Hello Fellow Gators!
Our Lake Okeechobee Camping and Biking Weekend is coming up on February 20-22. Join us at the bike ride on Saturday morning or for the whole weekend. We will be stopping as usual at J&S Fish Camp’s Gator Hole Bar to have a great time after the bike ride. Ben Smith will be leading the bike ride. He will also have a campfire on Saturday night at his cabin. Thank you, Ben
Our Pontoon Boat event on Sunday, March 22nd is sale now. Join the Gators for a relaxing, enjoyable pontoon boat ride. We will tour the Intracoastal in Jupiter, see stars’ homes, and then boat to the Jupiter sandbar where you can get out into the water or stay on the boat. Please contact event leader Lisa Smelcher for more information.
Join us on our exciting new “Music City” fall getaway trip to Nashville, staying at the Margaritaville Hotel downtown on October 11-16, 2026. For a price of only $1,290, double occupancy, you can enjoy the Jimmy Buffet “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” ambience at the Margaritaville. We will be only 2 blocks from Nashville’s iconic Broadway, where you can experience the country music scene, bars, restaurants, honky tonks, distilleries, historical sites, and much more. It is also fall leaf viewing season and you can visit nearby parks to view them. The trip includes a club happy hour and a club dinner.
We are offering an affordable new option for a boat-only trip (without an extension) for the Vienna to Budapest Bike and Barge at a low price of $3.995.
We have several exciting major trips on our docket:
- Vienna to Budapest Bike and Barge on July 25-31, 2026 (sold out)
- Budapest to Vienna Bike and Barge on July 28-August 8, 2026
- Budapest to Vienna Bike and Barge (Boat-Only) August 1-8, 2026
- South Africa and Victoria Falls Tour on September 8-22, 2026
- Nashville Margaritaville Hotel Fall Getaway on October 11-16, 2026
We have some local Special Activities events that are mentioned elsewhere in this blast and are posted on our website:
· Lake Okeechobee Camping and Biking Weekend on February 20-22, 2026
· Pontoon Boat Event on Sunday, March 22nd
· Snorkeling at Phil Foster Park on Wednesday, May 6th at 10:00 AM
Some other events I am working on include:
· PopStroke Mini Golf in West Palm Beach when the weather gets cooler
We also have some Social events on our calendar:
· Happy hour this Friday at Double Roads
- Free concerts in Palm Beach Gardens on Saturday, February 7th and Saturday, March 7th.
Please join us at our happy hours. You can meet other members and make new friends or reconnect with old ones! I would like to thank Letti Falko, Lorain Lyon and Ben Smith for their ongoing help as Gator Happy Hour Ambassadors.
I will continue to plan our weekly Friday night happy hours. Our VP of Socials, Lisa Smelcher, will be organizing some occasional Saturday happy hours.
I am looking forward to seeing you at some of our events and meeting our new members.
Thank you,
Sharon Long
VP of Special Activities
Mobile: (561) 768-6365
wmarussich@comcast.net
