Club Events

Great day for our Sunday “Ride & Dine” to Solomon’s Castle in Ona. We had an enjoyable relaxing ride on our way through some nice roads in the Florida countryside. The Castle is quite an interesting place where everything inside and outside was constructed by the artist, Howard Solomon. 

A hardy group braved the wind to watch the sunset at Ponce de Leon Park in Punta Gorda.

Seventeen members enjoyed a wonderful Easter brunch at The Captain's Table.  Delicious foods were enjoyed including prime rib, leg of lamb, glazed ham, shrimp tortellini, chicken, salmon, oysters, along with an assortment of appetizers, side dishes, and desserts.  A feast for sure.

A number of PRCC members enjoyed dinner at the King’s Roadhouse yesterday and Patti ‘O, who is still visiting, also joined the group. The Roadhouse has some pretty nice choices on their menu. Afterwards, a few of us went to the Captain’s Creamery for ice cream.

What a great and beautiful day for the annual Florida Venice Corvettes car show at Centennial Park in Venice. 

PRCC had 7 entries today. They were Wally and Jerrie Schmalz (with Harry O ‘Gnome), John and Kathy Goodspeed, Steve and Rachel Schowdoski, Jerry Suminski, Bruce Olmsted, Bob and Helen Keyes and Sally and Diego Betancourt. 

Three members received trophies today. John and Kathy received a Participant’s Choice trophy for their beautiful C8. Bruce Olmsted received a judged trophy for his red ’61 (?) convertible and Bob and Helen received the BIG one!!  Overall Best of Show for their gorgeous blue ’66.

The club had a terrific time touring the Wicked Dolphin Distillery in Cape Coral on January 10th. We all got sample various rums and specialty drinks. After the tour we had a great meal at Duffy's Sports Grill.

A good time was had by all at our annual holiday party and gift exchange at the Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club.

Thurston Howell III and his wife Lovey from Gilligan’s Island (Ed and Elaine),  a Louisiana bayou voodoo priest and his angelic wife Kevin and Linda Riley), a crashed/banged-up race car driver with his attending nurse ( Preston and Nina Morgan), a sweet farmer gal (Dianne McGinnis), a giant peanut butter cup and his creepy companion (Jim and Mary - see her hat), a 25-cent gumball machine and her companion who also brought a bag of quarters (Rick and Wendy Rymberg), Hansel and Gretel (Diego and Sally), a lovely princess pumpkin (Miss Linda), a scary LED masked couple (Bruce and Bev Olmsted), and then there was a guy we usually see with a car show trophy, and no exception this time, he has lovely Helen by his side (the Keyes). 😊

That was some serious competition but Hansel and Gretel outlasted the others for the Best Costume prize: a GIANT 5lb. Hershey Chocolate bar!!

The other costume competitors received the table centerpieces.

Once again, many thanks to Jim Dandy, Mary Ortiz, Jerry Suminski, Ed Kerschke, Elaine McNeill and all the others who helped put together this fun event for PRCC.

Forty combined members of the Peace River Corvette Club and Venice Florida Corvettes were in attendance to enjoy lunch and friendship. We would have had more people but the restaurant capped our group reservation to 40 people. That just means the next time we are going to need a bigger venue!!! Every time our two clubs get together we have a great time and lots of fun.

Club ride to the Log Cabin BBQ in LaBelle for lunch. About 1.5 hour ride into central Florida with great back roads and plenty of curves. 

Then another ride after lunch to the Rum Bucket in Ft Myers for libations and music.

Our first Photo Rally fundraiser for the Charlotte County Special Olympics was a huge success.  Participants and organizers alike all had a great time for a worthy cause.

The ghouls, witches, zombies, kings, queens, cowboys, and Indians were out in force at the Port Charlotte Yacht Club.

A group of rugged sportsmen and women participated in a friendly bowling competition in Port Charlotte.

A group of hardy corvettes braved a Florida downpour to enjoy a dinner at the Il Pomodor in Ft Myers. Followed by ice cream at the Love Boat.

On Saturday, June 18th a hardy group battled the traffic in Bradenton to make their way to the Sandbar restaurant on the beach in Anna Maria.

On June 10th 2022 the club held its 7th anniversary dinner at the Italia restaurant in Punta Gorda. Despite the downpours, we had a great turnout with a great meal and good company.

PRCC held a group lunch today at the Olde World Restaurant. The folks had a great time as usual. Pictures attached from Jim Dandy.

In attendance were: Jim Dandy and Mary Ortiz, Jerry Suminski, Steve and Rachel Schodowski, Alan and Janie Seals, Dave and Kim Phillips, Al and Kathy Bohling, Kevin and Linda Riley, Keith Riley, and Cliff and Linda Kelley.

A number of members attended the open cruise today at the Bell Tower Mall in Ft Myers sponsored by the South West Florida Corvette Club. We enjoyed the event and had a great lunch at the Blue Pointe Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill.

In attendance were: Jerry Suminski, John Goodspeed, Tim Vandawalker, Keith Riley, Bob and Helen Keyes, Steve and Rachel Schodowski, and myself.

There was great participation with close to 300 cars. While there were many, many Corvettes, there were also a number of other fin cars and rods. They had a very healthy 50/50 with the winner receiving $375.

Congrats to Berna and Diego for securing 1st place.

Everyone had a great time cruising the Caloosahatchee River with the Goldtones.

We had an interesting event occur while we gathered for our cruise at Zoet’s. Some deranged individual stopped where we were parked and began yelling obscenities to us and told us to leave his parking lot or else. He said it was his parking lot and it was not for car shows and that we should get those f__ing junkers off his lot.

He left and returned a few minutes later with an even worse tirade loaded with verbal threats. He threatened to demolish our cars. That led to one member taking a video of the event and I took a picture of the guy’s license plate. Two members called 911 and deputies were dispatched to our location.  Evidently, this guys was known to them as the dispatcher seen to already know the license plate. The deputies talked to all of us, took a copy of the video, and the names of some witnesses. They were going to visit the guy at his home to see what was his issue.

In any event, it made for an interesting cruise with many participants. We ended up going to have lunch at Zoet’s in two groups. I apologize to those members who didn’t make it in my pictures.