Will NOT be held at the Hillsborough River State Park

The Roundup is on hold. We ran into more complications on getting the State Park for this event in October so don't make anymore reservations at the Park or Motel. Hold on to the ones you have while we sort this out.

We have found another suitable location with some very distinct avantages over the State Park. While we haven't got it in "writing" as yet, I wanted to let you know that we have found a good place and hope to wrap up a firm confirmation by 1 Dec.

The facility we have selected to go with is in central Zephyrhills, it is a privately owned facility with a really nice building which will house almost all the classes in case of rain and ample grassy area for all the canopies in good weather. It is within easy commute distance of both the Hillsborough River State Park and the Microtel where we have a group rate.

The dates of the Roundup will be Wednesday 24 March through Saturday 27 March 2010. This is 4 days of classes vice 5 days, but with a building so large, we don't have to worry about losing a day or 2 of classes to bad weather which is why we went to 5 days several years ago. We will be mostly outside weather cooperating, but now have the option to move inside when necessary.

By staying within the same time period we originally planned, we shouldn't lose any instructors or attendees that have already planned there schedules around our event. Those attendees that have made reservations at the Hillsborough River State Park and the Microtel can continue there and need cancel only one day(the first day of your reservation).

We will reveal the name of the facility and address as soon as we have it in "writing".

There are not any available RV sites at this facility, there may be parks nearby which I am investigating and will post here and in an email to the yahoo group as soon as we firm this up.

Thanks to all for the excellent response to our call for help in locating a new facility. There were literally too many good suggestions to follow up all of them completely before running out of time. I did visit 6 possibilities around the Tampa Bay area and 2 around the Orlando area. There are 2 facilities in the Tampa Bay area that with 4-8 more weeks of additional time for various approvals, may have worked out. I have just recieved info about another facility near MT Dora that sounds interesting also. Hopefully the Zephyrhills location will firm up, we believe it will.

What went wrong at the State Park? - After spending 3 months this summer working out several practical issues with the Park manager, in October they introduced a completely new set of requirements which we just couldn't afford to meet or didn't know how to meet. These new requirements were passed down to the local Park managers from the State wide Parks Department management for all users and events held in the State Parks. We were not singled out, just ill informed about the new requirements which seem to have gone into effect in May but of which we were not informed until October.