the end of the public open house, and returned to Williston via US-41, a longer but more scenic and relaxing drive than I-75.  I made a sandwich for dinner, caught up on some e-mail, and headed over to the fire pit around 7:15 PM.  We had our usual group of 20+ people.  John played his guitar and sang, and another man brought his guitar and joined him.  There was plenty of singing along, but folks were more conversational than at many of our previous campfires.

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