Posted by Diana S. on July 25, 2000 at 14:33:20:
In Reply to: A Gathering Memory that NEEDS to be told! posted by Bill R on July 25, 2000 at 09:33:12:
: Well folks, it's been about a month almost since Gathering, and the tales of that great event have kind of slacked off. But there is ONE tale that wasnt told, and NEEDS to be told.
: So here it is, Thursday night and we have driven almost 16 hours from Wisconsin in one straight shot. Our goal was to get to the campgrounds office before they closed at 9PM. Well we did pretty good considering - we made it at 9:15 PM. And, of course, after our driving 16 hours to get there, the campground folks could manage neither to wait an extra 15 minutes in the office, or leave a key to our cabin with somebody somewhere.
: We did find the office to the cabin okay, and in fact found our roomies, the NJ crowd, also milling around the office area wondering, as we were, what the heck to do now. We wound our way around goat trails until we found a cabin with a rowdy crowd and door open (the rowdy part gave them away as Gatherers) and lo and behold we ran smack dab into Diana! The orchestrator of this goat trail extravaganza. We all truck BACK up to the office after assuring ourselves our cabin door was indeed locked and search hi and lo for a key left for us. Nope. Nada. Bupkus. Zip. SOL.
: So we all trek the goat trails again back to the Cabins and Diana is trying to arrange sleeping on floors etc until morning when the office is open to get our key. Another car pulls in and it is Eric H. and Sharon. After hugging, shaking hands, hailing and greeting, Betty and I wander back to Diana's cabin
: for a beer (much needed) and Diana is talking to Eric and Sharon.
: After about 8 or 10 minutes, Diana comes back all smiles and tells Betty, the NJ crowd, and myself that our cabin is open!!
: WHAT!!! HOW!!! And she tells us that our wonderful Eric Hurley had found a tree in back of the cabin, shinneyed up it, crawled onto the deck, and found the back door open so walla! Our cabin was open and in we moved.
: The next day I went out on the deck and checked this tree out.
: It was perfect for shinneying - about 8 inches in diameter, straight as a pole, about 18 inches from the deck railing. Cool, thought I. I couldnt have done it - I mean for every foot I climbed up that tree/pole it would have been driven a foot deeper into the ground. By the time I got to the top, four feet of tree would have been sticking out of the ground and I could have stepped off and back on the ground where I started before my massive body weight had pile driven that tree into mother earth.
: So.....I reach out (and folks, if you have been to those cabins, you know the deck is at least 25 or 30 feet above ground as it slopes away dramatically from the front porch) and grab this tree.
: Holy molie!!! That tree goes to shaking and swinging back and forth like it wasnt fastened into the ground at all!!! I call Betty over and shake it back and forth and the whole dang tree from where I am at to ground level sways back and forth.
: So picture this folks. Eric Hurley is shinnying up this tree 30 feet from ground level and it is rocking back and forth to beat the band and like to come out of the ground. He then has to reach from the tree almost two feet out, somehow get himself over the deck railing from the tree while it is likely swaying back and forth in a wild arc, and HOPE that the back door is left open else he will have to shinney back down that damn tree.
: So Who's the HERO of LOTM? In my book, the REAL hero of LOTM
: is Eric Hurley - Soldier #2!!!!!!!!!!!!
: THANK YOU ERIC!!!!!!
: Bill R
Oh Bill,
Can't leave this one be!!!
I was privileged enough to watch this event unfold, and you left out a teensy weensy part about the tree shimmy. He did all this in about 2.3 seconds!!! Before I could get "Oh gosh, Eric...Be Careful!!!" Out of my mouth - he was over the deck and through the back door!
What a guy!! What a guy !!!
Can't help lovin' that Soldier of ours!
Diana