The trucks and firemen are part of the Guardians of the Ribbon Pink Heals Tour. Operated by firemen in pink uniforms, and aided by local firemen, police and politicians, they visit various cities around the country, using the trucks as the centerpiece of their fundraisers to help raise money for local organizations that provide support for women battling cancer. Orlando is one of the thirteen cities they’ll be visiting in Florida.

To show their support of the mission, our entire team will be sporting pink tee shirts emblazoned with the logo, “Real Men Wear Pink,” on the day the fire trucks come to Orlando. Many of our local firemen, police, politicians, survivors, and families and friends of survivors will also be wearing the tees. The sale of the tee shirts helps to defray costs for the group as they tour the country raising funds. Because just about everyone knows someone who’s been stricken, we believe this is a great way to show your support. We hope you’ll decide to go pink for the day and help offset their costs and raise much needed money.

The pink fire trucks tour is the brainchild of Glendale, Arizona fireman Dave Graybill. Graybill’s message is simple,  “We as men in this country, honor our women and at the very least will wear pink in support of their fight against cancer, all cancer.”

Two years ago, Graybill bought a fire truck on eBay, had it wrapped in pink, donned pink gear and drove to 32 cities across the country to rally support for breast cancer survivors and research. He raised money by selling pink t-shirts and getting people to sign the truck with messages. His effort has grown every year since and now there are pink trucks visiting nearly every state in the union.  There are even plans underway for the first of what the organization hopes will be five pink fire stations across the country.

We’re proving that real men do wear pink. We’re hoping our residents and summer vacationers will as well, and show their support for this important cause. We’ll provide more information in next month’s Sunburst about where you can purchase tee shirts, attend fundraisers in the area and even participate in the Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure.

To learn more about Dave Graybill and the Pink Fire Trucks,  check out Pinkfiretrucks.com.

To make your experience with our new site – and your Internet experience in general – safer, easier and more satisfying, we suggest visiting wikihow.com and following the few easy steps outlined there to clear your cache (pronounced ‘cash’). The cache is where every web browser stores web pages, images, and other downloaded content on your computer. Clearing it regularly will help protect your privacy and free up space in your computer so it’s faster.

Days will be filled with crafts, games and entertainment for the kids, including a chance for them to blow up an inflatable waterslide and then use it – over and over again. Nights are meant for campfires, cooking hotdogs over an open flame and toasting S’mores, so all of these activities are part of our agenda.

What would a campout be without a campfire sing-a-long? Ours will happen at dusk, while we wait for it to get dark enough for the Dive-In movies we’ll be screening Friday and Saturday nights.

“Everywhere you go you see the devastation. There are thousands of blue tarps from UNICEF over the tents. It’s very different than when I was there two years ago before the earthquake,” Luke tells us.

Named for railroad tycoon Henry Bradley Plant, the man who brought the railroad to central Florida in order to bring the region’s crops to market, Plant City is less than an hour west of Orlando. Ironically, Henry Plant never set foot in the town that bears his name.

Bonnie and I start our trip at the Whistle Stop, a lunchtime eatery that once housed a drug store on its first floor and hospital on its second. Famous around town for their coffee, the family business serves sandwiches, soups, and salads, with Marti dressed in an old conductor’s uniform, her husband Jerry and their son Jerry doing the serving. A true family affair, it’s Marti’s sister who handles the cooking back in the kitchen. The history of the town is depicted on a wonderful mural on the side of the building.

After lunch, Bonnie decided to check out one of the town’s 14 Antiques and Collectibles shops while I took a walk through its old neighborhoods. My tour took me past a number of historical homes and the Railroad Depot Museum.

After an afternoon of walking and shopping, we headed over to the Parkesdale Farm, the largest family-owned strawberry and citrus farm in the state. They claim to be world-famous for their strawberry shortcake and they certainly deserve to be. They serve it nine different ways while you sit at a table amid a tropical garden of lush flowers and foliage. If you like, you can even have your picture taken as the strawberry king and queen, seated upon your strawberry throne.

There’s always something going on in Plant City that lends to its small town charm: a Bike Festival the first Saturday of every month; an Antique Street Fair the second Saturday of every month from October through March; and on the third Saturday of each month, the Strawberry Classic Car Show. It’s all topped off with the annual Florida Strawberry Festival (flstrawberryfestival.com) held in late February and early March. One of Florida’s most popular festivals, it has rides, food – particularly foods with strawberries – and top name entertainers every night.

To learn more about Plant City and all that’s going on there, check out these sites:
www.plantcity.org
www.parkesdale.com
www.flstrawberryfestival.com

Luke Fraser is always ready to lend a helping hand when you need one. Recently, the helping hand he lent was in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Luke’s parents are on a mission there with about 50 people from Luke’s hometown in Ontario. His Dad takes doctors, nurses and construction people to work at the Mission of Hope in Titanyen, about 30 minutes from Port-au-Prince. We’ll interview Luke when he’s back and tell you more about his work there in next month’s issue.

Whether you’re on your way to Tropical Palms to start your vacation, or on your way home, everybody seems to have their own program for how they make the trip. Some of you just can’t wait to get here and start enjoying life at Tropical so the only stops you make along the road are to eat and get a little rest. Others make the trip part of their vacation and take in sights along the way. To us, both methods of travel have their merits.

For Bonnie and Joe Rossi, being on the road is a chance to explore the country between their home in Niles, Ohio, and Tropical. They own a Sandcastle home here and take their time on the drive down. They’ve made some interesting discoveries along the way. One is Jekyll Island, a barrier island off the coast of Georgia. It has a campground for those traveling by RV, but it also has one of the south’s best resorts, the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There’s lots of golf there, but even if you don’t play or stay, it’s worth a visit.

Another Rossi discovery is a barbeque joint in Charlotte, NC, called Bubba’s Barbeque. Bubba’s uses hickory wood to slow cook the choicest grade of pork for over 10 hours. You can check them out online and get a look at the menu, get a lesson in how they go about preparing their very special barbeque and even order ahead, so you don’t lose anytime getting to Tropical.

Peter Janes and his wife Susan also have a barbeque place that they claim has the best pulled pork sandwiches you can find anywhere. It’s at the Tamarack rest stop in off I-77 (exit 45) in West Virginia, which also has a number of gift shops filled with indigenous crafts that the Janes say make Tamarack worth a visit. For them, it is a stop along the road less traveled they take to get to Tropical Palms, preferring to take in a bit of nature’s beauty on their trip. They take I-77 from their Cleveland home and cut across I-26E to Columbia, SC. and drive through the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains.

“In the fall the trees have turned all different colors and on our way home in the spring everything’s in bloom,” Peter tells us. “We avoid the big cities and all the traffic hassles and get to spend some time enjoying the beautiful scenery.”

It’s also a road the Janes’ dog Parker enjoys. “If anyone’s dog needs some advice for the trip,” Says Peter, “Parker can recommend all the best trees along the way.”

Shirley and Ed Gervais of New Haven, Vermont, want to get out of the cold and down to Florida. “We leave Vermont at about 3:00 AM,” Ed says, “and stop at a diner just off 88 in Oneonta, NY, for breakfast. Good bacon and eggs.”

Then it’s back on the road until they reach the Candy Hill campground in Winchester, VA, where the Gervais’ stay overnight before pushing on to Florida. The next day they’re off, stopping to spend time with friends in Jacksonville and Ormond Beach before finally coming to Tropical Palms for the winter season.

Yvonne and Don Gagnon share the Gervais’ philosophy of get on the road, get out of the cold and get to Tropical as quickly as possible. They do the 1600-mile, 2500-kilometer, trip from their home on North Bay in Northern Ontario in just three days. “We’re in a 40-foot motor home and pulling a car, so we like the convenience of campgrounds with lots of space that make in and out easy,” Don explains.

The Gagnons, who own the Voyager Inn in North Bay, stop at campgrounds near Niagara, NY, Summerville, VA, and finally at the Flamingo Campground in Jacksonville, FL, which is conveniently located near big box stores where they can stock up on supplies before heading to Tropical Palms, where the couple spends nearly six months, with Don periodically returning, by air, to Canada to look after their business interests.

Wherever they go, wherever they wander, all four couples agree on one thing: There’s no place like Tropical Palms.