I could have added another saga in my THERE I WAS blog entry, but THERE I WAS ... sitting at my computer writing funny stories, and forgot the most recent one. Some of you have already heard it, while some of you were there. But for those who were not there or who have not talked to Brett, here goes.
The first weekend in May is always the weekend of the Stake Fathers and Sons campout.
It started out when Brett asked me to pick up a pop-up camper at the Fort Hood Outdoor Equipment Check-Out Center for the annual Fathers and Sons Rain Out - I mean Camp Out. (No rain this year - but it was hot so the air conditioning in the trailer will be great!) When I picked up the trailer I should have known that things could only go down hill from there. Seems the campers don't have standard trailer light plug-ins for towing. Nooooo - they have military style plugs. BUT, they have adapters! In fact, they have 3 of them. I was the 4th trailer to be checked out that day. THERE I WAS ... driving down the freeway with a trailer and no lights - avoiding cops to the best of my ability. It was bad enough driving on the freeway - but I had to get off the freeway and stop at the house to get my stuff. No cops - WHEW! Got everything loaded in my van and trailer then I had to drive on surface streets to Heather's and pick up her boys! Well, we made it out to Camp Arrowhead without even seeing one of Killeen's finest.
Brett and I had been coordinating our arrival at Arrowhead (that would be a phone call about every 5 minutes, “Hey Pop, where are you at?” “I’m about to turn onto Rancier” “Hey Pop, where are you at?” “About to turn onto Quarry Road” “Hey Pop, where are you at?” “On the other end of Quarry Road” Hey Pop, where are you at?” “Turning into Arrowhead” “Be careful of the low water crossing. There is water running, but it’s not deep”) When we pulled into the camp, Brett had our spot all ready – right next to the power pole. Scott assured us that there was power at Arrowhead because they had it at Scout Camp years ago, so we pulled into the exact area where the Scouts had camped. We unhitched the trailer and set it up. Neighbor campers watched, looked into the trailer, “air conditioning, huh?” “Yep, we are gonna be comfortable”. Then we connected power to the trailer. Nothing. “Hey you guys” someone’s child said, “you gotta hook up this cord to that outlet by the a/c unit. So we did. Still nothing. “Hey you guys” someone’s child said, “you gotta throw the pole breaker”. So we did. Still nothing. Brett and I decided there must be a main breaker somewhere, so we went to look. We found it near the gate. Turned the breaker on. Went back to the campsite. THERE I WAS … 85 degrees, 100% humidity and no electricity to run the air conditioning. Well, maybe it will cool off before we go to bed.
We got set up and the sons ran off to play in the creek and get soaking wet. They will dry. There were about 150 people at the campout. Brett, as Stake Young Men’s President, was the head honcho of the camp, so he went off to do some coordinatin’. Scott showed up with the Mayo twins around 6:30. Scott is the Ward Young Men’s President and was in charge of the campfire program. Me, I was in charge of cooking the hamburgers. We had to provide our own dinner and the Stake would provide breakfast, which will be discussed later. I started the fire when Scott arrived on site. Shawn McCourt showed up to spend time with us, eat and then had to leave. Our camp is pretty nice. We even had a lightweight aluminum picnic table to use. I set the bar-be-que pit up next to the bench on the picnic table so I could cook while sitting and chatting. Shawn, Scott and I were sitting down. I was sitting on the very end of the bench cooking hamburgers. Then Scott and Shawn got up to go do something. THERE I WAS … 300 pounds of dead weight sitting on the end of a lightweight aluminum picnic table bench arms length from a hot fire! Need I go on? You got it! The bench flew up in the air and I launched forward – nothing between me and the hamburgers. The burgers weren’t the only things that got grilled that evening. Have you ever grilled your fingers? I know I have! I lunged forward! My left hand is in the bar-be-que pit and my fingers are thru the grill. Everyone was in shock. No one knew whether to laugh or cry … well, they laughed and I cried. Shawn grabbed the ice chest and brought it to me and I stuck by hand into the icy water. I do have to say, though, I was professional thru and thru. With my left hand in the icy water, I finished cooking those burgers with my right hand. Fortunately the injuries were minor, but once again a huge blow to my pride!
So now dinner is over and it is getting dark. The breeze is picking up and the humidity has blown away. So we figured if we open all the canvas in the trailer, we well be comfortable. Colby wants to sleep with Grandpa and Uncle Brett in the trailer, while the older boys are sleeping either in the tent, or under the stars. Colby and I went into the trailer and we fixed his sleeping bag on his bed. As I pulled the door closed behind us, a gust of wind caught the door and blew it closed, on my thumb! OUCH! And I was bleeding. ‘Gramp, I have to go potty and those bathrooms are dark”. “Here, Colby, take my flash light and go out by those trees and pee.” While he is gone, I start unzipping the canvas. Now, this is a pop-up trailer and you must extend the beds out so that there is a bed on the left side of the trailer and one on the right. The kitchen table converts to a bed, where Colby would sleep. This is a single axle trailer. The front end of the trailer is stabilized with the foot on the trailer hitch. The rear of the trailer by drop down stabilizing feet. I am going to be sleeping in the front bed. I climb in the bunk and unzip the canvas. Next I unzip the canvas above Colby’s bed and on the opposite side of the trailer. Now for Brett’s side. Brett’s main job while setting up the trailer was to put the stabilizing feet on the back of the trailer down. Have you ever climbed onto the rear bed of a pop-up camper when the stabilizing feet have not been deployed? I know I have! It is like being the heaviest one on a teeter totter. Down I go! The trailer is now at about a 45 degree angle! THERE I WAS … butt up in the air and unable to move! “Help!” I yelled. Brett, Scott, Shawn and Colby came running. Only Colby wasn’t laughing! Brett said all he could think of was the RV rolling into the lake in the movie, RV (we were near the small lake at Arrowhead). All Scott could think of was the trailer rolling into his car, which was parked right behind the trailer. Brett climbed in and pulled me up. BAM! The trailer settled back down. “You really are Tommy Boy”, Brett laughed! “I’m sorry, Pops, I couldn’t figure out how to get the legs down. I should have told you. It could have happened to anyone.” Then he started laughing again.
Finally we all go to bed. The only thing left that could top all of this was for a skunk to wander into the camp. Don’t get ahead of me, it didn’t happen and we all went to sleep.
Fast forward to the next morning. It’s 8 o’clock. Brett comes running into the camp and says “Pops, watch my boys, I have to go check on breakfast.” And he was gone. A half hour later he and a couple of men drive over to the main food area and start unloading donuts, bananas, orange juice and milk. The folks in charge of breakfast forgot all about it. Brett went to Wal-Mart in Belton and purchased every donut in the store – 12 dozen; 150 bananas, and several gallons of orange juice and milk. All the donuts, juice and milk were consumed. Brett and I split the 40 pounds of bananas that didn’t get eaten. Gotta make lots of banana bread!
Brett says he is already planning next year’s campout and is devising a plan to make sure breakfast is served. After this year’s campout, I too am devising a plan for next year. Go to Boise or Arkansas the first weekend in May!
The first weekend in May is always the weekend of the Stake Fathers and Sons campout.
It started out when Brett asked me to pick up a pop-up camper at the Fort Hood Outdoor Equipment Check-Out Center for the annual Fathers and Sons Rain Out - I mean Camp Out. (No rain this year - but it was hot so the air conditioning in the trailer will be great!) When I picked up the trailer I should have known that things could only go down hill from there. Seems the campers don't have standard trailer light plug-ins for towing. Nooooo - they have military style plugs. BUT, they have adapters! In fact, they have 3 of them. I was the 4th trailer to be checked out that day. THERE I WAS ... driving down the freeway with a trailer and no lights - avoiding cops to the best of my ability. It was bad enough driving on the freeway - but I had to get off the freeway and stop at the house to get my stuff. No cops - WHEW! Got everything loaded in my van and trailer then I had to drive on surface streets to Heather's and pick up her boys! Well, we made it out to Camp Arrowhead without even seeing one of Killeen's finest.
Brett and I had been coordinating our arrival at Arrowhead (that would be a phone call about every 5 minutes, “Hey Pop, where are you at?” “I’m about to turn onto Rancier” “Hey Pop, where are you at?” “About to turn onto Quarry Road” “Hey Pop, where are you at?” “On the other end of Quarry Road” Hey Pop, where are you at?” “Turning into Arrowhead” “Be careful of the low water crossing. There is water running, but it’s not deep”) When we pulled into the camp, Brett had our spot all ready – right next to the power pole. Scott assured us that there was power at Arrowhead because they had it at Scout Camp years ago, so we pulled into the exact area where the Scouts had camped. We unhitched the trailer and set it up. Neighbor campers watched, looked into the trailer, “air conditioning, huh?” “Yep, we are gonna be comfortable”. Then we connected power to the trailer. Nothing. “Hey you guys” someone’s child said, “you gotta hook up this cord to that outlet by the a/c unit. So we did. Still nothing. “Hey you guys” someone’s child said, “you gotta throw the pole breaker”. So we did. Still nothing. Brett and I decided there must be a main breaker somewhere, so we went to look. We found it near the gate. Turned the breaker on. Went back to the campsite. THERE I WAS … 85 degrees, 100% humidity and no electricity to run the air conditioning. Well, maybe it will cool off before we go to bed.
We got set up and the sons ran off to play in the creek and get soaking wet. They will dry. There were about 150 people at the campout. Brett, as Stake Young Men’s President, was the head honcho of the camp, so he went off to do some coordinatin’. Scott showed up with the Mayo twins around 6:30. Scott is the Ward Young Men’s President and was in charge of the campfire program. Me, I was in charge of cooking the hamburgers. We had to provide our own dinner and the Stake would provide breakfast, which will be discussed later. I started the fire when Scott arrived on site. Shawn McCourt showed up to spend time with us, eat and then had to leave. Our camp is pretty nice. We even had a lightweight aluminum picnic table to use. I set the bar-be-que pit up next to the bench on the picnic table so I could cook while sitting and chatting. Shawn, Scott and I were sitting down. I was sitting on the very end of the bench cooking hamburgers. Then Scott and Shawn got up to go do something. THERE I WAS … 300 pounds of dead weight sitting on the end of a lightweight aluminum picnic table bench arms length from a hot fire! Need I go on? You got it! The bench flew up in the air and I launched forward – nothing between me and the hamburgers. The burgers weren’t the only things that got grilled that evening. Have you ever grilled your fingers? I know I have! I lunged forward! My left hand is in the bar-be-que pit and my fingers are thru the grill. Everyone was in shock. No one knew whether to laugh or cry … well, they laughed and I cried. Shawn grabbed the ice chest and brought it to me and I stuck by hand into the icy water. I do have to say, though, I was professional thru and thru. With my left hand in the icy water, I finished cooking those burgers with my right hand. Fortunately the injuries were minor, but once again a huge blow to my pride!
So now dinner is over and it is getting dark. The breeze is picking up and the humidity has blown away. So we figured if we open all the canvas in the trailer, we well be comfortable. Colby wants to sleep with Grandpa and Uncle Brett in the trailer, while the older boys are sleeping either in the tent, or under the stars. Colby and I went into the trailer and we fixed his sleeping bag on his bed. As I pulled the door closed behind us, a gust of wind caught the door and blew it closed, on my thumb! OUCH! And I was bleeding. ‘Gramp, I have to go potty and those bathrooms are dark”. “Here, Colby, take my flash light and go out by those trees and pee.” While he is gone, I start unzipping the canvas. Now, this is a pop-up trailer and you must extend the beds out so that there is a bed on the left side of the trailer and one on the right. The kitchen table converts to a bed, where Colby would sleep. This is a single axle trailer. The front end of the trailer is stabilized with the foot on the trailer hitch. The rear of the trailer by drop down stabilizing feet. I am going to be sleeping in the front bed. I climb in the bunk and unzip the canvas. Next I unzip the canvas above Colby’s bed and on the opposite side of the trailer. Now for Brett’s side. Brett’s main job while setting up the trailer was to put the stabilizing feet on the back of the trailer down. Have you ever climbed onto the rear bed of a pop-up camper when the stabilizing feet have not been deployed? I know I have! It is like being the heaviest one on a teeter totter. Down I go! The trailer is now at about a 45 degree angle! THERE I WAS … butt up in the air and unable to move! “Help!” I yelled. Brett, Scott, Shawn and Colby came running. Only Colby wasn’t laughing! Brett said all he could think of was the RV rolling into the lake in the movie, RV (we were near the small lake at Arrowhead). All Scott could think of was the trailer rolling into his car, which was parked right behind the trailer. Brett climbed in and pulled me up. BAM! The trailer settled back down. “You really are Tommy Boy”, Brett laughed! “I’m sorry, Pops, I couldn’t figure out how to get the legs down. I should have told you. It could have happened to anyone.” Then he started laughing again.
Finally we all go to bed. The only thing left that could top all of this was for a skunk to wander into the camp. Don’t get ahead of me, it didn’t happen and we all went to sleep.
Fast forward to the next morning. It’s 8 o’clock. Brett comes running into the camp and says “Pops, watch my boys, I have to go check on breakfast.” And he was gone. A half hour later he and a couple of men drive over to the main food area and start unloading donuts, bananas, orange juice and milk. The folks in charge of breakfast forgot all about it. Brett went to Wal-Mart in Belton and purchased every donut in the store – 12 dozen; 150 bananas, and several gallons of orange juice and milk. All the donuts, juice and milk were consumed. Brett and I split the 40 pounds of bananas that didn’t get eaten. Gotta make lots of banana bread!
Brett says he is already planning next year’s campout and is devising a plan to make sure breakfast is served. After this year’s campout, I too am devising a plan for next year. Go to Boise or Arkansas the first weekend in May!
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