The Terrible Catsafterme

It’s always great to get down to Woodland Altars in Peebles, Ohio. It was here that I attended a weeklong church camp for ten years straight – every year from the Summer after third grade to the Summer after my senior year. Time has virtually stood still at much of the camp. Both lodges that I stayed in are still intact and virtually unchanged. The hogans where I spent my four high shool years are still there. And even tent ridge where I would spend one night each week of my lodge camp days are all still present and accounted for. The swimming pool is the same old pool - but with the addition of a tube water slide and the deletion of the high dive. Being there is standing right smack in the middle of Memory Lane.

We left on Saturday early afternoon on June 9 with two carloads of people and things. Denise, Christi, and I had gone shopping and filled up our cart with goodies for the trip. We had a rather unusual assortment of people making the journey: Mom, Bob, Ashleigh, Derek, Denise, Adam, Christi, Creed, and me. The trip commenced about 12:30 and was to end about 3:30 on Sunday, the following day, when Ashleigh was to begin her weeklong adventure at Youth camp. After travel time, this meant that we had roughly 24 hours to spend and extricate as much fun from as possible. It also meant that we had to fill the cars to the ceiling with enough food, clothing, bedding, toys, games, alcohol, firewood, and fishing poles to last us for three weeks. And that we did.

Bob and his trademark jingling ice cup minutes before we turned around to head back home to get the shoes that are under his seat

Shiny orange Christi

Creed yuks it up while Yaht sleeps on Derek

Denise was driving her car separately along with Mom and Adam, and the rest of us rode along in Mom’s van, motored by Bob. After getting off to one false start to return to get Bob’s tennis shoes (which ended up being under the car seat – but it worked out as we were able to grab the fishin’ poles and Christi and Creed’s gym shoes), we were off.

Adam is fed immediately upon arrival at the chalet

Upon our arrival at chalet #5, Mom and Denise were already there to greet us – as was my friend Darin, who had flown in from Washington D.C. to hook up with me. After unloading the car, there was scarcely time to rest. We had 24 hours to drink in Woodland Altars’ wholesomey-goodness and we had to get crackin’. The first order of business was to hit the swimming pool. I enjoyed the water slide that I had never used before. It was also fun to re-visit the medium-high dive. I had learned to dive the high-dive years before at Woodland Altars and these medium-high dive had served as my stepping stone. I hadn’t dived in many years so my attempts were on the clumsy side. It was also good to catch up with Darin while we passed frisbee around the pool with Ashleigh and Derek.

Ashleigh, Christi, and Derek soak up the rays – some more than others

Darin is saved by a flotation device

Adam momentarily tolerates the water

Distraught at the crummy dives

Darin recreates the famous “Denebby Frisbee Pose“

Bob: deeper than we think

Some of our crew abandoned the pool to go fishing on the lake, an activity I generally do not have the patience for. Bob, Ashleigh, Derek, and Creed all had a good time. Creed was even able to assist Bob in reeling one in. Christi, Darin, and I hiked around the pond to the Sugar Grove Lodge, the location where we had spent our two years at camp together. It was occupied by a visiting ministry group who graciously let us in to look around and reminisce. After we left there, we stopped by the old log cabin. Since the door was locked, we were forced to climb in the window to explore. I tried to capture an incriminating photo of Darin climbing out the window but my camera battery died at that exact moment.

The fishers

Bob explains fishing to Creed

The great log cabin break-in

By that time we were all ready to be loaded into the van to return to our chalet for dinner. Mom had made two lasagnas, a salad, and a cake. It all hit the spot rather nicely, complemented by Darin’s Doritos and my special ‘chili, chips, and cheese’ snack and a nice, refreshing Powerade.

It was not time to relax yet. We had only been there a few hours and I was already dreading packing up to go home. We still had worlds to conquer at Woodland Altars before the sun went down…and after.

To be continued…

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 6:31 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.