Wed., Feb. 27, 2019
Hello from Alabama!
We are excited that you are coming to Tuscumbia, Alabama for the 2019 USS Jallao Navy Submarine Veterans Reunion in two weeks! We hope you enjoy getting a glimpse into life in a small town in the South while enjoying reconnecting with your shipmates.
We have attached two reunion agenda files for you:
1) Bus – Carpool Schedule – SIMPLIFIED Agenda (for the guys—“Just tell me WHERE to be and WHEN!”)
2) DETAILED Agenda (for the gals – “I need to know EVERY detail so I’ll know what to wear!”)
MARCH 7th UPDATE: The boat ride that was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, March 16 has been cancelled due to high, fast-moving water in our Tennessee River and in the marina area where we were to board.
Please be aware that the agenda could change slightly depending on our weather. The weather around here has been CRAZY in this last half of February. We’ve had just under a foot of rain since Valentine’s Day and have had unprecedented flooding in our area. All fishing and pleasure boating on our beautiful Tennessee River has been restricted due to the massive amounts of water coming through our Dams right now due to the excessive rainfall. But, we are hopeful that these problems will have all cleared up by March 13!
We are happy that the reunion registrations have exceeded what we expected and we have outgrown a “Tuscumbia Trolley” and have had to move up to a “Tuscumbia Bus” for transportation around our area. We have also outgrown our hospitality room for the Saturday night banquet and have had to move to a nice venue in nearby downtown Sheffield for that. These are all good problems to have! Visit the “Sailing List” at the Jallao 2019 Reunion site (www.ussjallao.com) to see who’s coming. It looks like Pat Godfrey from Seaside, CA is traveling the farthest—2176 miles—and Earl & Carol Johnson are traveling the least—108 miles–to get to Tuscumbia. We have 36 registrations (21 Jallao Veterans and their wives/guests) from 14 states. We have 19 rooms reserved at ColdWater Inn and 2 reservations at the campground across the highway from our host hotel. We are pleased, and we know that much of this is due to our great Webmaster, Mark Anderson! Mark did a great job of getting the word out about this reunion.
Since we have had to move the Banquet to another location, we have switched up the “normal schedule” a bit and have added a Saturday morning guest speaker after our crew meeting. We have also moved our “Jallao 50/50 Lottery” drawing to that Saturday morning meeting. Wives/guests are included in this Saturday morning meeting. If you have any Jallao items or other items that you would like to bring and donate to the lottery drawing, please do so.
We have also attached menus from three of the restaurants that we have listed as “optional” on the agenda. We wanted you to have a chance to see the menus and the reasonable prices before deciding if you wanted to go with the group on the bus to these or select another restaurant on your own. These menus are for:
1) Thursday Lunch – Claunch Café (Tuscumbia)
2) Thursday Dinner – Coach’s (Tuscumbia)
3) Friday Lunch – Rattlesnake Saloon (17 miles out from Tuscumbia in Colbert County).
If you plan to arrive early on Tuesday before the reunion, we would like to know. We know that a few of you have planned to do that. Also, we know that we have at least one who is staying a night longer on Sunday night; but if more are staying, please let us know.
We know that one of you (Lenny) is flying into the small Muscle Shoals, AL airport and we will pick you up around 6:10 on Wednesday. Is there anyone else flying in to Muscle Shoals for us to pick up?
Happy travels, and please don’t hesitate to let us know if we can help you with anything. We will have BBQ sandwiches and the “fixins” for you for dinner beginning around 6:00 until ?? on Wednesday night in the Hotel Hospitality Room.
Joel and Joan Parris Joel: 256-577-6968 (cell) Joan: 256-394-0388 (cell)