Camping 2009

Last weekend was the second annual Alpha 11 reunion camping trip.  Josh and I drove down to Salt Fork State Park for three nights of camping with Brandon and Peter.  Although we had to endure hot, humid weather and some buckeye fans as neighbors, we still had a great time.   We even learned lessons from last year's stay at Raccoon Creek State Park.  Our first night as we were almost asleep, Brandon sat bolt upright in bed, and announced "guys, they're here!".  He was of course referring to raccoons.  We quickly jumped out of the tent and scared away what must have been one or two raccoons, a big improvement over last year when they stole hot dog buns and marshmallows and then taunted us from the trees while eating them.

Besides besting the coons, we enjoyed Hosak's cave:

excellent food, including fire-grilled pizzas:

large campfires:

trying to take pictures with the camera's timer:


as well as bocce ball, frisbee, swimming, basketball, general camaraderie, and our teams quadrathlon competition (stay tuned for more details on that).

One of the few things we didn't enjoy was Josh getting stung by a bee.  Despite the intense pain, Josh remained upbeat and calm the whole time, confident in the abilities of the two nurses present.  This may have been a mistake, since our specialties are not bee stings, but ICU and pediatric ER.  The treatment plan discussion went something like this:

Josh: Forsooth, a bee has stung my foot!
Eric: Maybe his airway is swelling, let's intubate!
Peter: Look at the size of those veins, I could get a 16 gauge IV in there!
Brandon: Let's put some pancake mix on it!

Having no other supplies at hand, we went with the pancake mix:


Overall, a great time was had by all, and we are already looking forward to next year.