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Tohikon Campout Nov 4-6


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TheBlueMax

Sun Nov 06 2011, 02:10PM

Registered Member #189

Joined: Fri Aug 13 2010, 02:52PM
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 201

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A great weekend. Great to see so many Moonies out! 40 photos, so I have a link to the kodak gallery where you can view the slideshow. Great shots of Joe and Bobby Mac on the water.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=860726084311%3A430636401&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-shareCopyLink-_-Sharer-_-Top

Wrap up as far as travelling home: due to NY Marathon, we had to travel out of our way to take a different bridge home. While the ride took us an extra hour (due to the slow, scenic route along the Delaware we chose from Oatmeal's recommendation), we surprisingly hit no traffic.

[ Edited Sun Nov 06 2011, 02:13PM ]

oatmeal

Sun Nov 06 2011, 03:43PM

Registered Member #278

Joined: Fri Aug 20 2010, 05:58AM
Location: colmar, pa.
Posts: 292

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I got told that it was time to go back to work. It wasn’t that bad, but when you are standing on the flood plain of any river, words and considerations carry extra weight. Of course, when you are surrounded by tons and tons of loose rocks, conflict resolution becomes nothing more than a perfunctory exercise. Such was the case this past weekend at busses on the toe, more affectionately known as BFR I. Once again the events coordinator arrived on-time, sized up the situation accurately and scored the best waterfront accommodations’ available. When you are parking in a desolate boulder field that is best described as a life-size mockup of mars minus the red paint, you can see where I’m goin’ with this. Just remember, you asked for it.
After arriving fashionably late on the flood plain at dusk, it was time to get down to brass tacks. And seeing that there were no goofballs present, I managed to sneak the church bus into the campsite and get settled in for the inevitable long night ahead. Anytime you go back to the place where grown men have made crotchless flannel pants by humping virgin firewood in burning fire pits, you need to pay attention. This ain’t for the timid. This year’s site was located on the fringe of the microwave oven-sized boulder field; and I’ll tell you something, every bus made it out. That’s a win, ‘cuse the rocks were all loose; walking at this campout is a major undertaking. No one fell in the fire, but I digress, we’ll return to that later. The gentle art of writing a trip report is a lot like documenting a crime scene, the danger is that you can become callous in your description of all that is good. Trust me. I guess I am very lucky in this respect; the people I camp with have all been very generous to me.
To start with, I think that there was a potluck and I’m pretty sure that I ate dinner soon after arriving. As the night progressed, upgrades and adjustments to the fire circle, the fire pit, and seating arrangements were an ongoing concern. Mind you that this was an attempt to prevent that always entertaining, never disappointing fire safety demonstration, but I digress, we are getting ahead of ourselves again. At some point, one of the neighboring water rat clubs lit off their first Japanese lantern, it rose 100 ft. and then hindenburged itself in an unpretentious display of self-immolation. After consulting with an informal panel of judges and interested persons, it was agreed upon that they be given C-minus. It was at this point that the moonies lit off three lanterns in rapid-fire succession. The tribes around this voiced their approval of this event so loudly, that the red-necks township away set off what can only be described as an ammo dump of fireworks. This in-turn caused migrating flocks of Canadian geese to make a course alteration to the south of us. I got to practice my hailing calls in an effort to help them maintain the continuity of their trip. And if you think it’s easy to carry on a conversation with everyone while making goose calls, you’d be right. I got a D in psych 101, but after I postulated the para-psychotic of the norm as a counter-point to the psychology of the average, I never bothered to look back. And when everybody is staggering around in a boulder field, well you can see where we were at.
To be sure this was the most real estate we have ever had at any campout, the next door ravers were nice enough to leave their radio and headlights in their srx on, which meant that the bathroom moved both south and east. I’m told that there is video and that it will be set to music. We all did our best. After the ammo dump blew its load, we began receiving visitors from other council fires in the area. As is custom, visitors are welcome, provided they are well behaved. This was tested when a dude named [scary-steve] showed up fireside with a staggering kid who actually knew of colmar. After repeatedly asking them where it was that were seeing all the hippie busses, it was clear that they were way ahead of us. [kid colmar] repeatedly lurched toward the fire pit and introduced himself to each of us in order four times in a row. It was precisely at this point that I was forgiven for many of my past transgressions, I actually looked normal for a brief moment. But like I said, we were in the middle of a boulder field, there were BFRs everywhere. It was precisely at this moment that three of us realized we had put captain midnight to bed. Once the music stopped, [scary-steve] followed [kid colmar] back to colmar. It was like we were at the zoo, or the circus, because both of those clowns almost fell in the fire. That’s when the firewood started loading itself on the fire. Every time the subject of crashing for the night came up, more wood went in the fire. The coolest thing was that I moved a rock away from the fire at some point and it was glowing dull orange, but it did not explode. Thanks for the memories and the rocks.
Sunday arrived and as usual, nobody wanted to leave. The big problem was getting every bus out safely. Once again, in true moonie fashion, pilots and navigators worked as a team to free the beasts from the death-like grip of the boulder field. Everyone made it out without incident or damage. Transporter owners showed the buskateers how we do it in the hood. Who says drivin’ a transporter ain’t fun? Finally it was time to put the fire out and say goodbye for now. Last year, we dumped 25 gallons of water on it and it boiled itself dry. This year, we used one gallon of spring water, one quarter pot of cold coffee and four-plus gallons of potable water and we put it out. Hope all of your runs are as fun and memorable as this. Oh yeah, I just want to thank the Pleasantville fire company for charging me 5 bucks to leave, it made all worthwhile. I’m still scratching my head on that one. I witnessed a similar situation on the way to the beach; we thought it was an accident when it only turned out to be a roadside shakedown by the eastern shores fire company in the northbound lanes. People don’t do anything simply for the love of it anymore. At least they had change for a twenty.

See you on the road.

'02 ev mv

past busses:
'73, '85, '93, and '93

Kenny

Sun Nov 06 2011, 05:27PM

Registered Member #147

Joined: Thu Aug 12 2010, 06:58AM
Location: Fleetwood, PA
Posts: 232

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https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2434488353556.2129064.1592105854&type=1&l=fcf53c1e10 Hope this link works. I hate uploading photos to this site since they all have to be resized.

What can I say....after camping at the Toh for probably 7 releases, I finally manned my own ship down the Class III+ waters. Dragging my boat out to a nice afternoon fire was the best and I had the rest of the day to hang with the gang. As usual, the weather was gorgeous...sunny and warm. Nothing like baking under the warm sun, watching the sky full of swirling buzzards. I didn't get to partake in the field trips, but fun was had by all and apparently Ed had a good take from the flea markets! I believe the spring release is usually the 3rd weekend in March...so save the date on your calendars! http://youtu.be/hrnQ_gNSETM Only video I took on the river...we were on shore scouting this hot mess....I and another opted to drag our boats through the woods. Turns out, it was a good call.

[ Edited Sun Nov 06 2011, 05:56PM ]

Fred

Mon Nov 07 2011, 05:25AM

Registered Member #97

Joined: Wed Aug 11 2010, 10:50AM
Location: Virginia Beach
Posts: 1892

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Great photos! Kinda wish I went but the distance, temperature and 50 mph winds on the 13 bridge tunnel kept tme back.
Those 'lil kayaks are cute, they are really stubby, not like the ones Ive been looking at.

Had too many vans to count
The best Bus tech site : www.ratwell.com

Vetterdog

Mon Nov 07 2011, 06:38AM

Registered Member #221

Joined: Sun Aug 15 2010, 04:02PM
Location: Central Jersey
Posts: 891

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Good time on the lunar landscape as usual. There was much hearty laughter around the fire and no one got hurt/burned. While I may have ceded the Captain Latenight title on Saturday, I can still hold my head up high knowing that nobody cooked more bacon than I. And after all is said and done, isn't that what it's all about?

DFV

Angela

Mon Nov 07 2011, 12:36PM

Registered Member #118

Joined: Wed Aug 11 2010, 04:15PM
Location: Cheltenham, PA
Posts: 214

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Right on, Dave! That bacon was awesome, glad you cooked it!
Joe and I had a great time as usual, it's nice to get away without the kids sometimes.

Angela
Joe, Damian and Sadie
Cheltenham, PA
1990 Multivan ~ Marsha


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