I haven't seen much of the ICS myself, too few of volunteers :) We have several working very hard though, many thanks!!
I picked up the nickname today of beerman, so far, we have gone through 22 kegs of beer, and tomorrows concert should be a big event, so a lot of beer will be available!! Saw part of the Texascvavers movie, and what I saw (about 25 mins worth) was awesome, so picked up the DVD and will finish it when I get home. I had to leave the movie to go help setup the Howdy party, which floated 11 kegs in a bit over 3 hours! I did get to check out most of the vendors, lots of very cool stuff available and I wish I had more money to spend, silly budgets. The food is decent at the school, I think it helps that the main cafeteria is all you can eat, it seems busy at every meal. Now, please, if you are in line for beer, please don't spill beer on whoever is serving it to you :) Charles On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 9:01 PM, David<[email protected]> 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: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > >
