Giving Thanks Rally at Coachella Lakes RV park in Indio,CA

Submitted by Sherry Blankenship:

A fun and memorable time was had by all ! With 19 rigs and 37 people we filled up a whole street with 4 Pull - throughs across the street.  The weather was close to perfect and the sunsets were phenomenal.

Some took advantage of taking a Pickleball class led by a professional teacher named Taco who had great patience 

There were 16 members who participated in an “Executive Putting Greens” Golf Tournament with Wayne winning the gold medal  

A few guys went for e bike rides and many card games were played.  12 of us had fun playing Bunco.  Guys and gals alike showed us their rock painting talent - with beautifully painted rocks.  

Our Thanksgiving feast was top notch with all the trimmings. We have so many good cooks in the Shanty Shakers and no one ever goes away hungry when we get together to eat. .  

We all carpooled to Shield’s Date Garden in Indio for lunch and famous date shakes.  Yum.

One of the best highlights of our rally was our  (what is going to be an annual event)  “You Are the Fake Star” - starring US!!  Thank you to all who performed for the audience and to all the audience who attended and enjoyed the fun. 

We had great conversations in our huge circle and played a left / right story game.

Coachella Lakes is a beautiful, well maintained RV park with very friendly and helpful staff.  A great campground for future Shanty Shaker rallies. 
* they also have Casitas to rent for those who would like to join the rally who no longer have RVs.

    Good Times +  Fun Friends =  Awesome Memories 

THANK YOU BOBBIE AND SHERRY FOR HOSTING A FUN RALLY !!

Summer lunch gathering

 
Submitted by Dan and Chris Garcia 

Shanty Shakers Annual Summer Lunch 2025 was held at The Hamburger Factory Family Restaurant located in Old Poway and Railroad Museum Park; it was our first time there for the summer lunch.  Forty-five members attended the 1PM event and before lunch was served a drawing was held – five members were blessed with a door prize of cash.

Everyone enjoyed seeing others, a nice reunion and the food was great, we all even got to order off their full menu, including the specials of the day. We were served by Tori who did a fantastic job serving us in a timely manner.  The kitchen prepared the food in good order also. It seems many did not really notice but it was hot that day and their event room A/C was not working, they promised it would be working the next time. The day ended with chocolate cake, the first piece being served to Dave Rudolph as we sang happy birthday to him, on his actual birthday!  The cake was served by Chris, Dan and a few others including our long-lost member, Mike Parker.  Yeah, the Parkers are back in town for a short period before they venture off again – as the true nomads they are. We enjoyed hosting and hope you all had a good time. 

Dan and Chris Garcia

 

Mary Ann Cathey visiting from Lk Havasu
Mike Parker in SD from Tulsa for 1 week

         

 

Nice to see Jerry and Carol Miller

A lot of smiling faces

Great turnout !

That's quite a hamburger

THANKS DAN AND CHRIS FOR STEPPING UP TO HOST THE SUMMER LUNCH !!

Summer Beach Picnic & Auction

 Who could imagine we would wear jackets in July at Crown Point on Mission Bay? The morning started off with a deep cloud cover with no sun. In the shade, under the trees it was very, very cool. As more people arrived to set up for grilling meat and sharing side dishes, weak sunshine made it through the clouds. The group enjoyed an early lunch and chatting with each other. 

After lunch, we held our annual auction to benefit CARE  (Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees) and the Chapter. To learn more about  what CARE in Livingston, Texas offers follow this link. As we transitioned to UNwrapped donation gifts to auction, members kept their eye on what to bid for. Our auctioneer, Larry Rice, worked to get bids as the crowd was fairly quiet. The high bidders of the day was Scott and Karen Parent followed by Mary Baker. The final tally was a disappointing $510. 

Our next event is lunch at the Hamburger Factory in Old Poway on Wednesday, August 6 at 1:00pm

Address: 14122 Midland Rd, Poway, CA 92064  Phone: (858) 486-4575 

From their website: The Hamburger Factory Family Restaurant, located in Old Poway Park, provides a unique dining experience for all. The Old West motif, great food and friendly service keep people coming back again and again. As to be expected, there are great signature hamburgers that come in one-half-pound and one-quarter-pound sizes. The restaurant has been voted "Best Hamburgers" by Rancho Magazine's reader's poll six years in a row.  We also have a wide lunch and dinner selection of sandwiches, salads, and awesome barbeque including ribs, chicken, and even steak. Complete your dining experience with a sundae in a size offered from "world's tiniest" to "world's largest." On weekends the park offers train rides, a farmers market, craft fair, and the Poway historical museum. Come join us at the Hamburger Factory, where we expect to become your favorite restaurant.

Tucalota Springs RV park in Hemet

Checking into Tucalota Springs RV park was definitely an experience. There was a gate code to enter the park. However we were not told what it was. The lady in the office was very reluctant to let  anyone know it  even though we identified our group and our names. Once we got past that, it was musical RVs for a few members. The power and water were "out of service"  in a couple sites assigned to us so they had to move. Also a few other sites had a problem with the sewer. Not a fun time plus the lady in the front office was not very pleasant to people. Very crabby. (her name was Beatrice, if you do a review of the park) Once we finally got past all that we had a nice meet and greet happy hour under the shade of a big tree. 

Tuesday morning started off with a traditional coffee and breakfast time. The sun was out and the sky was blue which was very refreshing after a month of May gray and June gloom. People either played cards, games or just sat around to chat. At 4:30 the grills were fired up for burgers and brats. (chapter provided). Thanks to Bobbie B, Richard M and Jim N for manning the grills. 

After dinner we welcomed our newest members attending their first rally,  Steve and Cathy Smith from Banning. Welcome !    

Wednesday morning the early risers were treated to pancakes for breakfast thanks to Diane N supported by Bobby B.  A refill of coffee was available if you needed it. Our new members, Steve and Kathy  provided a propane coffee pot.  Afterwards, it was either take a walk to see the little on site zoo, a bike ride, relax under the shade trees or play more cards games. 

  

For dinner we had an Asian themed potluck. Boy, things were sure delicious ! We finally had a campfire at night to watch the rising of the full moon. "Pyro Penny" assisted by her able-bodied assistant, John, did a great job of starting and keeping the flames alive.

Thursday after breakfast a group took a short ride out to Diamond Valley Lake lookout spot. Good photo op ! Again, sunny blue skies were in store for us.

For lunch. everybody cleared out the leftovers in their refrigerator and the rest of the hamburgers and brats were shared along with chips, cookies and watermelon.

Sherry, better known as unofficial game director, rounded up almost the whole group to play a game of Left Right center. We each started off with three pennies and depended on the flow of the game, whoever was the last one with at least a penny was the winner of the "pot" aka everyone's pennies. Ironically it was Sherry. The game was easy to learn, relaxed but fun at the same time. The group said they were ready to change the pennies to dollar bills tomorrow. 

(Diane rolling the dice and Sherry, the winner)

After, the game, Sherry brought out her famous Eclair cake to celebrate the June Birthdays; Jim, Wayne and Cathy. For those of you who requested the cake recipe, click here.

(Nancy and Al celebrated 53rd anniversary with us)

The last day we enjoyed our morning coffee together and started to pack up and say our farewells but not before the rally hosts spoke with the park manager (Cossette) about the issues we experienced during check-in and the rude lady in the office. She sent apologies to the group.

Besides all that, it was a pleasant Park, and we agreed it is more about the people than anything else and we had some great times together. Hope to see you at the picnic/auction on July 15 at Crown Point Shores in Mission Bay Park