Dave's DOG Blog

Thursday

So set-up day usually starts pretty early, so we can get everything ready (or at least as ready as possible) and then handle the rest of the normal duties afterwards. The plan went awry within minutes of arriving at the DOG Truck…dead battery. It seems the running lights were left on, rendering the truck a 26,000 lb paper weight (that smells vaguely of diesel and musty pond water). Jumpstarting the huge truck batteries with a car just wouldn’t happen, so we made a dash over to the local auto parts store to buy a battery charger. After 30 minutes on charge, we were back in action an hour and a half late.

I wish driving in the tent stakes was as easy at each of our locations. As Bryce (Extreme Exposure) and I hoisted the jackhammer onto each tent stake, the weight of the hammer sank the stake into the ground! The crew from Diver’s Den arrived just as we raised the 1st tent, and quickly jumped in to erect the 2nd tent and lend a hand with turning and waxing drysuits. Rusty and I slipped out to trailer over the giganto-grill we’d need to keep people fed throughout the weekend. Basically, it’s the size of a small boat, and about twice as heavy. Knowing we have Brian and Judy at the event, all concerns over my lack of cooking skills were gone. With a proven track record they were the best bet for delivering properly cooked and plentiful BBQ. Chef Boyardee and I are tight, and I’ve recently perfected my recipes for toast and ice. Who’s best to cook? You make the call. <sigh>

Since it is so late in the BBQ season, I called the local Walmart to pre-order all of the “meat units” we’d need. 300 hamburgers and 200 hot dogs were to be ready for pick up upon our arrival. Things didn’t go as planned…imagine that! Apparently, someone walked into the “meat” section and requested 210 burgers. The Walmart staff figured this person was me, and gave them most of the stuff I had pre-ordered a month in advance. When I arrived to pick everything up, it was half gone! So, some quick alterations to the plan, and hoping that we didn’t run out of food early, and we were on the way to checkout. The really funny part was the call from the manager a few hours later, asking me why I hadn’t yet been in to pick up the food order! <sigh> You gave half my order away, then I figured out how to get what I needed (taking my full order) and then you call to ask why I didn’t come in???? Whaaaat? I just hope we don’t have to find more burgers and dogs in this town, since we’d just seen 1 ½ times the normal quantity leave the Walmart today.

As the darkness descended (along with the temperature) we joined the Diver’s Den crew at their campsite for a fire-side dinner of Rusty’s Fried Chicken and all the trimmings. We talked diving within the heat plume of the campfire; kept blazing by Chris, who to my amazement had also discovered some rather interesting “energy drinks”, and managed to stay un-scorched at the same time.