Every day above ground is a good day.

Jason came down to hang out for the Christmas holidays and stayed through New Year's before he went on a hash cruise. We all went to the Ground Zero campout hosted by Orlando H3. Kristen came in a little after us since she had to work late, but we were able to have a good time. We brought out the laser machine that she got me for Christmas and a borrowed fog machine from her parents to add a bit to the festivities.

I like to sleep when I go camping, said Tom intently.

This was the weekend of the annual TBH3 campout. Toss and I were the hares for the trail on Saturday. I was able to make last minute arrangements to go through nearby Caliente Resort, which was nice, and had a long, but decent shiggy-filled trail to the Moose Lodge for lunch. We got to see most of our out-of-town friends and the daiquiri machine was churning all weekend with different concoctions that toss kept putting together. the rest of campout was the usual blend of foam pit dancing, live band, hot tub, afternoon olympic games, and plenty of food and beer (12 kegs in all for the weekend). We had originally planned to head to Naples mid-afternoon to look at a potential pet adoption, however after thinking more about it we were unsure if this particular animal would be a good fit. We're keeping an eye out for other potential German Shepherd dogs and have tried to contact the local Tampa German Shepherd Rescue, but haven't heard anything.

If a man is talking in the woods and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?

For the weekend Kristen and I headed to the FL/GA border for a campout with the hashers. This was a new site, but it seemed to be a lot further than I thought and took quite a bit of traveling. We took up the daiquiri machine for its first realy workout and it was quite the hit! The campground was lacking a bit, especially hookups for the kitchen area, but we made do and had a good time seeing some old friends and generally just having a good time.

Hedonist for Hire -- No job too easy

For the 3rd year in a row I attended the Hedon Hash Campout in Atlanta and had a great time. Joining me was Kristen, Kiddie, Mams, Shop Teacher. We met up in Gainesville and headed to Atlanta in Kristen's truck and pulling my tear drop camper. It was a nice full weekend of games, an awesome Saturday trail, and plenty of food and beer. During the skits Saturday night Kristen set up a wonderful surprise for my birthday and a special skit activity that everyone loved, especially me! Kristen and I were even voted the 'King and Queen' of Camp Hedon, which was indeed quite an honor! I had a great time and was glad to see so many old friends and even get to spend some time with Jason and Bonesucker since they came out to enjoy the weekend as well.

Camper For Sale, Driver get 13 MPG loaded

All the shot stops on the starlight hash trail at midnight apparently got to me. I'm still not sure if it was the purple hooters, key lime pie, buttery nipples, beer, rum runners, or one of the other drinks, whose name I cannot recall, was the culprit. Since the teardrop camper kept the heat and noise out quite well, I didn't even stir until about 11 o'clock. Fortunately food was served throughout the day at this event whereas other campouts I would have missed breakfast by a significant margin.

I took it easy for a few hours before trail and took the opportunity to rehydrate with a lot of water and Gatorade. For the trail were were all trucked about seven miles down the road to an area of the Francis Marion National Forest. The trail was excellent as it provide a good experience for the local geography for those that had never been in the area. Having learned my lesson from the Hedon trail, I didn't wear a kilt, but soon realized that shorts were not providing a lot of protection. It wasn't the cuts and scrapes along the way, it was the 27 ticks that I had to pull off me throughout the trail and at the end!

After getting showered up we had circle, dinner, and then spent a while relaxing as it started getting dark. Plenty of songs were sung until the midnight naked hash, though apparently most people seemed to have petered out (no pun intended) from all the running, eating, drinking, and heat. I didn't stay up too long, though did watch several interesting rounds of tippy cup as the referee made a new rule every single round, so it was all entertaining enough.

On Sunday most people seemed to be packing up and heading home relatively early, as seems to be the typical case. Most people were relaxing as well help tidy up the place and wait for the pizza to come in. I found that I became quite popular when I thought to take my beach umbrella out into the pond as I floated around on the floating lounge chair. There was quite a bit of action immediately around me that seemed to center on the shade, not that I was complaining. After getting everything packed, we were among the last of the travelers to depart with only a few locals remaining.

On the way out we stopped by the site of the recent Charleston fire that claimed the lives of nine firefighters. I grew up just over a mile from this site and remember when it was the Piggly-Wiggly grocery store. After I made a quick detour to check out my old homes just down the road, we stopped at the nearby gas station so we could take a look at the makeshift memorials setup along the road.

Quite soon we were on out way back toward Orlando and then on to arrive back in Tampa around two o'clock. It was a long road trip, but along with the companions and sights, it was a lot of fun. I doubt I'll attend next year since it is pretty far in upper North Carolina.

Pictures taken at the campout can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.6h2q22hz&x=1&y=-1yqvwi

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. --Ernest Hemingway

The rest of memorial weekend since showing up has been an absolute blast. The trail Saturday was long and mean. We never saw a shred of pavement or civilization as we made our way through literally miles of forest, swamps, and creek crossings. There were many times we were thigh deep in mud and water, and it was great. I do not recommend, however that one do it in a kilt, as I thought might be easier in the heat. Yes, things remain cooler, however the leg shredding one gets in return is not quite so fun. Saturday night were the annual skits where everyone pulled up chairs to the stage and preformed some self written piece of comedy or drama. If you have never been to such event, I cannot really easily describe it herein, just to say most stuff was damn funny, if not entertaining. Thanks for the Mammaries won the evening with her 'Fly the Friendly Thighs Airlines' in-flight service.

Sunday was a day of rest recover and games. For a while a group of us played camp chair bocce ball throughout the camp. No matter where the jack was thrown, we had to play it wither it be through tents, in-play volleyball games, or various gatherings of people. Later in the afternoon there were games of izzy-dizzy (which I am too much of a wimp to play but will gladly watch), frisbee keg, etc. Overall it was a very relaxing weekend made better by friends just wanting to hang out and chill for a while.

A link of some of the pictures I took can be found here, though a lot had to be edited to protect the guilty, but it give you an overall idea of the fun you missed.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.bjngzj7r&x=0&y=iqc2ey

Before I left my friend Kristin had her friends bring her to Hedon so she could catch a ride home. Since flights were pretty booked and expensive, she flew up to be with her friends for the weekend and asked to ride back with me. I'm not sure if she counted on the long drive, a couple of stops, and listening to my audio books, but that is the way things go sometime. When I was first heading north, I tried to stop by one of the NPS parks in Macon, however I arrived just after 5 o'clock, so I made sure to leave Hedon early enough so I could make it. the last stamp collection for this trip was the Ocmulgee National Monument. This was the site of several old Indian mounds. The visitor center looked to be pretty old, but there were of course exhibits that shared a bit of the history of the area. We had about an hour or so to walk around and covered just about a mile and a half of the park.

I've attached an overlay of the walking track along with some pictures that I would like to have tested, so let me know if it works. http://mblitch.googlepages.com/ocmulgeeoverlay.kmz

Florida natives think the Artic Circle begins somewhere near Atlanta.

I got up relatively early this morning and headed to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield that is the site of a Civil War battlefield. Besides collecting another stamp for the passport I have a general interest in the Civil War, though not quite as much as WWII however. In the visitor center there was a nice museum of the area along with some exhibits, including one that had been set up to display old uniforms and memorabilia of locals that had been involved in various wars. There some nice hiking trails around, however I elected to take a leisurely drive to the parking area since I didn't want to do another mile hike up the mountain since I need my energy for the upcoming weekend. There were several cannon replicas through the top trail as well as interperative signs along the trails with some nice views of the distant Atlanta skyline.

Here is a second attempt at a Google Earth overlay of my hike along with pictures at various points, so again let me know how it looks. http://mblitch.googlepages.com/Kennsawhike.kmz

After finishing up the battlefield site, I decided to head over to the last of my available NPS (National Park Service) passport sites, the Martin Luther King. Jr National Historic Site. This was near the heart of Atlanta at a location near where the civil rights leader was born, grew up, and is now buried. The visitor center is a nice area that held a lot of exhibits concerning the timeline of the civil rights movement both in the south as well as abroad. Besides the stamp in the visitor center, there was also one to be found across the street a a NPS run restored firehouse. Although a tour was starting, I didn't have time to hang around and took for for the main event of the trip, the Hedon Memorial Weekend Campout.

I got in just as Jason was giving me a call, the impatient lout, so the timing seemed to have worked out fairly well. I spent the next few hours trying to organize things and assist others in getting their tents and such set up. People were filtering in throughout the afternoon and it was nice to see some old faces and even make new acquaintances. Quickly it seemed that the place was building up from a quiet private residence to party central. Everyone had their places pretty pimped out out and customized with screened enclosures, kiddie pools, signed, hanging lanterns, and various other objects getting tossed around.

Over 150 people had signed up for the weekend and with good weather predicted, it certainly looked to be a good weekend.

C:\WINDOWS C:\WINDOWS\RUN C:\WINDOWS\RUN\AMUCK

This was the weekend of the Run-A-Muck campout in Orlando. Except for the Tampa Campout in December, this is the largest hash camping event in Florida. We had probably 130-140 hanging out throughout the weekend. For the first time, I decided not to take the big camper and to just use the teardrop and I found it is much easier now. There is very little set-up time where as it would previously take more than an hour to put up or take down the hybrid camper sides, awning, stabilizers, outdoor carpet, tables, etc. The weekend was a typical campout with lits of great stories, little adventures, and a good trail. Friday evening was spent hanging out with fun folks playing tippy cup, 3-man, or just generally chatting. Saturday had a great trail with almost no roadway or flat running, though I misjudged where I thought the trail might go and added another mile when I had to backtrack and find the group. The second portion was the best with the trail following several nature boardwalks, fields, and wooded areas. Saturday night we had a band play with some people dancing, however most of us decided to play games or go sit by the fire and sing our own songs with Limp D playing the guitar, and myself providing some backup vocals. Someone brought an electric car that was used for constant joy riding throughout the weekend with only a single tent fatality. On Sunday Wayyy brought over his firetruck, so we piled on and were riding around the back streets and had a great time enjoying the bright, but cool weather.

Though some people went on a pub crawl after the campout, I headed off to Orlando to meet a friend at the Gaylord Palms Resort. They were attending a national conference for the week and the main guest speaker was Vice President Al Gore, so I thought it would be neat to attend. I got there just before the speech started and though it was quite long, I thought it was interesting and informative enough. There was mostly rhetoric about global warming and environmental concerns (glacier melting, green house emissions, auto fuel efficiency, etc). Surprisingly there were only a few joking jabs at the current administration, but I did find myself comparing speaking styles comparative to the current President (who used to be quite eloquent in the old days yet very different now).

Pictures of the weekend campout can be found here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.37jeont3&x=0&y=w7ikq2