I don’t think the question is where the favorite place is for the reunion. Most of us would have to agree that an Alaskan cruise would probably be one of the top favorites but what good is that if few could afford to go. I feel the priority for picking a reunion site is one that is the desirable, interesting and affordable for those that has not had a chance to go. Obviously location is a main factor because of the expense of travel especially if you plan on taking a family. Well it is obviously that those that live within 300 to 500 miles of the reunion site would have a very minimal travel expense of less than $100 to $150 for fuel. Much further than that you would have to go by plane or start adding on extra days and motel cost for the trip. This extra expense in many cases is the dividing line of who can go and who cannot. Also some have to stay close to home because of health reasons, business or other maters. So to be fair, the reunion should be located each time at a different location to give each area of collectors a shot at going with minimal travel expense.

Well in theory this is a no-brainer. The reunion has already been at the west cost, northeast, mid Atlantic and the Great Lakes. So the only logical and fair location would be the southeast. I don’t know why anyone is even debating this. The only thing we should be talking about is where in the south to have the reunion.

Before we start discussing where in the south we should have the reunion, we need to get one obstacle out of the way. Hurricanes! I think this has always been the reason why the south has missed out on reunions. Yes the south has been having many of them lately. So many, that many insurance company’s will no longer write homeowner policies for Florida. But one thing we all need to realize is just because you are in Florida in late summer and early fall does not mean you have a high risk of hurricanes. Actually the coast from Daytona to Savanna is the least of Hurricane prone areas. The east Coast from south of Daytona to key west and from the west coast from Key West to Tampa is the high Hurricane prone areas, not counting The Texas to Louisiana area. A matter of fact of all the south East Coast Cities, Jacksonville is the probably the safest area from hurricanes. It has had only one direct hit since 1871 and that was Dora (a cat 2) in 1964. In 2004 we were effected by Francis and Jeanne but only by tropical force winds which did cause a lot of power outages given all the big trees in the area that were damaged. But the interesting thing about Jacksonville is that in the three hurricanes mentioned above none occur in October.

If we check other southeast coastal cities like Savanna we will also see that only four Hurricanes had a direct hit in the last 100 years and which none of them were any stronger than a Category 2. The latest Hurricane was in 1979 and was in early September.
I also checked Daytona and in the past 50 years Daytona only had three major Hurricanes, Donia, David and Charley and again all of them were in August or September.

What I am saying, yes there is a Hurricane risk in the South but whatever risk we have it is generally in August or September. And the least risk would be the Jacksonville /St Augustine area. If we picked the middle of October in the Jacksonville/St Augustine areas the highs are in the high 70’s to low 80’s and a Hurricane has not hit this area in October for at least a hundred years, maybe more. Even though the Hurricane season does not officially end until end of November the chances in October are substantially less than August and September.
Well since I am on the topic of Jacksonville. It has an international airport and plenty of hotels and convention stuff. October is also the lower rates for hotels.
It has four lighthouses in a half hour drive away. The best thing about Jacksonville is that it is not a tourist town so the hotel rates are reasonable but it is only 17 miles to the beach and a half hour drive on interstate 95 to St Augustine. St Augustine is rich with history and probably one of the most historic cities of Florida.