<<< northwest is best >>>: tramp camp

On Friday evening, ten hooligans set off from Del Rio and two from Fort Worth to converge in New Braunfels for a camping extravaganza. After a stop in Hondo for Whadaburger (my first time – ooh) we landed at Mountain Breeze Campground around 10.30. Luckily they had some openings – as in an enormous empty field for us to camp. We picked a big shade tree (don’t worry, it’s not like shade helped us AT ALL this weekend) to set up shop and pitched our tents by the light of the trucks. Once that was taken care of, imbibing and good times rolled. The crew included Rem, Ashly, Will “The Thrill” Burrows, Cadillac Deville, Jake “Jack” Allen, Megan, myself and Matt “I ______ like it’s my job” Eggert. Julie & Erik Towal and Amanda “Peach” & Jay “Pilot” Page chose to keep it classy by staying in the Jeffers’ guest house. Naturally, we didn’t heed their warnings to get a hotel since only idiots camp in Texas in the summer (more to come on that later). Miss Jessie Deville rolled into town with 160, yes 160, homemade jello shots. Thank God for my vivid memories of freshman year jello shots – I still get a little bit gaggy when I hear, “vodka,” “jello shots,” or the two death phrases combined – so I passed on those little buggers all weekend. Anywho, since the camp doesn’t allow fires (BOO!) we circled the wagons around Jessie’s mini lantern and drank, laughed, sang and the like. Jake and Will brought their guitars and their vocal skills to camp so we had musical entertainment well into the wee hours of the morning. Apparently Texas sent out a memo for every 20-something testosterone-laden male and every bimbo sorority female to come to our same campground because there was quite the crowd playing volleyball, drinking and banging the hell out of a tambourine until 6.30 in the morning. We all finally hit the sack around 3.30 and woke to the sun rising – which worked out to about three hours of sleep. I definitely was feeling that later in the day. You might be curious as to WHY we stayed up so late. Were we partying until then? No…it was too DAMNED HOT to fall asleep! We crammed two people into each tent and it was still a hundred degrees in the early morning. Huge womp. Quote from the evening, courtesy of Matt: “Del Rio sucks but we are THE SHIT.”

Everyone woke up grumpy and tired. Quote from the morning, courtesy of me: “2^nd Lieutenant Marshman, permission to enter the geodesic dome.” Ashly: “No.” Apparently Ash isn’t the biggest fan of her boyfriend’s little sister wanting to come cuddle in the tent. We hit up the dog food for breakfast (AKA Reese’s Puffs Cereal – nectar of the Gods), tried unsuccessfully to nap (too hot still) and then had a rousing brunch of hot dogs. Soon after, we set off for Landa Falls to toob (yeah, they spell “tube” here, “toob”…don’t ask me why) the Comal River with, literally, about a thousand other people. We had a loaded group of twelve and four beer toobs for the four hour ride which included three toob slides and, luckily enough, three beautiful ladies for Will to ride with. It just so happened that as we passed these girls (Dusty – a nurse, Elizabeth – a hairdresser, and Jenny – a nurse), friendly ole’ KT informed them of the following, “Hey! You guys want some jello shots?! Oh by the way, this is Will. He’s single. And a pilot for the Air Force. Oh, and he flies helicopters.” BAM. That’s all it took and they stuck by Will’s side for the next 3.5 hours. Apparently, I am a fabulous wingman. Floating was amazing. We all tied together and just paddled around, laughing, taking pictures and being absolutely outlandish. On the bus ride back we were all slapping each other, untying bathing suits and being dumb in general – it was incredible. We hustled back to camp to get ready for dinner at the Greune Gristmill (yummy) and the Kyle Parks & Aaron Watson concert at the River Road Ice House! The concert was amazing. Beer flowed like wine and I even snuck in a little power nap on the lawn before Aaron Watson came on. The concert was amazing and our three favorite cougars (Elizabeth, Dusty and Jenny) appeared at Will’s side soon after we arrived! We all sang, drank and two-stepped the night away until quittin’ time when we left for the Jeffers’ farm to stay with everyone else in an air conditioned house (: We slept like logs and then awoke to recap the day before and head to lunch for Buffalo Wings and Buck Hunter. We then headed back to the Dirty D and arrived around 5. After getting unpacked, we planned the week’s menu and the five of us headed to the HEB for a quick grocery trip. I then spent the night watching The Rescuers with the old married couple (i.e. Rem & Ash) and writing my graduation thank you cards…only a month late. I revamped my old save the date cards and made CUTE thank you notes…so don’t worry, I still recycle (:

Sorry this was all about the weekend. Work is still great and I’m loving my co-workers and just the vibe here in general. EVERYONE is viewed as an integral part of making this hospital dynamic and I feel so welcomed into this community of people who make it their job to invest in our city and its citizens. After work I’m still doing the same old thing – laying by the pool and going to spin class with Sarah. It’s kicking my butt and I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much in my LIFE…but I love it. The hour goes by in a blink and then I can’t wait to go again. Hope all is well with you and yours in the Northwest (or wherever you may be). I still LOOOOOVE it here and I think you might too if you come visit…so come!