Day: October 29, 2000

From Clarks to Carls Or I’m so tired, It makes me wonder what I’m doing Right Now
Oct. 28-29, 2000
by Brad Ricks

Ok everybody, so then – it’s basically 4:43 a.m. right now, perhaps adjusted to be 3:43 am due to a technological marvel we like to call “daylight savings time” because we “Save daylight” by setting our clocks back and being forced to do more stuff in the dark – like we’re gonna run out of the sun or something. Anyways, this may be weird – I’m tired, and maybe a little sick.

So here’s my day in a “nutshell” Yes that’s right, a nutshell – whats in it? Poop. No – not poop, its got stuff like caving and stuff in it.

10:00 am, I get my lousy self out of bed, and go to Buruss to meet people by “10:30”. So yeah, we manage to gather Myself, Doug, Austin, Andrea, Andrea, Chris, Bryson, a 1988 alumni, Alan, his girlfriend, Beth, whom he has the lovely pet name affectionately called “Critter.” And yes, I definitely forgot somebody in this lineup – please find it in your heart to forgive me – No don’t – cuz I just remembered, its everybody’s favorite caver, Angela!

So we leave – oh – then Bryce shows up. This brings to total I mentioned to 11 people, but there were definitely only 10 of us in the cave. Oh well. Right – so we went to Mr. J’s. Nothing too crazy – but of course, Bryson had enough cream cheese on his bagel to cream all the other bagels with, including the bagels that Bryce smuggled in from Dukes.

Furthermore, we went caving – or so we thought. Far down the road, I made a left – wrong turn, buddy. We backtracked, and Alan took the lead. He also felt lost and we stopped at a gas station for directions and re-grouping. So we weren’t there yet, we went on. Yes, we made it to the cave – but first, as we drove by the landowners house, there was a man looking out the door – and in quite a frightening spooky way. So naturally I went to go talk to him. By the time I turned around and got out of the car, he was sitting on the porch swing. Yes, I said, “Hello, how are you doing, we were planning to visit Clark’s cave, etc – Immediately, he stood up without saying a word and went into his house, shutting the door behind him. I was baffled. The kind of baffled you get when you take a huge grape in your left hand, a big peanut in your right hand, and a crazy man walks up and tells you to cook him a steak – so naturally I went in and followed after that little buggah! He resurfaced with a notebook in his hand. I said “Logbook?” He handed me the notebook. Yes, it was a logbook which I signed, and then left.

Drove to the cave – got out of car and scaled a cliff with enough leaves and sticks to keep you attached. Further on to the biggest of this cave’s 8 or so entrances. Got there, and I got camera happy (I brought two cameras, I was decked out like a southern firearms fanatic on his birthday – but of course, I definitely didn’t have any firearms.) Yeah, so then we went in the cave and “caved”. It was a truly amazing cave! The formations were abundant and beautiful – though all of them were this very unusual black color…made us feel like we were the first white men to explore Africa.

Anyway, further into the cave, we realized that neither Alan nor myself had really ever been to the cave as we previously alluded to. Yes that’s right….it dawned on us that we were staring “getting lost” right into its beady little green eyes. Fortunately, we did get lost, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the exploration involved in finding an exit to this place (CAUTION – DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! Alan had a compass on his watch!) So as you might think, we found an amazing exit. This cave has a lot of exits, but this exit was definitely one of them.

Naturally, I walked back to the first entrance where I left one of my cameras – hen we scaled the mountain side again, and eventually left. Chris – gimme a helmet. Yeah, and I got gas, but at the wrong pump. I moved the car to the other pump, and the gas thingy worked better then. By the way – the cave trip was fantastic – really a great one, and Clark’s being a cave we need to see more of. With a map and accurate compass maybe though.

Ok, I got home and ate dinner, showered, dressed up funny, and offered people rides and leads to Carl’s. Got to Carl’s with several other folks, to find that we made up the majority of current MUSG members. So naturally, most the folks I took left just as the fun was about to begin. Yes, others showed and we got silly. Twister was played, Bryce flashed dozens of people his white panties under his school-girl skirt and it definitely didn’t help him win. Songs were sang – rather wailed, with a full band playing almost all night of 2-3 guitars, a banjo, and a mandolin. Dancing was done, and merry was made. There was one highlight – round 3:00 we realized it was really just 2:00, so we were happy. It was discovered that with the addition of a small mustache, Niel looks like Wesley “as you wish” from the princess bride. Ian cant scare small children as a pirate, and People love to do things with coconut bras. SO by later on, I and others left – others slept at Carl’s, now I’m tired. Goodnight and good day.