This past weekend, our group experiences something new, something exciting, and something completely unexpected...camping and tubing at Sweet Minnihaha or as we like to call it, Sweet Mini-Hell-Hole. In each of the past few years, a group of us has gotten together and gone tubing down some river and camping. Last year we were at Apple River and let's just say it wasn't up to par and the decision was made to not return there this year. AH crap, we needed a new place. Miss Greta had heard about Sweet Minnihaha in Brodhead on the Sugar River where we could camp and tube and the best part...its only 45 minutes away. We were sold!! Booked for 10 people for August 1 and 2nd.
The first car load consisted of me, Heather and Grade. After a couple wrong turns (somehow I made it back into the front seat after I had been banned from there during the Milwaukee trip) we finally pulled into the campground. The front 'campsites' basically consisted of open fields of grass, but hey, we were pumped to be there. We headed into the 'office' shed and what do my ears hear? The clinging and clanging of none other than a gambling machine being played by grandma moses over and over again. She had her cigarette in one hand with the other hand on the machine. Awesome! We checked in and the lady pointed us in the right direction for our campsite.
We drove around a turn, down a steep gravel hill only to discover our campsite....lined with barbed wire....sitting in between two ponds of stagnant pond water, bugs galore, trash still sitting at the site...need I go on. After a little discussion we decided that this site just wasn't gonna work. We had visions of Lundo getting trashed and trying to run through the wire fence and, well, getting hurt. Heather took off running up the hill to go talk to the lady while Grade and I sat in 'traffic' at the campsite. Now I know better than to let Heather go anywhere alone because as she is trecking it up the hill, a nice gentlemen who is also waiting in the same traffic we are, sticks his head of his car, leans over to Heather and says, "Be careful, there's some pretty scary stuff around here!" Ya, that scary stuff is you, ya freak! Just as this happens, Heather sees Lundo's car pulling up and runs over to him. Saved, crisis averted!
Heather and I proceeded to head back to the 'office' and talk to the lady. I had my plan to be extremely nice and friendly (ya totally not me) and ask if we could have one of the front fields of grass. Surprisingly, no problem!! Yes, we were close the potties and had TONS of space for the 10 of us. Score one for us!
Camp set up went smoothly. After we set up our tents, we had time to kill before Greta and Kevin's arrival so we took Lundo on a tour of where our site was supposed to be originally and then we headed in the other direction, known as RV Row. While strolling down RV Row, we were ambushed by a shady looking 8 yr old, shooting guns at us. Now i'm not talking ha ha, shoot the dorks walking by, i'm talking, sniper style shooting guns at us!! He would follow us, then run ahead and hide, pop out and shoot us. Crazy-ass kid. What for him in 8 yrs, he'll be the next high school shooter, guaranteed. While dodging sniper shooting, we also witnessed the nice folks of RV Row dumping their sewage gray/brown water pretty much right in the driveway. Ah christ get us out of here! We turned around quickly, avoided being shot on the way, and settled nicely back at our grass patch.
Greta and Kevin showed up and we grilled and of course started drinking. We just had the 6-man crew on Friday night, me, Heather, Grade, Lundo, Greta and Kevin. The rest were to join us on Saturday. The night turned into a dance party and me and Lundo are happy to announce our 10 yrs engagement. You are all cordially invited to our wedding in 10 yrs, back at Sweet Minnihaha, where we first made our pack. If we are both single at age 38, we're getting hitched. Funny stuff.
The 6 of us enjoyed lots of dancing, I showcased my techno moves, never before seen in public, and Kevin and Grade competed in late night feats of strength: tree climbing. I also showcased my ability to roll around on a tennis ball (for those of your not aware, i've been having to roll on a tennis ball for my sciatic nerve pain in my butt and leg). I decided that it was pretty dangerous and that I should have my life jacket on. I mean duh, what campsite leaves out life jackets for drunk people to find and wear. So I wore one for a portion of the night--thank god too--I wouldn't have wanted to drown in our grass patch. We drank and drank, polished off a bottle of Black Berry Brandy, and eventually called it a night around 3:30am! Pssst, what's the latest?
Saturday morning arrived way too early for some of us and we all started preparing for our tubing excursion. We got everyone organized, loaded up two coolers chucked full of beer and other drinks, waited for Brian and Jeremy to arrive and got on the tubing bus right at 12 noon, life jackets and all! The tubing bus drove us up the river a few miles, dropped us off at the start of the trip and took off. We each had a tube, a life jacket, plenty of boos, two cooler tubes, and we were ready to go. We tied all together, put our tubes in the water and started off down the river. It was really a great float trip. The weather was perfect, the river was deep enough that we weren't scrapping our butts every other minute.
We ran into a few people we knew from McFarland, stopped along the way to party with people, kept floating, floating, floating, to the point where we thought we might have missed our turn off. But eventually 5hrs later, we were getting out of the water, stepping into 2 feet of mud and heading back to the campsite to continue the weekend. The rest of Saturday night was fun. Highlihghts include Lundo falling asleep in his chair and Dan sticking his butt in his face, dancing fun again, Club JG erupted in the grass patch, and just a fun night over all.
I would say that Float Trip 08 was a huge success. I think everyone had a fun time, it was super cheap, super close and I have a feeling we will never go back to Apple River again. (Check back for pictures from the river after I get them back, they had to be processed the old fashioned way). Until next year....
