Terrebonne hosting fundraising tournament
May 29, 2012
Cecile Brou Mongrue
May 31, 2012
The Wheelin’ Eagles hosts its RV Rally in Morgan City at Lake End Park from Friday, June 8 through Sunday morning. The organization, based in Baton Rouge, has celebrated its anniversary with the gathering for about 25 years, only missing last year due to projected bad weather.
The group is a part of the Good Sam RV Club, a national organization that provides several benefits and sponsors different events and was the first black RV club in Louisiana. Composed of about 12 to 15 members, the event reaches out to other groups from states like Florida, Mississippi and Texas, welcoming up to 90 guests.
“We find that working as a small group is much better because we are a little more intimate,” says Frankie B. Christentery, president of the organization. “Our regular meetings are quarterly but we attend blues festivals and all kinds of activities. We invite other RV clubs in June and have members at large who are friends of members of the club.”
As a retired educator, Christentery joined the Good Sam Club after reading about them in a magazine in her doctor’s office. It was later that she convinced a group of fellow friends and travelers to join with her and start a chapter.
“I read about them (Good Sam) in a doctor’s office and subscribed to them,” Christentery says. “It was a place you could get your maps. I’d been with them for a good while and there a group of us who were always tailgating and decided we wanted to travel other places, as well, so I suggested we ought to join the Good Sam Organization.”
Christentery was the contact for the representative of the club and welcomed the regional to Baton Rouge. Things seemed to run smoothly, but there was a slight road block in finding someone to take charge as president.
“When regional director came to Baton Rouge, he said he would put me down as the president,” Christentery says. “I thought, ‘I’m a little too smart for that.’ I got another man to act as president and we had a break four years later and formed the Wheelin’ Eagles. The main idea was to get your mapping done. Now they have GPS, but I still like my map.”
Christentery has been a traveler for years, visiting every state except three: Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Her favorite place to visit is Niagara Falls, and locally, she says that Lake End Park in Morgan City is by far the best spot, with the water surrounding on all three sides. Her trips have decreased since her children and grandchildren have grown and moved away. She claims that she lost her road hogs when they left.
Today she travels alone but still enjoys it.
“I’m not traveling nearly as much as I used to,” Christentery says. “My grandkids are grown and gone and all my trips are short trips; TX, local camp grounds and Mississippi; within a radius of 100 miles or so. I always drive my RV and launch my boat without any problem. I love to drive the RV because you sit high and it’s a big machine.”
Christentery says most participants take a week’s vacation and enjoy touring Louisiana before or after June’s rally.
The first evening the guests get together and enjoy the fish fry prepared for them. The club usually hands out gift bags filled with various novelty items, as well as tourist information for those interested in further exploring. Once dinner is over participants play games and participate in a domino tournament.
Guests are asked to donate breakfast food, which is prepared for them in the morning. After the large breakfast Saturday morning, preparations are made for a fishing tournament and a poker run.
Tickets are given out and drawn for prizes throughout the day, and those not participating in the fishing tournament enjoy the cakewalk and entertainment for the children. Anyone not interested in certain activities are always welcome to gather and mingle between the motor homes.
A large dinner is served Saturday night followed by music and dancing and the handing out of awards. On Sunday morning, guests are served a continental breakfast and make the journey home, or where ever the road takes them.
Christentery says the event is something all of the guests enjoy. Traveling in an RV is a great way to see what the United States has to offer.
“I love seeing the scenery and looking at the change and the changing settings from state to state,” Christentery says. “Just from Louisiana to Alabama to Tennessee and all the wonderful things there are to see and experience in the U.S.”
The 2010 Quest from Fleetwood RV, Inc.
