Florida has a lot to offer within several hours of Vero Beach, but there’s always that pesky drive back and forth to contend with. Utilizing the skills and contacts made during prior work experiences, longtime Vero resident Patti Gibbons and her friend Vicky Stein have devised a way for you to sit back and enjoy the ride – Day Trippin’ with Patti & Vicky LLC.
A member of the Vero Beach High School class of 1967, Gibbons left town to attend college and then held positions elsewhere in the country before returning with her late husband Darby in 1989. He began a career as a much-loved teacher, college counselor and Academic Dean at Saint Edward’s School, and she became the Membership Director for Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, where one of her duties was to organize public programs, including day tours and trips out of the country.
“The Membership Program was coined as the ‘mother of day trips’ on the Treasure Coast, and then of course a lot of other people started doing them,” says Gibbons. “That’s when I learned about how to sell day travel in Florida; I got educated.”
The trips were a fundraising mechanism for Harbor Branch and a benefit for members who received trip discounts.
“We went all over. We went around the state, and we went to Little Switzerland in North Carolina for two weeks every off-season for ‘Summer in the Mountains.’ It was so much fun. Then we started going out of the country. We organized five trips to the Galapagos Islands. And we only went with Lindblad Expeditions because they were environmentally correct. They would give a portion of the funds to the Galapagos Islands for preservation. They were educational and high quality,” remembers Gibbons. Among other destinations were trips to Costa Rica, Antarctica, the Baja peninsula and Alaska.
After retiring from Harbor Branch in 2011, she worked for a short time at ORCA (Ocean Research & Conservation Association) before deciding to branch out on her own.
“Some former Harbor Branch members approached me and asked if I’d consider organizing trips again, because they didn’t have the same types of trips anymore,” Gibbons explains. She pooled her expertise with Stein, a former Harbor Branch volunteer who had a background as a travel agent, and Day Trippin’ was born.
Day trips around the state have included museums, botanical gardens, concerts, national and state parks and nature-oriented day cruises.
“We focus on educational, cultural interests and places that are off the beaten path, such as Cassadaga, that very spiritualist colony in central Florida. We do not do casinos; we do not do any trips that involve gambling. What sets us apart is that we try to make the trip a little more personalized.”
The majority of travelers tend to be retirees, as trips are scheduled during the week when museums and attractions are not quite as crowded. For transportation they utilize Vero-based Magic Carpet Ride motor-coaches or a Mercedes van, depending on the group’s size.
“It’s a local company; it’s important to support local businesses,” says Gibbons, stressing the importance of having a quality bus with a professional driver. “The earlier days we tried some other more cost-efficient buses and we learned that you pay for the quality of the bus. And Magic Carpet is quality.”
A sense of community is important to Gibbons. Husband Darby was born here, and their daughter Emily teaches at Indian River County Head Start, following in the footsteps of Patti’s mother, Ollie Willmot, who taught more than 35 years at St. Helen’s School.
Active in the nonprofit world, Gibbons has served on the boards of various organizations, including the Cultural Council, St. Francis Manor, and the Scholarship Foundation of Indian River County. There she was instrumental in starting the annual Tie-Bration fundraiser, which created a perpetual Morris A. “Darby” Gibbons Memorial Scholarship in honor of her husband.
Continuing that community relationship, Day Trippin’ has facilitated a number of fundraising tours for local nonprofits, such as historic building tours to benefit the Heritage Center, a trip to the Norton Gallery for the American Pen Women, and trips for McKee Botanical Garden members to Fairchild Gardens in Miami.
And two years ago she joined the board of the Gifford Youth Orchestra.
“I went to one of their annual concerts and heard the orchestra play and it brought tears to my eyes. I was very moved by these students from Gifford, of all ages who were learning how to play string instruments. Crystal’s motto is ‘violins not violence’,” says Gibbons, in reference to GYO founder Crystal Bujol. “It’s a whole other dimension for these kids; a whole other world of learning. It’s another alternative after-school program; a way to keep kids off the streets.”
To keep the rest of us off the streets, future trips are planned to Orlando on Aug. 12 to see the Mummies of the World exhibit at the Orlando Science Center, and to Stuart on Sept. 30, visiting the Elliott Museum to see an exhibit called Illuminating the Deep: Glimpsing the Largest and Least Known Ecosystem on Earth, featuring the combined works of ORCA’s Dr. Edie Widder and California artist Steve Bernstein.
Orlando is the destination this fall – on Oct. 12 to have High Tea at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, and on Nov. 11 the bus is headed to the Epcot International Wine and Food Festival. “That way they can drink all the wine and beer they want and sober up on the way home,” laughs Gibbons. The first overnight trip is planned this December to see St. Augustine’s beautiful holiday lights and decorations.
For more information, call 772-569-8372.
