------------------------------------- David<dlocklea...@gmail.com> wrote:
This is more of a personal story about my experience here at ICS. I arrived at Groad Hollow on Friday afternoon, the 17th. I staked my claim to a small cluster of trees that seemed to be shady and within 150 feet of the showers. It wasn't as flat as I would have liked, but it was suitable. Upon organizing my spot to put my gear, I noticed there was quite a lot of fresh deer poop on the ground where I wanted to sleep. I decided to ignore it and just keep stepping on it. There were also small metal items poking out of the ground, which I fortunately found before injuring my toes, one of them being a 3 foot piece of rusted rebar buried horizontally and sticking out of the ground right at toe level. I spent Friday evening socializing around camp with other campers, and helping out where ever I saw a need. Saturday, I helped Bill Mixon assemble his cave. It was hot and we really needed 2 more laborers. Eventually some showed up and it was finished. But I didn't see anybody get into it until the Howdy Party. After building the cave box, I volunteered to test all the hammocks around camp, and within an hour or 2, I found one that put me right to sleep. Sunday, cavers began arriving who lacked camping gear. I set up Andres from Costa Rica, with camping gear, and then later a caver from Cuba or Puerto Rico ( I forgot which ). I also helped a little when the Ukranians arrived. And I loaned a 3rd tent to a girl who is the daughter of some cavers from West Virginia, whose name escapes me at the moment, Rich ? 2 cavers from Mexico arrived ( but living in San Antonio ) and they didn't have a very good tent, so I loaned out my 4th tent to them. Meanwhile, I had a mini yard-sale at my camp either loaning stuff, or giving stuff away for free, but selling very little of it. I also gave away extra ice and food for 2 or 3 cavers. During the past 4 days, I have spent 90 per cent of my time at Groad Hollow, and missed quite a bit of ICS. Some of that time was spent socializing, and some of it was either spent in the showers or the hot tub, or cool pool. I can say without a doubt that Pete Strickland has done a remarkable job in the area around the hot tub. It seems like he did the work of 10 volunteers. I have tried to enjoy the hot tub and pool, as much as possible. Gil Ediger erected a circus tent at Groad Hollow, and this work, created an atmosphere where cavers felt comfortable socializing in the heat and the rain. Bob Cowell's showers are great for cooling off in the mid-afternoon heat. Monday afternoon, a storm was approaching. I knew the storm was coming but gambled it wouldn't be anything to worry about. I was over at the viewing of the cave photo entries and getting ready to watch the caver movie - Texas Cavers. Kevin McGowan called me and told me the storm was severe and would be here any minute. I barely made it back to camp in time to protect everything, but the storm was a major inconvenience. A mexican caver named Jazmin was a great help in saving my stuff from the storm. My pancho was packed away some where and I was cold and wet, so I jumped in the hot tub to warm my body back up, but it was not lit. I sat there in the rain, wondering what I should be doing next, and then realized I had not yet received my registration card and they were about to close, and I would not be able to go to the Howdy Party. Somewhere in that, I missed the Texas Cavers movie premier. So I rushed back to registration, and back to camp to get ready for the Howdy Party. I showed up about 45 minutes before it started, but I was too late to volunteer for the preparations. I ended up working a beer keg, which the people in line seemed to be much appreciative of. I missed the cowboy roping show, as I could not see it. I never even got a drop of beer, but I seldom drink beer anyways. The Howdy Party was great fun. I danced 2 or 3 times, and enjoyed listening to the band. And made a few new caver friends. The band stopped playing and the crowd scattered. A few cavers socialized for about an hour, but then the last caver strolled away. I stayed and folded the remaining chairs and tables and stuffed them along the walls and picked up some trash. ( It reminded me of that roadie song by Jackson Browne. ) I turned off the lights about 3 hours after the band stopped playing, and went and took what seemed like an ice-cold shower. That was the 1st time in 4 days, that I really wanted a hot shower. I slept late Tuesday, and then tried to dry out my gear. The main problem was most of it was coated in muddy deer poop, especially my cot. Tuesday afternoon, my mini yard-sale had some visitors. I made at least $ 100 which I plan to donate towards the pay off of Punkin Cave. Unfortunately, that was about $ 300 worth of stuff. I eventually made it over to some of the ICS functions. The maps are really inspiring, especially the big river caves in China. to be continued .... David Locklear --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
