The other day a colleague and I were talking about how slow things were in the shank of summer, a few weeks before Dog Days. “The silence is deafening,” he said, meaning football news was sparse.
Rule of thumb for the summer columnists: When there are no stories anywhere on the landscape, make some news.
Gator Country has just done that.
I don’t think it would be an overstatement today to say that our Gator Country Staff is buzzed at all the news going on in our little world that is turning out not to be so little.
We’ve already told you about the bigger and better Gator Country Magazine. Just to skim the other news, we are about ready to announce exciting plans for expanded ventures in radio and TV very soon. There should almost no place in the universe we can’t be seen or heard.
Now we are appearing in the flesh.
Everywhere from Alabama, to West Florida and back.
First, the Gator Country Caravan kicks off Friday night at Gator Landing in East Palatka (see video below and click here for more details). Our cavalcade of stars – Franz Beard, Bob Redman, and Mark McLeod – will be there, offering their insights, and our Gator Country Store will be open. I’ll be offering some inside tidbits on my new book, “Urban’s Way. ”
Mark will kick off things with his three-hour live broadcast from Gator Landing that morning, starting at 7 am.
And I’m told a ton of prizes will be given away. James Irvine, in fact, says the boss is allowing him to give free tee-shirts to the first 100 who show up at Gator Landing.
You can see more news about this on the threads, but this upcoming eight-city tour just keeps getting bigger everyday.
This is how we roll: From East Palatka on July 11, to Jacksonville/Jax Beach on July 16 and back to Gainesville for Friday Night Lights on July 18.
Now that we are warmed up, some of us head to Birmingham for the SEC Media Days July 22-25, with an informal gathering of Gator fans Thursday night, July 24, in Birmingham at a yet unnamed location.
This came across my computer as a news flash late Sunday night: We’ll be hosted at the magnificent Emerald Grande Hotel in Destin on Friday night July 25 and Saturday July 26, with the merger of three West Florida Gator Clubs supporting the venue. If you want to see luxury, check out the incredible amenities at emeraldgrande.com. Some of the guys are suggesting we make it a week long stop.
But we can’t do that, because just a few days later the GC Gang will be headed to Tampa on July 29 and Orlando July 30 at sites to be named later. After that we are scheduled to be in Ocala at Hollywood Pulp Kitchen on SR 200 (free eats).
Yet to be scheduled are stopovers in Lakeland, West Palm Beach and Daytona Beach—or anywhere else within a day’s drive. If anybody wants to get involved in hosting at those sites, email me at buddy@gatorcountry.com.
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