The GMC motorhome community has a number of active clubs all over the US as well as a couple internationally. In addition to a national group, there are regional ones as well. Florida has it's own club and it is called the GMC Sunshine Statesmen. They hold several rallies a year. Luckily this one was close to home in Okeechobee, FL about 85 miles away. Further, I was available for the weekend so I decided to go. Unfortunately, it was only me as Naya had a girl scout event all day Saturday and we weren't going to leave her home alone all weekend.
I took the day off of work on Friday and packed in the morning. I had planned to leave by about 10:30AM which morphed into noon, but I did get the grass cut and pool cleaned as well.
Normally, I would take I-95 to West Palm and the Beeline Hwy to Okeechobee, but stopped for gas at the wholesale club in Boynton Beach. I figured I'd just keep going west and take the Turnpike up to the Beeline. Well that was a big mistake as the Turnpike was a parking lot and it cost me about 30 minutes plus the extra 10 to drive west. Had I gone the other way it would have been about 35 min faster. Had traffic been light, I would have saved 10 min. I doubt I'll go that way again as it's also a toll road.
Once I got on the Beeline I took the selfie above as I was cruising nicely with barely any traffic. I didn't see the photo until I arrived as my sunglasses are polarized and I can't see my phone screen when wearing them. I just took 3-4 blind and this one came out okay.
I took County Rd 15A over to 441 and snuck up to the campground the back way. Then I drove past it to go to Publix and by 3 things I didn't even use. There was construction so that all added another 40+ minutes. Ended up my 1.5 hour drive took me a little over 3 hours to go 85 miles... Oh well!
I settled in and got all set up and met my neighbors behind me with their white 26. They are from Wellington, so not very far away from me down here.
Once I got set up, my Twinsie Mike showed up in his Yellow GMC. Unfortunately, we didn't get to park next to each other, but I had 6 coaches near me.
She looks good in her natural habitat. The one to my right was a younger couple from California who are full timing and driving around the US. She told me that rent in the Bay area is so high, it only took them 3 months rent to buy the coach!
The Palm Beach model on the left belongs to Ramona Sirum who started
Sirum's GMC with her late husband Alex. Their son Jeff runs the business now. She came out and was very interested in my bright yellow coach. We talked a bit and I gave her a tour of the inside as well. She and Alex had traveled to Alaska in a 23' so she had a lot of stories. She also gave me and my neighbor from Wellington a tour of her coach. It was mostly original with some tasteful upgrades and fairly roomy inside. I don't know much about the other two but the one on the right has been on the Hot Rod Power Tour a couple times and is running the same Fuel Injection set up I am.
Two more coaches, the one on the left was another young couple who are traveling musicians. They happened to be in town at Sirum's getting some work done, so came over to hang out. They are from New Hampshire. The one on the right, was the 3rd (after Mike and ours) 23' in attendance. I didn't get to meet the owner, but it recently changed hands in the club. To the right of that is a SOB (some other brand). They are members but sold their GMC. That is a GMC front sub frame on the trailer for one of the other members, who is going to try and may a Duramax Diesel conversion for his coach. Lastly is a Bluebird Wanderlodge. They are built on the Bluebird school bus, but in their day were a top of the line coach. A friend had one, that I got to stay in for a couple of nights in Michigan. It was like a yacht inside. Very nice. They are also part of the group.
A couple more coaches. All told there were 15 GMCs in attendance (I missed a few for pics).
The couple with the striped one here used to work on the Cape during the Shuttle years, so I had fun talking to them about their experiences.
Michael's yellow '73 and Russel and Jenny's coach Harry. Harry has a very cool backstory. I don't recall all the details, but it belonged to a good friend Harry who passed away and it was sold before they could buy it. By luck, they found it years later when the next owner decided to sell it, and convinced the guy to sell it to them due to their relationship with the coach and its previous owner. It's a nice story.
Bob and Don's 'Beast'. It is stretched. It started as a 26' and I believe it was stretched to 36'. I don't recall for sure as it's been a couple years since I got the 411 on the stretch. I have been in the coach and I think you could put a bowling lane in there!
From there it was dinner time, and then some 'talking GMCs'. They were showing a movie on the side of Russel and Jenny's coach, which was supposed to be Stripes, but they they showed something that didn't star a GMC and I wandered off for some down time in the coach.
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