For this event we had a gloriously bright, clear, Florida (that is to say Warm) day.

In hindsight, a 9.3 km blue course on an 88F day is perhaps not wise, but you might assume Blue course people know what they're getting into, so no need for sympathy. Serious re-hydration, maybe, but no sympathy.

One of the best carnival atmospheres in memory prevailed throughout the day with the JROTC tents all lined up and the food concessions going full tilt. What a great turnout. I hope everyone had fun.

Some random thoughts:

• Please congratulate our two JROTC cadets who qualified for their USOF Junior Navigator certificate at this event.
• Someone asked for Cotton FLO T-shirts and yes, we do have a few in the FLO-Closet that we save for special gifts, but if you want to buy one they're all $5 each and are all light blue.
• No Small Green FLO-T-shirts ($15) left and only one or two Mediums, so let us know if you want one of those mediums and we can pull it out for you.
• Profusions of wildflowers along the highways leading to Ocala Forest and a wide variety in the woods, too. Hope you liked them. We ordered them special.
• I saw a Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Scrub Lupine. What did you see?
• If you thought Yellow or Orange seemed a bit tougher than normal, they were, and deliberately so.
• Did you notice the purple-printed "EC Cell Phone #" up in the upper right corner of your map. Good idea, don't you think? Jonathan Linforth invented that for this event and we will keep doing it as long as the EC has a cell phone, because so many of you now carry your cell with you on the course. Good safety feature.
• Does anyone get flustered like me when we unexpectedly receive not only pre-printed, but pre-bagged maps at start? Many thank to Jonathan L. for doing that, but there is a 'however'. That leaves me with no place to put my paper control card. From now on I will carry a few of the Tyvek control cards we used to hand out at A-meets. I will then pin that Tyvek onto my shirt and staple my control card to the Tyvek. That way no worry about ripping the card off my map or having multiple staples affect my compass. If anyone else cares, I'll just put the leftover Tyveks in the pink map case box at Start and you can do this yourself.
• That 9.3 KM Blue course had three legs between 1100 and 1200 m long, each. Don't hardly see that.
• Have I reminded everyone that we really do want you to visit controls in order on a cross-country-course? If you take them out of order there is no way be sure you aren't making them too hard or too easy for the specific level of course you are on. Yellow controls could become White or Red level controls. Who knows. The course designer tries very hard to set controls appropriate to course and you defeat all that good-faith effort if you depart from the norm. We are fully aware that a lot of the fun goes out of O when you're always following, or too close by, others on the same course and that may be why you take controls out of sequence. We plan to do our part to relieve this problem by setting more JROTC-only Orange and Yellow courses and to lengthen the time between starts. Give us your thoughts.

I would like to highlight the level of volunteerism that can reach out and touch a meager attempt of coordination that I muster. I can see that every event garners the same level of enthusiasm, ensuring that everyone who comes out will have the option of playing in the woods. How crazy is that?

I do want to include the persons that put some level of sweat into this event. Please let me start with Janet for relieving me, once again. Then, Jonathan for his meticulous endeavor to make his courses inviting and yet... I took out some first-timers on the Orange course and was quite excited that it was a bit more than the usual step-up from a Yellow and if you happened try it, all I can say is that I have gone in circles on a RED course in the same fashion. So, I can see why there were so many DNF's. The main reason for the bump up was to give an excellent workout to the JROTC competitors in their championship. The newbies had fun and were interested in a return event. I had seen some bunching of competitors and maybe a Score-O would be the next alternative.

When I was able to go out on a course, I noticed that our famous Start/Finish duo(Jack and Trace) had taken up the task and upon return, I saw that Jack Cash, Russ and Jonathan had held down the closing hour. In a picnic fashion, Jerry formulized a Control pickup strategy and when the time was right, he sent Russ, Greg and son, Drew, myself out to retrieve all controls for next month. Jack stayed around for the one remaining straggler from the BLUE course. Jerry assigned himself to pick up the most controls, out in the extremes of the map. What a president....! I must not exclude Andrea, who had vetted some of the easy courses, for the first time. She had commented about having a deeper appreciation for the actual Course Setters' function, now knowing that it ain't so easy finding that actual tree or palmetto. I found another vetter (Donna F.) out on the course and flustered on being turned around -- it does happen. She is a great writer/publisher, though.

In closing, I must admit that the ROTC had a party goin' on, short of music, with a food tent in front of the action. I can get spoiled knowing that food will be available. I also want to mention the trash that was left by some cadets, although this was somewhat abated by the increased awareness of others concerned enough to police their areas prior to departure. I thank all that had come out and enjoyed the thorny vines, we order those as well as the flowers. If I have left someone out, please forgive me. See you next month OR in the woods somewhere.

Ray Bruneau

WHITE

Name	Time
THS W/J	26:24
Roberts, M	28:00
Rupter, N	33:30
BCHS C	54:50
BCHS H	55:56
Team Mercer	61:18
Vikings T234	90:45

YELLOW

Name	Time
Century 21	63:31
Roberts, M	68:06
THS R	71:50
BCHS H	87:21
OHS O	106:35
Barr, E	121:26
BCHS G	122:54
BCHS B/A	132:30
Lincoln, M/S	133:00
Troop 263	165:34
Selph, B	DNF

ORANGE

Name	Time
ONeil	111:34
TSPA	113:15
Team Mercer	135:50
Kaler, M/A	140:40
Mante, K	146:05
Gladding, T	148:54
Cash, J	149:25
Eddienauts	OT
Lab/Rats	OT
Hawkins/Lunt	OT
BCHS #5	DNF
Jack/Trace	DNF
Marshall	DNF
Constance	DNF
Cadwell	DNF
Hawthorne	DNF
Inman, S	DNF
Dalton/Simmons	DNF

GREEN

Name	Time
Schmid, P	119:06
Team Griffield	129:37
ONeil, K	155:10
Ambil	163:28
Dennis/Carolyn	177:00
Jax Rats	DNF
Steinke, R	DNF
BCHS D	DNF
BCHS G	DNF

RED

Name	Time
Bohn, D	91:30
Sirmans, J	102:34
Murphy, D	133:44
Canelos, A	169:25

BLUE

Name	Time
Putnam, B	93:29
Shuman, D	123:32
Hauff, J	124:27
Nuzzi, R	136:14
Hollingsworth	154:12
Fluegel, D	158:00
Pirnasch, W	171:55
Superior Fence	DNF
Langford, M	OT
THS V	DQ

DNF	Did Not Finish
DQ	Disqualified (Missed Controls)
OT	Over 3 Hour Time Limit