Dave's DOG Blog

Thursday

8AM Breakfast was a little better this morning, or at least that was the general impression from the table. Christine from DAN drove up from Raleigh and met us at the restaurant. As we got set up for the Public Safety Event, we were quite pleasantly surprised at the number of divers and dive teams that arrived. Of course knowing this sort of thing in advance would have been helpful, and avoided the last minute scrambling around to make sure everyone is fed. I made the 28-mile drive to pick up the lunch, and missing extras we were not able to fit into the rented Chrysler Pacifica, while Faith handled the PSD Contaminated Water lectures. Apparently my return was just in time to catch the last moments of the presentation and prepare the lunch “buffet”.

Multiple dives were the order of the day, as several of the teams used the day to network and train. In the interim, we were kept quite busy preparing for the huge weekend looming ahead, which include moving and breaking rock with a sledgehammer, securing several tent stakes…again…with the jackhammer, and routing power cables for the Saturday evening dinner. Of course, the first rain since June sprinkled down on us, and threatens to arrive in force at 1AM Saturday morning. So, we battened down the hatches, and headed off for a shower and continued our search of decent food. Joe from Optiquatics managed to catch us at the local Italian place a few miles up the road. Apres dinner it is evident that the search continues. <g>

Saturday

Racing out of the Nottoway Restaurant a few minutes late for our anticipated arrival at the lake, the crew was ready for action. All indications pointed to a busy day of demo diving, but luckily the familiar faces of many veteran Demo Day Crew members eased my nerves a bit.

Tim from Lynnhaven came through yet again this year, deftly handling the tiny charcoal grill to get things rolling at lunch. Of course, once the giant “Event Grill” arrived with the rest of the crew from Lynnhaven, we switched over to keep up with the demand. Over the day we served up just shy of 300 “meat units, 15 gallons of lemonade, and 12 gallons of Sweet Diversitea.

The Cinnamon Café served up quite the feast of BBQ ribs, Fried Chicken and all the usual trimmings. Following everything up with Velvet cake and Faith and Joe (Optiquatics) hosting a presentation of fantastic photos of DUI dive locations and Optiquatics/DOG trips. Winning the prize for furthest traveled to attend a Demo Day were a trio of divers from Ohio! I spent the remainder of the evening making the 3rd run to the store to reload for a busy Sunday. Surprisingly, Walmart had not restocked the burger selection that we wiped out on Thursday. Hot dogs however, were abundant. I rolled out of the store with 2 fully loaded grocery carts, and managed to squeeze 60lbs of ice into the bottom racks.

Sunday

After how many years now, you’d think that the Nottoway Restaurant would remember our rather unique AM time constraints and us. We, and the crew at our huge table, did our best to make our waitress aware of our urgency, but to no avail. So, Marvin, our event Beachmaster used his influence with the restaurant staff, and jumped up to serve coffee…both decaf and regular, thus hastening our eventual (late) departure. Getting into the spirit, Al Morris jumped in and began helping Marvin, serving coffee to other tables, who also happened to be divers bound for Demo Days.

The late arrival means that we had to do some jockeying for a parking position for the DOG Truck. Unloading took only a few moments, and with an experienced and eager crew, things were set up rapidly. Tim had the giant BBQ (from Lynnhaven Dive Center) cranking by 11AM, with hungry divers close behind. Food supplies dwindled quickly as we had several more people to feed than we’d expected. Tim brought out the ribs that remained from Saturday evening, and everyone was amazed that they tasted even better than the night before!

Breakdown moved along quickly, wrapping up by 4:30PM…a record to be sure! Mike Paquette was slatted to drive the DOG Truck down to Florida for the next Demo Day, so I spent a few minutes going over the basics of getting around, and hopefully keeping him out of trouble.

We followed Christine (DAN) down several back roads into Raleigh, shaving about 30 minutes off of our trek back into town. After a quick dinner (why Joe ordered a cheeseburger I’ll never know – that’s all we ate all weekend) and directions to DAN headquarters for our early morning meeting, we retired to the hotel and a much needed shower. Of course with so many days and no wifi, the email situation was horrendous. Joe and I hammered away at our individual email mountains, while switching between the Republican debate and the Iron Chef on the Food Network. Where the secret ingredient was “HALIBUT!”

Monday

Given the fires consuming most of southern California, my roommate at the fabulous Raleigh Airport La Quinta Inn had managed to secure an early flight home to do what he could. Joe was up at 4AM and rolling for the airport at 4:30AM. I managed to get a few more winks (strangely imagining Joe saving Suzanne Sommers’ beach house…don’t ask…just go with it) and jump online to polish off a few more messages. Even though the events are on the weekend, we leave about 3 days before, so we can travel, shop and set up. So, quite often, I end up responding to messages that I can’t really do much about, since we’ve already finalized the paperwork and coupons etc. Although it is always good to get the anticipated attendance numbers, so we don’t end up buying food etc. based on the Wild Ass Guess (WAG) method.

9AM DAN was expecting us, and we were greeted with nametags and some smiling (yet similarly Demo Day wearied) faces. We officially got the royal treatment, with a few quick visits as we made our way up to the conference room. Pretty nice digs at DAN. At DUI I lovingly refer to the sidewalk area under the tree at the front door as “the conference room”. We made some great strides at the meeting, and confirmed that the driving force at DAN matches that of DUI in our devotion to safety, thinking “big picture” and the individual diver.

Scott managed to set up a quick tour of the chamber facilities for Faith and myself. I’ve seen a lot of chambers in my time, but wow…that’s a serious operation. I learned quite a bit about the details that I’d always over-looked. If you ever have the opportunity, I’d recommend a visit.

Packed flights on the way home as usual, with the required getting stuck in ATL for {insert airline industry reason}. The delay gave us the opportunity to view the wildfires after dark from 10,000 feet as we rounded the SAN localizer. We could actually smell the smoke in the plane, as we gazed down on the flames glaring back in the darkness. The rippling ribbon of fire resembled the ruffled edge of a Flamenco dancer’s skirt, as the flames leapt and danced across the mountains and canyons as far as I could see. It was truly frightening.

8PM On the ground once again, and bound for the grocery store to stock up on evacuation supplies…just in case.

All told, it was a super successful weekend, completely due to our steadfast DOG Crew, who made sure that everything ran smoothly. We stayed so busy up in the tents and at the water, that I’m quite sure I didn’t get the chance to personally thank everyone. I was lucky enough to hear many excited stories from first time dry divers, who by all accounts had a phenomenal weekend learning from you, the Rawlings DOG Crew. My heartfelt thanks to each of you! See you next year!!