Camping in the Smokey

as it is with most of my last minute plans this too began with a simple phone call. Come to think of it, all my last minute trips are with Hobbes. I cannot help but sense an emotional undercurrent here :). But sorry Hobbes I draw my boundary at married men. This boat has sailed off. Well an apt metaphor would be, 'You have sailed off, on a yacht with silver sails and a golden mast, leaving me stranded on this desolate isle'. At least thats how he sees his marriage and me.. :)

I was going to miss my weekend training run so Hobbes floated the idea of us catching up and camping. I quickly called up Divya and Winny to see if they were interested. And just like that the plan was set. The logistics were ironed out soon and we were all set for camping in the Smokies. Divya had been warned by Abhilash about going on a camping trip with me. She still decided to throw caution to wind and join in, atta girl!!!. Winny not sure if anyone had warned you, but I am really glad you came. Hobbes knew what he was getting into, but by now he knows how to handle/manipulate me :).

So it was, in the year of twenty-ten the 2nd day of April. On a bright spring noon 4 members of fellowship set sail in opposite direction to meet for one quest 'Camping in the smokies'.

*(membership open for the remaining 5 spots, condition apply, please read the offer document very carefully)

Here are a few anecdotes from this trip. I am just listing a few of them right now, stay tuned to the comments section for more... from me... and others from the group

The Story.......

......of poker in a tent....

Now I know some of you would say whats poker got to do with camping. To them I say, good point :). But what better way to spend a warm beautiful spring day than play poker in the tent. Trust me as absurd as it may sound it really is a lot of fun. We set all the comforters inside the tent and made a nice sitting are. To make it interesting, we decided to play for money. $5 entry fee and winner takes all tournament. We played 2.

I won the first tournament by shear luck. Got pocket aces and did the mistake of going all in post-flop. I should have done that pre-flop to scare them away, with so much money already in the pot they had no choice but to go all-in and see the turn and river. Luckily my pair prevailed and I won. The second time Hobbes got sucked into a bad hand against me and later Winny put Divya out. Since me and Winny had a fairly similar stack so decided to split the winnings.

.....of the fox slaying knights

They went to the trash can and there saw a fox trying to steal the trash bag. They tried to scare away the fox by making a loud sound but that didn't work. Hobbes thinking quickly on his feet blinded the fox with his flash light. He outwitted the fox.

Now I have not the fortune to bear witness to this chivalrous act by the two sires, Sir Winny Wilson of Raleighshire and Sir Hobbes of Durhamshire. Me thinks they are just being modest.

Me thinks this is what really transpired. Imagine an evil fox, more evil than the Big Bad Fox who killed Red Riding Hood's grandma ( I know, I know; it was a wolf, but come-on grant me some creative liberty here). Our nobel sires were carrying a potion to save the prince. While crossing the dark forest the Big Bag Fox attacked them and tried to take the potion. A fierce battle ensued, Sir Hobbes drew his sword and blinded the Fox and Sir Winny leaped over (did a few flips mid-air) and landed on him and in one Legolaseaque motion dragged the sword through the beast's heart. The prince was saved and the princess was happy and they lived happily ever after...

....of tents, campfire, river-side rock, noodles and bisibelabath

having gained extensive expertise on his Grand Canyon trek, Hobbes allowed the novices (us) to try our hands at the subtle art of tent pitching :). It was difficult at first because of the darkness, but we improvised by using our car's parking lights. Once the tents were up we padded the floor with comforters and were ready to hit the sac. (Now I know what you are thinking, comforters and camping don't necessarily go together. Well, you have a point, BUT if you need a good nights sleep I suggest you break this cardinal rule of camping.)

We were not really in wilderness and even though the occasional flash from a car's headlight zooming by bore a constant reminder of our closeness to civilization, the campground was cosily nestled between two small hills. And a shallow river flowing in between the hills completed the scenery. After pitching our tents we located a nice flat rock not too far away from the river bank and made our way onto it. Soon conversations flowed over the soothing sound of the gushing river. A starlit sky providing just enough light to illuminate the white foam against the dark river. Hobbes checked in early followed by Winny and then after a while by Dviya and me. Winny couldn't sleep inside the tent, so he decided to spend the night in the back seat of the car.

The morning after Hobbes prepared crapy coffee :) and we hiked up to get some firewood. Hobbes demonstrated his skills in starting a campfire, he has now two scout merit badges one for campfire and other for tent pitching.

Another day, another campsite. We wanted to go kayaking but by the time we got to the campsite and pitched our tents(again Hobbes staying out of this) it was way past noon. So we decide to stay put and just relax. Went for a small hike. Later once the campfire was up...again.. :) Hobbes and Winny prepared the most delicious bisibelabath I've ever had. Eating by the campfire made it tastier. A bag of marshmallows would have been icing on the cake.

.....of Tiger Woods of mini golf

its was booze night, and this story has 4 lead characters. Well, alright alright, 3 main characters plus one designated driver.

Winny aka the man waiting for midnight.

Divya aka the margarita queen.

Hobbes aka the experienced drinker, barf free since 03.

Me aka the designated driver.

It was booze night but we couldn't goto a pub till midnight. Winny was waiting for the clock to strike midnight for the lent to get over. We were in Gatlinburg early so had some time to kill. And Hobbes wanted to win back some pride after getting trashed in Poker, he was the first one to be out both the time. So he took us to his domain; mini golf and boy did he win back some pride.

Now I can see people rolling their eyes and thinking mini golf is just kids play. To them let me tell you this, it has 18 holes. One cannot sustain purely on luck for that long. I am a living testament, I hit a hole in one on hole one, and was leading by 2 shots till hole 9. But luck could carry me just that far. Hobbes showing Tiger Woodesque abilities came back strongly from 3rd place to win comfortably by 9 shots.

.....of partying in Gatlinburg

I was told by some that Gatlinburg was a very happening town. Nothing could be further from truth, at least on that night. The pub that had the best reviews was a wine and beer only pub. The 2nd best rated pub 'The Ship Pub' was 15 mins outside the town but closes at 12:00. Another pub highly recommended by the guy who ran the mini golf place had such bad reviews that we didn't even dare check it out. To top it all we were told that all pubs close at 1:00 and last call is 12:45. So much for its reputation of being a party town.

We had already wasted 15 minutes of drinking time by going to The ShipPub. Bar hopping was not really an option so we had to pick one and stick to it. We chose this bar because it had a gallery and lots of lights :). However, even this couldn't dampen out spirits. The night began with a round of shots and was followed by pitcher(S) or margarita. Fearing that I would screw up the order Divya escorted me to get the first round of drinks. Hobbes got 2 Cuban cigars (really dude just 2, even though I don't smoke you should have gotten me one, at least for keeps sake, I am really pissed :).

We settled into a nice corner spot on the gallery. Divya and I both tried the Cubans, Hobbes however got the cool point for smoking the cigar in style and Winny almost got the smoke rings going. By 12:50 we had ordered our last pitcher, shared some with a localite, and were being pushed out so gulped down the rest. Rounded the night of drinking with shots. Everyone has their own account of what ensued :)

Some stories are good in print and then there are some stories that are good when told in person, better when the details are fuzzy/non existent and best when the yarn spinner is a bit intoxicated. The following stories fall under that category..

The story....

....of songs with deep meanings.....

....of camping in a coupe....

....of steady-hand photographers and swingy swings...

...of walking the white line.....

....of brotherhood with girls....

....of cuban cigars and smoke rings.....

....of 137 "visible" stars.....

Moral of these stories:

No matter where you are, not matter how badly you are prepared. When you are with your friends you always find a way to have a great time. And I for one had one of my best "camping" trips.

PS: Reading through the blog, I just noticed that there are a lot of grammatical mistakes. Please drop me a mail if you notice any.