Chapter 25 - Houseparty 2011
We had our unofficial end of the year lifeguard campout on October 7, 8, 9, at the old Jim Hollis River Rendevous, now called the Suwanee River Rendevous, at Convict Springs, near Mayo, Florida.
A hardy group came early on Friday evening and set the tone for a fun weekend. Yves Messines and Sean Duffy gave multiple cliff diving demonstrations, and there was some moonlight kayaking on the river.
More troops arrived on Saturday morning and the party got into full swing. After some more eating and drinking, around noon we were trucked up river (1 mile?) and put our canoes in. No one told us which way to paddle, and as there was a stiff wind blowing, some of us weren't sure which way was downstream (really!). We paddled effortlessly (except for Tocco, Marson, and Neville the younger, who went a little slower. They had managed to launch their canoe facing backward, and Tocco did most of the paddling.) upstream for a mile to the abandoned bridge pedestal in the middle of the Suwanee. Josh Cato (If you're not going to eat those, can I have them?), who had his own one man kayak, ran circles around the rest of the group in canoes, when he wasn't charging/ramming into them (No, Josh, you can't have the rest of ours). Then some of us paddled and drifted the 2 miles back to the River Rendevous boat and canoe ramp. Some of us dawdled about on the river until about, oh 5:30 or so.
The early birds retired to the Rendevous restaurant and enjoyed (?) watching UF and FSU lose on big screen tv, and chowing down on Granma Susie's delicious vittles.
Some of us had guards on Sunday and departed Saturday evening in a light rain. It rained off and on all weekend, it was a little scary on the river, but it didn't rain too long out there.
The rest of the crew stirred Sunday morning, cleaned up the campsite, said our good-byes, and congratulated ourselves on another successful camp out.
Members attending included: Pat Neville, Jerry Pilcher, David Stearns, Eric Bohn, Taylor Anderson, Demian Harris, Yves Messines, Josh Middleton, Josh Cato, Sean Duffy, Jason Wilderotter, Andy Price, Allen Perry, Tim Hall, and Wally Meskel.
Special mention goes to: Richard Ghiotto, Martha Stolzenberg, Jacob Neville, Mikey Schindler, Ryan Tocco, and Jordan Marson.
