Posted by Adele on July 25, 2000 at 16:54:08:
In Reply to: Re: A Gathering Memory that NEEDS to be told! posted by Kate on July 25, 2000 at 16:14:07:
: : : : 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
: : Whole-hearted agreement from me!!!
: : Bill R
: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: Yes, Bill ~
: That was quite a night! I remember your arrival at Bear Den and that of Eric and Sharon - and listening in disbelief when you said 'there was no key left for you'! I was there when MMMM spoke to Bear Den about leaving the key for your late arrival - we couldn't believe they hadn't done it!! Then you came back to 'Bumppo's' and said 'all was well. Eric had broken into the Cabin and you had gotten in'!
: Holy moly, what a night!! What would we do without our Soldier #2? Quite frankly, I don't even like to think about it!! 'What a guy! What a guy' - Amen to THAT, Diana!
: Just one of the many happy/funny memories of G2K, eh ...
: Kate.
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Ooo - ooo, me next, me next! I have a couple of memories to share, I enjoyed yours so much, Bill, I can't let this thread go!
OK - one is a confession: Ilse and I got caught smoking on the trail by the CRP Nicotine Police, and I felt like I was 12 again and in trouble at school. The second is walking up Table Rock right at the back of the line with Jay, a very quiet young man, who hadn't said much most of the way up and waited until we reached the hornets nest before showing his true sense of humour. As we were waiting for Clabert to do his manly path clearing act to bypass the nest, Jay said to me that he half expected, in any minute, to see 30 people come screaming down the mountain followed by an swarm, yelling "BEES, BEES". I don't know why, but that image just cracks me up everytime I think of it!
OK, last memory......what I looked like on the last night when I got into bed - or should I say, when I got into the sleeping bag for three that Dana and Ilse had created on the cabin balcony. Picture this: pale blue checked shorts, white t-shirt, thick beige jumper, walking socks(!), all cocooned (like a caterpillar) in a green blanket. Sexy, huh?!! Glad there is no photographic evidence of THAT fashion statement!
Aaahh - glad we have our memories to make us smile and keep us warm!
Adele