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Posted to r.m.h on July 19, 1999 Friday morning comes about 5:00 AM for me and I amble off to the showers. Amazing how few people are in the shower at 5:00 AM and I get a quarters worth of shower and a shave. Back at camp I just barely get the coffee on when Jeanne shows up with cup in hand. Her and Snarl always bring out some good ground coffee, she grabs a cup of mine and heads back to her place to grab their coffee for the next pot. Patty gets breakfast tacos served up and everybody follows their noses over to our place for a cup and something to munch. Most of the talk was about the thunderstorm that had rolled through during the night. Just about everyone claims to have been awakened by the thunder, lightning or heavy rain. Heard the first report of tent leaking. Unlike most, I slept like a rock. The morning skys are cloudy, but it may still burn off by afternoon. Dickhaid and crew get packed up to motor over to Cow Chip and I get to work on my daily scooter checks followed by a little putt to explore the rest of the park. It's still pretty cloudy and chilly enough for a sweatshirt as I first-gear it around checking out the many tent and trailer camps. Randy Scurr rides in and is directed to the site that Dickhaid just left so that he'll have a place to set up when his wife Sandra shows up after work. He's more interested in gettin' something to eat. Maggie rides along with him up to the store, as she was crawling the walls without her Shovel. Sandra comes in, Randy and Maggie return and, with enough folks in camp to welcome any newcomers, Patty and me decide on a little scoot up to the store. I can hear thunder rolling in and it's gettin' darker. The store run was kind of chilly. Temps are in the 50's and it's really damp. We return to camp and we're certain now it's gonna rain in a minute. I park my scoot and can't find the kickstand 2X4 that I left in front of my site. After searching all over I decided that someone was probably fuckin' with me and had hidden it, or it really was in plain site and I just wasn't seeing it. I decided on another search, this time including the back of my truck, but no 2X4. Didn't think anyone was fuckin' with me as they were all shootin' the shit around the fire. As soon as it occurred to me I ambled over to the fire pit for a look-see and was rewarded with the site of a foot long 2X4 just starting to burst into flames. I think I asked something like "That wouldn't be my piece of kickstand 2X4 on the fire, would it?" and about a half dozen pair of eyes stared at me like deer caught in the headlights. Cracked me the fuck up. Randy did replace the 2X4 and just between you and me I think his "friends" sitting up there with him set him up. It started to rain. It was a steady pouring rain that continued for the next 24 hours, dropping 3 inches of rain on SLIMEFEST. The "Gazebo" that Patty bought and we put over our picnic table was the focal point of all activity from that moment on. Nine people and a picnic table under the 10.5 foot square "gazebo" always left someone with their ass out in the rain. After deciding that the rain was going to continue for awhile we start gettin' something put together for dinner, in the rain, no space on the table. dp rides in during the storm followed by Slowhand and Lucky. We have reached the point that there is *always* two or three out in the rain at any one time. Around 9:30 everyone gets something to eat and I am soaked to the skin. I opt to take my wife into our tent for some dry clothes and breathing room out of the fuckin' rain. The party is going on outside our door, but I'm dry and warm. I crash like a big dog. Patty has a hard time as the tent finally springs a leak on her side. If my bedding is wet, I don't know about it and sleep like a baby through the night. The rain is still steadily pounding the top of our tent, which is now starting to drip from the roof.
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