This is a personal road-trip story, and only briefly mentions the TSA
Convention.
Much of the story is irrelevant, but I am posting it anyways.
I attended my first TSA Spring Convention in 1985, at Inner Space
Caverns. That
was my introduction to the TSA. Since then, I have attended
several conventions,
but in the past 15 years or so, have only showed up for the dinner.
Each year as I leave,
I tell myself, next year I am going to arrive early on Friday, but it
never happens.
I had been contemplating all week whether or not I was going to attend
this TSA Spring Convention. Of course, I wanted to be there. But
often times,
my wants do not match the reality of my needs.
As the week progressed, it became pretty clear that I was going to have
several personal issues that would keep me in Fort Bend County until
Saturday morning.
I woke up Saturday morning too tired to make the drive. I started
procrastinating.
My wife was hollering at me about various financial things and things
on the honey-do
list that have been there for months, if not years. My wonderful 5 year old
daughter, Cavepearl, was screaming, "I ain't going!!!" I could not
imagine spending
4 plus hours couped up with them on the road, and another 4 plus, coming back.
I took a look at the 2 cars that I had
to choose from. I could save a few dollars in gas by taking the
efficient Honda Fit,
but that would require us to spend $ on a hotel, if we decided to stay the
night. So I chose the mini-van, which turned out to be the right choice.
The worry there, were some bald tires, and a transmission slipping occasionally,
and headlights that don't work, and no right turn signal. Meaning, I was not
very confident the mini-van could handle the road trip.
So I begin to pack the mini-van, while my wife laid on the sofa,
huffing and puffing
with steam coming out of her ears, not lifting a finger to help pack,
and only add to
the stress.
Once I got the car loaded, and got them in the car, that is when I
made the final
decision to drive to Cedar Park, and to try to get there in time for the dinner.
We pulled out of the driveway, and I knew I was forgetting something.
I stopped
the mini-van, and thought about all the things I could have forgot,
but all my mental
energy ( what little I have left ), was focused on material things
like gear for an
overnighter, in the event that we decided to sleep in the mini-van.
Unfortunately, I could not remember what I forgot and drove off.
What I forgot, was an important fax that I had promised to send my customer.
[ Sunday on the way home, the customer called me just as I was about to change
lanes leaving Austin, hollering at me over the phone, that they were
never ever going
to hire me again. Which means they are going to post on their
secret list-serve to
all my other customers and potential customers to never
hire me. This caused me to miss my exit and I had to back-track,
and eventually
ended up on the tollway on the east side of Austin heading north. ]
But back to Saturday,
It was nearly 3 pm, when we got out of the Houston area ( Katy ).
Then onto I-10 heading towards
Columbus, up Hwy 71 to LaGrange. We stopped at a popular roadside park near
Smithville for a pit-stop. They were both whining and complaining,
"Are we there yet,
this road-trip is stupid!!" Fortunately, my daughter has a portable
DVD player.
We eventually got to Cedar Park city limits, but we had to pull off
the road and collect our
senses, before continuing on the last 2 miles.
We arrived at the TCC Headquarters around 5:30 p.m., and were
immediately greeted
by the chief registrant, Mr. Lyndon Tiu, and plopped down $ 40 for the
entry fee. [ Personally,
that seems a little steep, but I know it goes to a great cause. ]
We parked our van, near the entry area of the campspots, and put on
our wrist tags.
We started to greet people and everybody gave us a warm welcome. My
daughter eventually
found a kid to play with - the youngest daughter of Marvin & Lisa
Miller, so that was
a big plus. A few people recognized my wife, and made her feel
welcome. She hasn't been
to a caving event in a while, so she did not remember too many people.
[ We missed all the programs, caving trips, and socializing prior to
the dinner, and the opportunity
to camp on Friday night. I regret that, but I just couldn't get
there any sooner. ]
I didn't get a chance to look at the vendors, and only skimmed a view
of the tables
as I quickly walked by.
The food was fabulous. The frito pie chili chipotle dish was
awesome. Unfortunately, I didn't
get to go back for 2nds, because we had all ate a late breakfast and
lunch. My daughter hardly
touched her food, and then shortly before bedtime said, "Daddy, I am
hungry." Fortunately, we
had some snacks and juices in the car.
The evening program started, and it became obvious that the lovely
Miss Ellie Watson, had done a wonderful
job organizing this event. I was impressed. It appears what
this event needed all along was a charismatic,
enthusiastic young caver to liven up the place.
The auction soon started, and the fabulous auctioneer, Mr. Jim
Kennedy, put on a 1st class professional
show to entertain us all. Unfortunately, he could not see the
audience because they were all in the dark
and he had bright lights shining in his face. This made it
impossible for him to egg on the bidders by name.
miraculously, he displayed a sixth sense of being able to distinguish
pitches in peoples voices and was able
to identify the 100 plus people in the dark, like a mother bat in a
cave finding it's young.
His lovely assistants, Mrs. Ann Scott, and Ms. Saj Zappitello, used
their natural given talents to help boost
the sales, and because of that the caver's raised over 3 grand for
preservation purposes.
Mr. Fritz Holt, threw in some interesting artifacts from his childhood
days farming cotton during the Great Depression.
( He alleges he bought the stuff at flea markets, but we all know he
was just being modest ). Just kidding!
Fritz helped raise lots of money for the auction with his gifts.
I bid on one item that I wanted. It was an antique Mammoth Cave
porcelain souvenir plate donated by
Jocelyn Hooper. It featured some artwork of a tour boat on Echo
River. Some other lucky person out bid me
at around $ 75 or so.
It is worthy noting for historical purposes, that Mr. Jerry Atkinson
bid $ 300 or so, on Orion Knox's print of the map
of Grutas de Bustamante. I will let someone correct me on that.
I stayed up as late as I could listening to cavers tell stories of the
underground. It has been so long since I have
be to those kind of places, that I feel like Alice in Wonderland
stepping into the rabbit hole. The past just all
seems like a blurry memory of dream - events, places and times, just
are all mixed up. I only see most of you
once or twice a year, so it is kind of embarrassing when I call
someone I have known for 20 plus years by someone
else's name. I did not get to socialize as much as I wanted, and
only got to say hello to most of the people there.
I met 3 or 4 people from the Houston area that I had never seen before
and don't know if they were recent attendees
to GHG or not. Robbie ? And a couple whose name escapes my memory
at the moment. There was a good turnout
from the Houston area. But there were quite a few that did not come.
The record attendance is good news. But I would like to point out,
that most of the attendees had grey hair. I did
not see many young college kids, if any. I didn't personally see
any Aggies or Galveston cavers. I also noticed
several hill country cavers that I have seen over the years that were
not present. Dave McClung came all the way
from Monroe, Louisiana to socialize and operate the blender. And
several cavers made the long drive from Midland,
and Dallas.
I skipped the hot tub activities this year, but it sounded like 20 or
more people were having a great time till 3 or so
in the morning. So the hot tub crew's hard work must have paid off.
The weather could not have been better for this event. The
temperature was perfect for being in a sleeping bag.
I had had way too much caffeine in the evening, so I did not sleep
well. It seemed like I fell asleep
just as the sun was coming up. I slept past just about everything.
I walked the TCC campground with my
family, and said goodbyes to people. We toured the TCC
Headquarters. ( I have never been to Cedar Park before )
My daughter rode her bicycle a little bit on the TCC road, and was the
1st time she had ever ridden off-road.
I think my wife and daughter saw more of the TSA Convention than I
did. This is probably the closest thing we have
done to camping in the last 5 years, and was the 1st time the 3 of us
had slept in my wife's mini-van.
We pulled out of the TCC property, around 1 pm. on Sunday. There
were still 20 cavers there, and the hot-tub demo
crew was finishing up the hard job of packing it all up.
I would like to thank Mr. Mike Walsh and the TCC staff for their
hospitality, and all the hard work they have done over
the years to get control of the TCC Headquarters and property. It
appears to me to be a promising venture, and I would
invest in their cause if I had extra spending money.
Just as we were heading south on Lakeline Road, my wife suddenly
springs the news on me that one of her best friends lives in Cedar
Park,
and that this friend was the only of her friends that attended our
civil court wedding ceremony. We eventually found
her living in a really nice home off of Anderson Mill Road and Dyes
Ranch Road. They visited briefly, and then we
headed home via the 290 route. But this set us behind schedule about 2 hours.
We stopped off in Burton on the other side of Giddings, so I could
explain to my wife what I am doing to organize the
East Texas Caver's Cookout. She has not exactly been thrilled about
this idea. She toured the main area of the
campground and really liked it. My daughter thought is was awesome.
So that is good news.
It was 72 miles from the east side of Austin ( Hwy 290 and the tollway
) to the entrance of the campground.
An hour later,
We stopped off in the town of Cypress to visit my mom and step-father,
who had just moved into a new smaller home this
week. We visited them briefly. I will be helping them in the
next few weeks in my spare time to finish moving, unpacking,
and to get their old house cleaned up as it is on the market:
http://search.har.com/engine/doSearch.cfm?QUICKSEARCH=12610%20Campsite%20Trail%20Cypress%20TX&Class=1
We pulled into our driveway around 11 pm. and then my wife said,
"Honey, I will be carrying people in my mini-van
in the morning, so you will need to empty everything out and put the
seats back in, and I am going to bed."
I am sure I left something out.
The End
David Locklear
caver in Fort Bend County
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