Tin Can Tourists’ 2014 Chautauqua Rally
January 23rd 2014
Panama City FL-DeFuniak Springs, FL
I spent most of yesterday packing my Spartanette and getting ready to head out of town for the TCT DeFuniak Springs FL Rally. I have been watching the weather nervously as it has been changing every day for the extended forecast from mild, to warm, cold, and even at one time forecasting a rain and sleet mixture!!!! It now looks a little better with Thursday being a little cool, but Thursday night will get down to 25 degrees and only a high of 45 on Friday, but if we can make it through that the rest of the days will make it up to at least 60 degrees.
By 9:45 am I was all packed and ready to hit the road as soon as some other TCTers arrived at my shop as we were going to caravan together up to DeFuniak Springs which is only about 60 miles away from Panama City. Around 10:00 am the other two trailers pulling in at my shop, a 1965 Airstream Globetrotter and a 1967 Airstream Caravel. We were now ready to hit the road with my 1950 Spartanette leading the pack! It is just fun cruising the highways with a line of vintage trailers, even a very small line.
A little after 11 am all three of us pulled into the area we were to park around Lake DeFuniak. The location is perfect, with our trailers facing the lakeside parked on asphalt with the edge of our trailers right up to the grass so we ca still set our awnings up. Plenty of power as well with every trailer on their own power panel which is unusually for a set up like this, but will come in handy tonight with a low temperature of 25 degrees I am sure we will all have our heaters on full blast!
It wasn’t long before more trailers started to arrive and started to set up. We will be a small group of only about 8/9 trailers, but sometimes those are the best! By 3 pm everyone had arrived and set up except one more trailer which should arrive later tonight around 10 pm from GA.At 5 pm we all gathered near my trailer (and the camp fire) to meet all our new members and eat a light meal. Almost all of us are Floridians and had three to five layers of clothes on, but there sat Forrest Bone with Shorts on!!!!! Just made all of us even colder! With the sun setting so early this time of year everyone headed back to their trailers or more importantly their heaters! A few headed home since they are locals and live right here in DeFuniak Springs. I also headed to my trailer to relax a bit and get out of the cold; I will have to stay up for a little while longer waiting for the last trailer to arrive tonight around 10 pm.
Hopefully the trains will stop before it gets much later! We are just a few steps from a major RR line. So far in the nine hours we have been here I have seen about 6 trains go by. They do not even slow down for this little town and fly through here extremely fast blowing their horns the whole time! My trailer is a bit farther down the line than most and we are still so close that the entire trailer shakes like being in an earthquake until the trailer has past, and these are long trains…..this is the major RR line that parallels Interstate 10 cross country, so a lot of train traffic moving through here….it is sure to be a fun night if it continues much longer!
Tim Heintz
Tin Can Tourists Southeastern Representative
1950 Spartanette Tandem