After my car passed the emissions test, I stopped at Wal-Mart to buy 14 pounds of ice and a package of styrofoam cups for the trip. I eventually arrived at Melissa's apartment in Arlington Heights around 12:30. It would have been 12, but Natalie forgot to bring the banana chocolate chip bread and zucchini bread, so she had to rush home after work to pick them up, and we delayed our departure time by a half hour.
We loaded our two cars with countless bags, grills, tents, and coolers, Lord knows my Honda Accord has never carried this kind of weight before! After about two minutes, I could almost hear the engine crying out to me, "Adam, did you put some weight on?" I drove Natalie while Melissa rode in Leigh's truck. On the way, the two of us made a stop at Target to get 28 more pounds of ice. On top of that, Natalie wanted to stop at the adjacent McDonald's, and I may have rolled my eyes at that one. She ordered two sweet teas for herself, so I decided to bite the bullet and I got one too. I took a sip through the straw and immediately, I remembered why I haven't spent any money there in 20 years. The sweet tea had no freaking sugar whatsoever! Isn't that the point of sweet tea? I only drank it down because it was cold and the temperature was around 90 degrees outside.
We arrived in Camp Timber-Lee in East Troy, Wisconsin around 3:30 pm. Natalie and I registered the group and we started unloading at sites 29 and 31. We had four tents, three for the ladies and one for the guys. Now, the first three were from Eddie Bauer and Ozark. These were modern tents with metal stakes, velcro fasteners, zippers for windows, all kinds of modern amenities. Then we came to the guys tent that Natasha brought; she came up with her daughter around 4:30. I think this tent was a relic from World War 1. I opened up the canvas bag and I pulled out a huge tent with had tape covering some holes, 20 metal poles, and a dozen yellow plastic stakes. It took me a solid hour to get the tent to the point where it would just stand up. Even with a rubber mallet, i could only drive the stakes halfway into the ground. The bottom of the poles were rubber capped, which I wasn't too confident about either. Eventually, we got it up to the point where it would just stay up and at the time, that was good enough for me. I was jnust hoping the winds wouldn't exceed 5 MPH... After we finished, I enjoyed an orange icee-pop and cup of lemon sparking water. J-Schu would have been so proud of me.
We started setting up for dinner. As the lone guy, my job was to eat a lot. I wound up wolfing down four turkey burger patties, a hot dog, grilled corn on the cob, salad, pita chips with hummus, and a ton of guacamole, regular and spicy! Feeling a little bored afterwards, I walked down to the road to the activity center, where they have ping pong, air hockey, and carpetball. I wound up playing carpetball (sort of like hand-held shuffleboard without points) with a guy from Bartlett for about 20 minutes. I came back and we set up a campfire with s'mores and then Kristin and Manish arrived around 9 pm. I don't remember too much of the night, except setting stuff up. I do remember going to the office late and signing up for Saturday activities. We had choices like horseback riding, archery, the pancake breakfast, and the creation walk. We didn't stay up too late, we headed to bed around 11, which is lights out at Timber-lee anyway.
All night long, Manish and I could hear giggling coming from Kristin and Natalie's tent, which was maybe 5 steps away from us. So we decided to do something about it. I snuck out of our tent, walked a few steps to Manish's truck, opened the door, raised the roof of the cooler, and grabbed two handfuls of ice cubes. I closed the van back up and tip-toed gingerly to their tent and pelted the outside of their tent with the ice. Then I hauled ass back to my tent! Thankfully, there was no retribution.
Since a few of us had signed up for horseback riding at 8:45, Manish and I took charge of making an early breakfast. We went with eggs, although a frying pan might have been a nice addition. I wound up lining a grill basket with aluminum foil and putting it on the grill. I also had to use a metal spatula and indeed, some of the eggs slipped through the foil and onto the burner. I'm sure that didn't make cleanup a fun experience. I also fried up some turkey bacon. I guess it's healthier, but has so far less flavor than regular bacon. We also had some fruit salad and Natalie's aforementioned breads. That zucchini bread, in particular, tasted awesome.
Natasha, Sophie, Kristin, and I left for the ten-minute walk to the stable around 8:30 am. Two other people staying at the camp joined us, they were both first time riders. They fitted me with an XL helmet and then they led us out where the horses were tied. I rode a white horse called Cash, who had a steel muzzle wrapped around his mouth. That meant this horse was an eater! And he proved it when five minutes into the ride, he took a dump. The casual ride lasted an hour or so and it was a cool experience. It cost me $14.00, I would have liked to have done a little trotting for that price!
We all planned to go on the waterslide, which was only open from 9 am to noon. So I changed from my jeans into my bathing suit and then a few of us were sitting around on the picnic tables. And then all of a sudden, the bright gray skies let the rain go all over us. We scurried to get the chairs and coolers into the cars and then we all went to the activity center to kill some time. While we were there, Jim, Catherine, and Mike all showed up. No, not that Catherine. Jim even brought some styrofoam coolers filled with Coke and that soda really hit the spot for me. The highlight of that time in the center was probably Mike and I playing ping pong against Manish and Catherine. The matches were all very competitive, but we won 2 games to 1. It was interesting seeing the ladies giving each other shoulder massages while sitting right next to the table. A little risky, if you ask me. Indeed, a few errant balls hit Melissa and Natalie in the head, I have to admit, I thought it was hysterical. By now, Natasha took Sophie to another camp about 90 minutes north of where we were before returning herself that night.
The rain lasted for maybe an hour and then we returned to our site. I opened our tent door and to my horror, I saw a large puddle sitting inside the tent right by the door. May have been the size of a large dinner plate. My only relief was that none of the water touched my stuff. Unfortunately, it got to Manish's sleeping bag and mattress. Without a squeegee handy, we used the lids of the styrofoam coolers to sweep the water out of the tent. I finished it off by wiping up the remaining water with my bath towel.
So we made lunch as the sun started to peek out. I made a turkey sandwich with more guac along with some salad and pita chips. Oh, and plenty of watermelon, it completely hit the spot with that hot weather. From there, I headed down to the beach with Melissa and Kristin. Earlier that morning, Sophie told me this was the tiniest swimming area I could ever imagine. And she wasn't kidding. I've seen plenty of lakes and ponds that had roped off areas to swim, but this was a rectangle that wasn't even the size of a hockey rink.
I went into the water first, and it felt pretty comfortable. Walking on the grass on the bottom of the pond felt a little creepy, it was like someone or something was crawling on me. Eventually, the ladies (who were looking gorgeous in a pair of bikinis) came in. And as we walked out, I flicked a hint of water at both of them. It didn't even qualify as a splash. Well, I paid for it. Melissa warned me after the flick to sleep with one eye open. A half hour later, Melissa caught me while I was laying face down. I was enjoying the rays warming my back. And I suddenly felt a cold rush going down my back. She doused me with a bucket of water. It was really no big deal, I dried off pretty quick. Oh, and this was a little weird. They were laying to my right. To my left were about 8 steel canoes. They asked if I was looking at them, I told them they were better to look at than the boats. I guess that was a compliment...
Meanwhile, the others did archery and the creation walk. Some of them even got to hold a boa constrictor. I didn't know that was going to be on the list! Fil and Ian had arrived by now also, although Ian stayed about four hours before going back home again. While we prepared dinner, and Fil was preparing his BBQ ribs, Natalie applied put a cucumber-melon mask on my face. I have to admit, my pores felt much tighter. I guess that's a good thing. Anyway, Fil prepared pork ribs with a mango-chipotle sauce, braised in a coffee-based porter. He also threw in a lot of different spices like cinnamon, all spice, ginger, coriander, etc. They tasted tremendous, but they were a little hot! We also enjoyed Natasha's potato salad and our grilled veggies. Just a great dinner.
Then, most of us went boating around 6:30. Jim and Catherine took individual kayaks, while Mike and Natasha shared a canoe, and Manish, Kristin, and I worked on a paddleboat. We rode around the pond for about an hour. I will say, I wish there was a boat where I could adjust my seat position forward and back, like a car. Let's just say my legs were a little long for those pedals, so my knees were basically tucked in my sternum for most of the ride!
Afterwards, I walked with Catherine to the neighboring Nature Preserve. We walked on a dock and chatted for the first time. She's got a few years on me and he's quite smart. I got to learn about her pastoring and scientific backgrounds, she seemed like an interesting woman. But what we saw on the dock of the preserve really disturbed both of us. These kids, maybe 11 years old, were fishing. Then I saw they had a turtle on the dock. Apparently, the turtle had taken the bait and they had pulled him up. I looked closer and I could see this one blonde-haired kid was stepping on the shell of the turtle. And then I could see the turtle's mouth stretched completely open, as far as it could go. He couldn't make a sound, but it was easy to see he was in a lot of pain. A few of us on the dock asked him what he was doing and why. So then the kid grabbed him by the tail and dangled him over the water for a solid 5 or 10 seconds before finally releasing him into the pond. I have to say it was very disturbing to watch.
So we went back and it was time for the 8:00 hay ride with Manish and Kristin. Seems like I spent a lot of time with Kristin, and I have to say, I didn't mind it at all. On the ride, which wasn't too thrilling, Kristin explained to me the difference between red oaks, white oaks, and burr oaks. We saw some honeysuckle and black locusts too. So she wound up being my tour guide. During the ride, I also saw a disc golf course on the other side of the property. I even had my discs in my car, so I was a little bummed I had no knowledge of this!
When we returned around 9 pm, Jim, Mike, Catherine, and Ian had all left already. It was completely dark outside by now, so we started another campfire. We had some different conversations about faith, including how we got saved and even a long talk about Evangelicalism vs Catholicism. It's not that I wasn't interested, but I just felt so drained. I nodded off at least three times. All of a sudden I felt it. A drip. Then two drips. Then came a couple more drips. Then the drips quickly morphed into a thunderstorm.
I knew our tent was going to flood. Fil and held the slanted roof of our tent up, trying to deflect the water off. More water did start to seep in through the corners of the tent, I had to cover my suitcase with a towel. But there wasn't much we could do about the rain that was leaking through the roof except to wait out the storm. Manish, meanwhile, well, he didn't have it so good. He had left his phone on the picnic table outside and it got ruined. He wound up staying in his van for a while. After about an hour of trying to prevent more dripping, Fil and Manish threw a tarp over part of the tent. It helped, but it didn't really solve the problem. Once again, I had to use my towels to dry up the rain water inside the tent.
Eventually, we all laid down and tried to sleep. As more water snuck in, I started singing "Raindrops keep falling on my head." BJ Thomas, great voice, bottom line. Anyway, neither Manish or I felt comfortable sleeping near the sides of the tent. Fil had an elevated cot placed in the middle, so he was ok. But eventually, Natasha agreed to stay with Natalie and Kristin while Manish and I took her tent over. We definitely appreciated that sacrifice.
It was still not the easiest night to sleep. As I laid down on her very soft inflatable mattress, I realized both a corner of my pillow well as the bottom of my sleeping bag were completely drenched. And Manish woke up maybe twice during the night to take a leak too. Thanks for the interruptions bro.
We woke up around 6:30 and after taking an early shower, I immediately started cleaning up the site. After arranging food, gear, and packing bags, we left around 7:45 for the pancake breakfast with eggs, fruit, sausage, and cereal. But I could just feel the vibe of the group was we had fun, but we're ready to go home.
So I walked back with Manish and Kristin (again!) and as I headed back to our tent to disassemble it, I found a turtle hanging out behind Leigh's truck. Kristin took quite a liking to him and I took a few photos of him, including one of Kristin holding him. She let him off in the woods behind our site.
So we resumed cleaning by taking the tents down, packing the coolers, and dumping the trash (with Kristin). We even had some extra Cokes that Jim had brought so I took three cans and packed them in my duffel bag. I think it took us another hour and we were all gone by 9:30. Again, I drove Natalie and this time, she slept most of the way. Sadly, Dogs N' Suds was closed at 10:20 am, we had arrived in Richmond, at the northern border of Illinois, about 40 minutes early. I guess that first taste of the root beer will have to wait for another day. So I dropped Natalie off at Melissa's place and helped upload the cars. Melissa was nice enough to give me a bottle of water for the road and I made it home by 12:30.
I just felt too drained to play softball that afternoon, I found out we lost to St. Peters again. I'll be ready for Sunday afternoon.
