Our IRL Encounter

Back in July, a camping chatters' meet was suggested by Dollyb..to be held sometime after the Labour Day weekend...On Sept 6 & 7, 1997, Dolly's plan came to fruition!

Eighteen Chatters, from such exotic locations as Kansas and Canada met at Waveland Park, Northeast of Terre Haute, Indiana for two days of sun, fun, and "Heaven on Earth"!!

First to arrive were Abylucky, Dollyb and Marshall-tucker, at approximately 10:00 pm on Friday, the 5th. M-t knew he was on the right path to the campout, not by following his Rand McNally, but by the "signs" along the road that were there to guide him... Marshall, Michigan he was expecting.. Tucker Vocational Institute was a bit of a surprise.. he didnt figure he would find anything along the route that said "Sanguiness" on it, but he did have to chuckle when he discovered Leatherz Boat Shop (Leatherz with a "zed", as he so amused Sang by saying) and there was even time to take pictures outside Marsh's Grocery ... but the pride and joy of the trip to Indiana was a short stop made at a real estate office to pick up a handful of business cards, and a yard sign "Talk To Tucker", which became the icon for the campsite, the landmark by the side of the road which allowed new arrivals to know they were in the right place



There was much anticipation as Sanguiness, and her Evil_twin, Razenkoehn, were originally expected to arrive approximately the same time. However, due to delays in their departure, the dynamic duo did not arrive until after Dolly, Aby and M-t had assembled Dolly's tent without benefit of instructions. Sang and Raze did their dead level best to move toward Indiana with all due haste. They had driven through Southern Missouri on Interstate 44, eaten dinner along the highway, traded off drivers from Raze to Sang in Pacific, Missouri. Sang finessed her way through the 6 lane wide traffic of St. Louis as if she were still a "local" and delivered the white Suzuki safely across the Mississippi River and into the Land of Lincoln, just about the time Marshall-tucker, Abylucky and Dollyb arrived in Waveland Park.

These evil_twins were giggling their way through Effingham County, Illinois, along Interstate 70 (no effingham sandwiches, no effingham omelets, no effingham casserole... no i do not want green eggs and effingham, you stoopid Sam I Am...) about the time the trio at the park was assembling Dolly's tent. Sang and Raze arrived at 1:30am on Saturday, the 6th, while the first three tried their best to wait for them at the gate of the campground. The trio figured the delay was caused by Sang and Raze being lost, and had ventured out onto the highway to begin a rescue mission. Little did they know RazenKoehn was motoring along under the ever watchful Sanguiness' navigational instructions, they having traded drivers once into Indiana because Sang needed to sit and fidget for a while. In nothing shy of choreographed timing, Aby pulled out of the park just as Raze's lil white Samurai went buzzing by. At the same time, Aby's van experienced electrical problems - with the Groom inside!! Hmmm Booted at his cyberwedding, booted while proposing on icq, and now this...ominous trend, eh?

When Abylucky got the van turned around, the trio returned to the gate expecting the two Kansas gals to be reading the map for directions to the site. Well, the anxious duo had driven past the gate, oblivious to the map. So, Aby, Dolly and M-t headed for the site to await them. Upon sighting the vehicle for the 2nd time, M-t decided to avert possible disaster by running towards it with his trusty Mag-light..to which Sang was heard to say, "Hey, there's a man chasing the truck!" Raze replied, "Should I stop or speed up?" at which point, Raze recognized M-t and squealed to a halt. Sang muttered a few choice expletives under her breath at the locked door of the chariot which had delivered her, eventually managing to open the door just as she had resigned herself to the possibility of bolting out the window in a most graceless manner. Once the door gave way, Sang all but fell out of the truck..and then just stood there staring at Marshall-tucker, who also was forgetting to blink. Oblivious to the lack of movie sound-track music, the two eased towards each other, with M-t taking Sang in his arms and holding on for dear life.

They just stood in the road, leaning on the Suzuki for support for almost 5 minutes until Raze said, "Hey move it or lose it, I have to move the jeep now!" Hanging onto each other they walked arm-around-backs to the site, with M-t introducing Dolly and Aby to his cyberbride/3Dbride to be.

This tiny group of Indy chatters did just what you would expect - they chatted! - until approximately 3:30am when fatigue began to take its toll. Sang and M-t had assembled their tent in the meantime, which fortunately was the same as Dolly's. M-t is a "pro" at assembling dome tents in the dark now.

Abylucky shared her disdain for insects with the rest of the campers by vocalizing upon the discovery of any bug within the cast of her eye. Around daybreak, Raze and Aby took a walk to the lake to offer their "encouragement" to the fishermen and attempt to dock surf. Dolly busied herself in the morning, preparing "room service" for Sang and M-t, to which they sleepily replied, "Are you out of your mind?" After a bit of sustenance and freshening up, the pair were much more sociable!

Around Noon on Saturday, the 6th, Flowerbug1 and Flowerbug1-24 arrived, followed shortly by FalconFlyer and Bigbird62. These recent arrivals had driven in from Southern Kansas, as had Sang and Raze. Marshall-tucker hauled himself in from Canada, Abylucky from Ohio and hostess Dollyb from just north of Indianapolis. The trio made up of Mavs, Mavswife, and Honestgirl, arrived from Illinois just as lunch was being arranged on the table. Much to Sang and Raze's amusement, there was, of course, HAM.. which brought out the puns from the previous night's drive. LadyMustang and Sirluvsalot played highway tag all the way from Ohio and arrived within minutes of each other. Meanwhile, Nadine789 had motored in from Mid-Michigan and Cryswolf dropped over from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Browneyes_37 had brought her family to the campground and after getting them set up at their own site, dropped over for a visit. She'd been invited to attend by a chatter that ended up not being able to make it himself. Pammy_j dropped in quickly to take one of the group back to her place for a phone call. There ya go.....more of that Mid-West hospitality.

After lunch and the initial meetings were over with, the guitar came out of M-t's car. Sirluvsalot was willing to take command of the music at this point, and spent a good amount of time strumming and entertaining us. He even indulged Sang and Raze in a couple of choruses of Bluzeman's infamous "da daaa da duh..." brand of humor. It was soon apparent that the time was ripe for pictures, the lighting was good, the people were relaxed enough, yet could still function well enough to operate cameras. There was more posing taking place than at a Hollywood premier, but it was a blast! Each camper in turn was subject and then paparazzi.

LadyMustang and Sirluvsalot left not long after pictures, attempting to head East before the darkness would make driving more difficult. Of course, the inimitable Sirluvsalot just HAD to get one good "zing" in on Sanguiness, making a reference back to her cyber bachelorette party from a month before. What can we say, Sirluvs.. timing is everything.. and you certainly bided your time, the payoff was primo!

After dinner, a quiet evening of laughing and sharing among the group, and listening to CD's on Cryswolf's car stereo. The one bit of excitement was M-t getting busted for speeding in his haste to return to the campsite after taking a shower. He was heard to be muttering, "20 Kilometers is too slow!!" o O (Canucks!! it's MILES per hour! SHEESH!) The trooper was most cordial and let M-t off with a light warning and request to just slow down a little.

Marshall-tucker, sensing that the group was finally primed, favored the crowd with a few songs, including his original composition, "Dreams". Cryswolf then applied his efforts to the guitar strings and the campchat began to wind down. Mavs, Mavswife and Honestgirl returned to Illinois. Cryswolf headed out a few hours later.

Sunday morning saw the early departure of Abylucky (8am!). Browneyes was not long afterward in leaving with her family, and the Flowerbugs were loading out around the same time.

RazenKoehn and Sanguiness treated Marshall-tucker to an "Evil_twins" brunch, where M-t wasn't allowed to use his hands at all, and instead was hand fed by the Twins. Man'o'man did that get some stares from the locals! Sang had M-t's complete attention as she fed him fingerfuls of whipped cream from her pumpkin pie. Dolly, FalconFlyer and Bigbird departed shortly after M-t and the_twins returned to camp.

The rest of Sunday was spent visiting between the three friends, as was much of the next day. Monday was a somber day, gloomy in many ways. Knowing they had to part, the lovebirds spent a lot of time talking, looking towards the future, swimming and just generally hanging out, with Raze as much as they could. Raze's fella, Blue_denim, couldn't be there, though his tent became the souveneir program, autographed by all who attended. Raze completed her packing to the sound of distant thunder and walked off to call Blue, leaving Sang and M-t to their packing and another round of good-bye's.

At 6pm Monday, as the sky darkened and rain began to sprinkle Waveland Park, the last of the Indy Chatters reluctantly parted company. Tearful hugs and kisses were exchanged and as RazenKoehn turned South on Rte. 47, taking a subdued Sanguiness back to Kansas, Marshall-tucker turned North, to return to Canada, once again the lovebirds will be 1000 miles apart, but more together than ever before.

We all met 17 old/new friends at Indy,reinforced online friendships, and made new 3D friendships. It can safely be said, a great time was had by all..and to those who couldn't make it, "We missed you and wish you'd been there!"

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