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CFBC Second Annual Scavenger Hunt @ Tillis Hill

The Central Florida Buggy Club met at Tillis Hill, Citrus County Tract of Withlacoochee State Forest the weekend of April 25th 2008.

Several campers arrived Thursday night to take advantage of the great Florida riding weather. Most campers arrived leisurely Friday. Everyone did a nighttime stroll visiting all of the other campsites on Friday night. Friday riders reported a lot of flies on the more sunny and sandy trails. The trick is to spray up well and stay in the shade as much as possible.

Saturday brought even more CFBC members to Tillis for the Second Annual Scavenger Hunt. This year everyone signed up in teams. Each team had to have at least one buggy and one other buggy or rider. Teams were tacked up and ready for directions at the base station for this year’s event at 9:25 am. Teams were given envelopes with the rules of the scavenger hunt, a list of ten items to search for and multiple maps to help navigate the forest. There were ten items that the teams had to recover from the forest and return to base by 12 noon. Items included: a lead rope, Play-Doh, cowboy hat, blue and white placemat, plastic horse, oatmeal, homemade horse cookies, colored egg (raw of course), CFBC red barn, and a horseshoe. The maps were in full color identifying the different trails. The “general” location for all items was marked on the map with a black “X”. Ten “X’s” and miles of trails, now that’s what I call fun. Three teams were off at 9:30 am racing through the woods, map and list in hand. Our official judges Ron, Karen and Connie drove part of the morning trying to capture the race on digital cameras. One team took three wrong turns before they got off of the Hill, but made up time on the trail. We caught up with one team early and one person on the team had already lost their map. It’s a good thing each team received several in their envelope. We had extra club mounts that did not participate in the hunt so they all got to a play day and spent the morning together in the turn out paddock. No stress for this group Karen even served them cookies mid-morning!

At 11:54 the first team arrived back at camp for the count. They did not collect all the items but were happy to get back to base since it was their first time on the Tillis trails and with a few minutes to spare no less. The second group came RUSHING in at 11:57 taking the rougher back trail to get to base before the noon deadline. When all three teams arrived back at base and untacked their mounts and got them settled everyone enjoyed a lunch that was hot and ready of jumbo hot dogs, all the fixing’s, baked beans, chips and dip.
Judges Ron and Connie tallied the points for items collected. Winners were announced after lunch. First Place received a golden horseshoe with CFBC 2008: Rob, Caroline and Sharon who found nine of the ten items and had the second fastest time. If you want to beat this team next year just give them plenty to drink before the race and call their cell phones. They reported that they could have been back sooner if they didn’t have to make pit stops and slow down to talk to Georgianna on the phone. By the way she had planned on attending and was missed by everyone. She is recovering from an accident and we all wish her well. Second Place was awarded a silver horseshoe with CFBC 2008: Barto Bob, Pam, Tator, and Ernie who found six of the ten items and came in with the shortest time. Rusty Mention (Honorable Mention) was awarded a rusty horseshoe with CFBC 2008: Chuck, John and Virgil brought back many items, but came in shortly after the noon deadline. They all shared some great race stories during lunch. Ron Mendez a local furrier donated all the horseshoes. Special thanks to the Division of Forestry Rangers who work Tillis Hill who helped make this event possible by providing well marked clean trails and barn facilities.

Several riders went back out on the trail later that evening to pick up some of the missed items. It was amazing…they reported no flies at all.

Saturday evening everyone brought chicken to grill and a side dish to share. Ron cooked everyone’s chicken over a blazing wood fire in a 32-inch skillet. He even kept everyone’s chicken separated. The dishes that were shared were out of this world. We had dirty rice, angel hair pasta with veggies, fresh sliced tomatoes, heavenly deviled eggs and the world’s best brownies. After cleaning up supper the group settled around camp to watch a digital slide show of pictures that were taken through out the day. We topped the evening off with a movie that kept everyone in stitches.
Surprisingly, Sunday morning brought a lot of early activity in the barn. Many club members went out for a short leisurely ride. This gave all the equine that worked so hard on Saturday time to work their muscles.
We are already looking forward to next years scavenger hunt. We will have a scavenger hunt but with a new theme. Several suggestions were made for next years hunt. One included a condensed hunt for the club mini’s. All the pictures can be found on the club web site in a few days and a DVD movie will be sent to each family that attended. Watch the Central Florida Buggy Club web site for updated information about the date and guidelines.
http://www.centralfloridabuggyclub.com
We hope to gather at Tillis Hill the weekend of April 24th, 2009. Campers and day riders are welcome. In the mean time the web sites posts all of their rides and activities. Come join us for fun and lifetime friendships.
Happy Trails,
Karen Michalak

The CFBC members that attended Ron and Karen’s annual event would like to thank them for all of the hard work that went into making the scavenger hunt so much fun. If you have not been to one, you need to plan to attend next year. The conclusion of this drive also marks the conclusion to the official driving season of the club. A lot of members do keep driving during the summer and I will try to keep you updated as to different events and drives during the summer.

The end of the driving season also means that it is time to start planning for the next driving season. We need input on where you would like to go, but most of all we need individuals to step up and host some of the drives. All you need to do is to pick a location, get any permits or gate combinations, and pick a theme or game or anything that you would like to do. We also need members to write about the things that happen on the drives, any help would be appreciated.