Cracker Capers 

Wauchula, FL - Events of Monday, January 22 to Sunday, January 28, 2018 

Although Margery is still attending lots of meetings here at the Co-op, meetings have become somewhat less frequent for Paul because he and other members of the Landscape Committee are now working on things that were planned in the earlier meetings like the planting of shrubs and palm trees that we wrote about in our last post. With the planting done, he and other volunteers now have to spend time watering the new plantings every couple of days since winter is the dry season here in Florida.

With our busy schedules, we are both getting up pretty early. On one of those early mornings, Paul saw an unusually colorful bird outside the window of our 5th wheel  He was able to capture a photo of a painted bunting so we thought we would share it to help brighten your day.

Painted bunting

Cracker Capers is an annual event at the Co-op. It was kicked off in the morning of Wednesday, January 24, with a program entitled, "What is a Cracker?" The annual spaghetti dinner was held that evening followed by dancing to live music. There were outdoor games on Thursday morning and evening games of Tripoli, Left-Center-Right, Crazy Joker and horse racing. Awards for the winners of the outdoor games were given at 1:00 on Friday followed by an auction of donated food and baked goods. There was a big yard sale on Saturday, and the whole event was brought to a close by bingo on Sunday evening.

Cracker Capers gets its name from the fact the Co-op is located right on the old Cracker Trail, which runs east and west across the center of Florida and which was used in the 1800s to drive cattle to ports on both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. In Florida, cowboys were called cow hunters, and they were also called Crackers because of the cracks of their whips as they drove cattle.

Unfortunately, neither of us was feeling well so we missed much of Cracker Capers. Paul was fighting a cold, and Margery came down with the flu on the Monday before Cracker Capers in spite of the fact both of us had gotten flu shots. It was in the evening when Margery realized the symptoms she was experiencing (stuffy nose, sore throat, dry cough, accompanied by chills and body aches) weren't from just an ordinary cold she so we went to the emergency room at the new Wauchula Hospital where she got a prescription for Tamiflu. Tamiflu doesn't necessarily cure the flu, but it will lessen the severity of the symptoms, and it may shorten the duration by a few days. The big advantage to taking Tamiflu is you will no longer be contagious after about 48 hours.

Margery slept most of the day on Thursday, but Paul felt well enough to go out for a short while to watch some of the games. Just like last year, there was corn hole and shuffleboard.

Corn hole

Shuffleboard

This year, we had a new game at Cracker Capers - pickleball. Early last fall, one of our members got permission to clean up part of an old parking lot up in Wauchula that belonged to the city and paint lines for pickle ball. Response to pickle ball games held every Wednesday 10 minutes away in Wauchula was good, but not great so the member decided to bring the game to the Co-op for Cracker Capers with a temporary setup on one of the Co-op streets. The response was much more enthusiastic so we think there might be pickle ball court(s) in the Co-op's future.

Pickle ball

Since Margery was no longer contagious and since she felt a little better on Friday, we decided to go the food auction. Last year, we made smoked mac and cheese for the auction. Paul does the smoking, but Margery does all advance prep work and she just didn't feel up to it this year. All proceeds from the auction go to support Co-op activities so everyone is always very generous with their bids. Last year, our mac and cheese sold for $20.

Food auction

Even though Margery felt pretty chipper on Friday morning, she was really wiped out after spending two hours just sitting at the auction. She went back to the rig to rest after the auction while Paul stayed to help set up for the yard sale the next day. All year long, the yard sale team accumulates, cleans up, and stores used items donated by members. The sale is publicized with posters throughout the Wauchula area, and it draws a surprisingly large crowd on the day of the sale.

Although Margery still had a lingering cough, she finally started to feel a good bit better by Monday. That was a good thing because with Cracker Capers over she needed to get started on the next round of event posters and sign-up sheets. She also had a looming February 1 deadline for the Co-op newsletter, and we're happy to report she did get the newsletter published on time in spite of having had the flu.

Meanwhile, Paul got started on a project he had been planning ever since we ordered the new park model. We'll tell you about it in our next post. 

Comments

[Cheryl, NC]

Margery, hope you continue to feel better. Don't over do it, it takes time to get over this stuff.

[Janice L Evans]

Glad you guys are feeling much better, and are out and about.

The "painted bunting" has been on my "I must get a pic of" list for years. I never seem to have my camera when I see them. . .beautiful!

[Marsha]

Oh my gosh. I love the photo of the painted bunting. How beautiful.
We sure hope Margery is back to normal. Marsha’s dad got the flu a week ago and they put him on five days of anabiotics. He is marsha’s dad got the flu a week ago and they put him on five days of anabiotics . He still is not doing well at all. He is 90 and did get the flu shot.
The food auction sounds like a great way to help the park. We might go broke though. I am sure everything sounds delicious.

[Mike and Gerri]

I hope you are on the mend from the flu!! It has been a wicked flu season!!! Take good care of yourself!!
Cracker Capers sounds like fun!!

[Bob and Jo Baskerville]

That painted bunting photo is amazing.