Wildman Weekend 2016

14-17 April 2016 - Augusta, GA

Wild Man Weekend (WMW) 2016 occurred in Mid-April, as a weekend vacation / reunion with a handful of fraternity buddies. The WMW reunions come every couple-few years, with this one being the seventh WMW. The main tenants of WMW were to keep it cheap, within driving distance of most people and go to places that one’s spouses would have zero desire to go to, thus reducing the grumbling on the home front. Ergo, typically cabin/house rentals with much of the food prep done ourselves have been the norm (Nothing but the Second Best for us Pi Kapps). Having gone to Rolla, well prepared us for having to find the joys of the easily overlooked and making one’s own fun accordingly (going to school with more than a smattering of girls in a semi-metropolitan area would have been a way different experience).

This year Mark Sautman offered up his home in Augusta, GA, having become newly more spacious after a recent divorce and ensuing loss of ½ the furnishings. The plan called for meeting on Friday afternoon and hanging out until Sunday morning. Given the distance from STL to Augusta, most people would have opted to get there by air but with a deep abiding desire for thrift and the Song of the Open Road, most of WMW 2016 was a Road Trip for over half of us (one WMW was nothing but a unplanned excursion along two lane highways for a few days and was terrific fun).

WHO

So who came for WMW2016 (they are in the order I have [mostly] solo pictures of them, it just so happens the author was first...):

Randy Curtis

Anthony Holmes

Striking a Sydney Greenstreet pose:

I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.

Umm, that's a white parrot but didn't you own a Blue Parrot?

Might as well be frank, monsieur. It would take a miracle to get you out of Casablanca, and the Germans have outlawed miracles.

Steve Swaine

Mark Sautman, the Host

Jeff Obermark

Chris Cooper

Brad Kline

John Bosman

Mike Mall

Road Trip

On Thursday morning, Anthony and Mike arrived in St. Louis from Columbia in the Holmes Toyota Sienna to pick up Randy and head to Huntsville, AL. The drive from STL to Huntsville is normally about 6 ½ hours but the time zipped by with discussions about life, work, family, other friends, politics and religion. We stopped for lunch at Patty’s 1860 restaurant in the Land-Between-the-Lakes, KY stuffing ourselves with the hearty portions and exceptionally huge pieces of pie. Patty’s was a lunch stop at the first WMW at Kentucky Lake in 1993 but this time nobody thought getting the 1 inch thick pork chops was a good idea. We still left uncomfortably full (that being a good thing and the intent).

Mike and Anthony eyeballing a turkey for lunch

Mike and Anthony by the rommantic fake water wheel

We went through Nashville, TN about 4:30 pm assuring us about an extra hour in that fair city enjoying the first class traffic for miles in the expanding metroplex. In Huntsville, we spent the night at Steve Swaine’s very spacious home enjoying his basement full of refurbished pinball machines, jukebox and a Mellow Mushroom Pizza, courtesy of Chris Cooper brought as he joined us there.

We started Friday morning with a quick breakfast and a jump in the cold water of their pool because that’s what Wild Men do (OK so Lisa had turned on the heater the day before but it was still several degrees below ideal and still a very WILD thing to do).

Another day of road trip met us on Friday with more BS and discussion across the ends of politics. We went through Atlanta about lunch time but chose not to stop in any of the happening spots downtown. With no forethought of planning or using an App on the numerous smartphones in the car, we pulled of I-20 in Conyers, GA, east of downtown. It didn’t take long for us to realize, this was an “ethnic” part of the metro area. Undeterred and hungry, we sought a non-chain restaurant that had cars in the parking lot. A seafood place looked promising but turned out to only sell raw fish. A woman in a car noticing the group of five middle aged white guys looking slightly awkward (as nerds always do) and definitely out of place, offered to help. Her suggestion of a Piccadilly’s Cafeteria in the nearby mall was suspect for being in a mall and a regional chain but she proffered they had some good down home soul food, so we were in. There was a crowd and there were lots of southern food choices but we found it to be mediocre and a bit pricey, typical of cafeterias. It beat eating at a Quick Trip though [<== foreshadowing].

Augusta

The Missouri-Alabama road trip contingent was the last to arrive in Augusta with Brad, Jeff and Boz having gotten there before us. It didn’t take too long to fall into rhythms of discourse and male verbal abuse which at its core is much male bonding.

Engineering inspection of Mark's flood damaged fence in the wooded back yard

After inspecting Mark’s fence damaged by the flooding creek at the back of his property and discussing the merits of if a Federal response by the Corps of Engineers would be justified or not, we (actually Brad-a-rella) grilled burgers and made dinner. A definite improvement over the cafeteria lunch.

Mike with the food and booze covering all horizontal surfaces	Brad and Chris Grinning & Grilling

After dinner, we walked as a group around the upscale and new subdivision and were fairly surprised we weren’t visited by a patrol car. Let’s face it, even a “gang” of 50-ish over weight white guys traipsing around ones community should be slightly threatening and worthy of law enforcement inquiry, shouldn’t it? After all, we were WILD MEN, right? Evidently not.

Although alcohol was present, it was hardly a big deal with 20% of the group completely refraining and everyone else imbibing in moderation, with no chugging or even jokes about chugging (more of a MILD Man Weekend, a refrain that would be uttered more than once).

Saturday

On Saturday, following a breakfast of pancakes and sausages, the gang carpooled up in two vehicles to do some sightseeing. First up, the historic Augusta Canal http://augustacanal.com/ on the Savannah River. We walked and goofed around the power house and lock structure.

Augusta Canal National Heritage Area

Savannah River Panarama

Savannah River Warriors?

The Tale of the Uncareful Pi Kapp

North Agusta Brick Pond Park

We then headed on across the state line into South Carolina and North Augusta and Brick Pond Park. The park consisted of a series of quarried clay pits that had been turn into storm water management water retention structures that housed a plethora of fauna. http://www.northaugusta.net/departments/engineering-public-works/stormwater-management/brick-pond-park. We were particularly taken with a very large alligator on the other side of one of the ponds, resulting in the standard jokes about not needing to out run the alligator but being able to out run at least one of our comrades (weight and bad knees among a few people didn’t make any obvious designated Gator Bait though).

The Elks/Masons/Moose/or the like were having a Bar-B-Que, so we stopped and got a couple quarts before heading back to the house for lunch.

Elks/Masons/Moose Bar-B-Que	Meat, Meat and more Meat

Phinizy Swamp

After lunch, we headed back out to continue our tour of local Civil Engineering features with a walking tour of Phinizy Swamp (http://phinizycenter.org/our-history/) which had been reengineered as a portion of the city’s waste water treatment plant. No alligators visible but very pleasant board walks with numerous shelters for interpretive lectures (or old men resting and BS-ing along the way).

Bridge Over Swampy Water

Phinizy Swamp Panarama

Phinizy Swamp Album Cover

Having been a couple hours since we last ate, it was time to calorie up. We stopped in down town Augusta to the Boil Weevil Cafe and Sweetery next to the Marriott. We got slices of cake and ate them on the levee a block and a half away. It was pretty busy for a Saturday night as the local High Schoolers were swinging by to take pictures in their prom night finery. A few of us did stair races up the amphitheatre built into the levee.

Boil Weevil Cafe and deserts	Levee Cake Eaters (Note: Prom pictures in the background)

We didn’t actual visit Augusta National Golf course but did drive by on the way “home”, seeing the parking lots, so that was a brush with wealth and privilege if not WM marauding.

That evening we watched a movie of Mark’s picking. A cinemaphil, he was instructed not to pick a classic or overlooked foreign film for the edification of the group but rather something trashy that wouldn’t be spoiled by the group vocalizing their thoughts. Well Mark delivered with the 2013 comedy: Movie 43. A truly raunchy collection of vignettes that sought and succeeded to set a new low for disgusting, depraved sophomoric humor. Filled with A-list stars who apparently regretted agreeing to do the film, where the incest scenes are arguably the least impolite topic to discuss (but not really). There was laughter but most are unlikely to openly admit it or recommend it to others.

Pre-movie Panaraoma

Sunday

Sunday morning was a bit rushed as people packed up their gear, with the Missouri-Alabama road trip contingent needing to hit the road by 8:00 for the drive from Augusta, GA to Ducktown, TN in order to make a 2 hour white water rafting trip on the Ocoee River through a gorge in the Cherokee National Forest.

Finishing Breakfast on Sunday

As we had reservations for a 1:30 pm start time with Wildwater Ocoee, we did not want to take too much time on lunch, so we noshed at Quick Trip, which was surprising OK on the adjusted gas station scale of culinary treats.

QT Lunch, because the Waffle House take to long

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) controls the flow of the Ocoee via three hydro-electric power that leaves a ten-mile section of the river bed nearly dry most of the time, as the TVA diverts most of the water for power generation. Following lawsuits by paddling enthusiasts in the late 1970s, the river flows for most weekends from March through October for a portion of the day to allow recreational use of the Middle Section. In support of the 1996 summer Olympics, the Upper Section of the riverbed was reworked for the whitewater slalom events and subsequently opened to the public at selected times as well. The WMW contingent floated the 4.5-mile Middle Section with water released over Ocoee Dam #2, which contains some 20 named Class III rapids. In regards to the rafting trip, the pictures speak for themselves.

What, you've never seen a grown man in Neoprene before?

WILDwater for WMW

Ocoee Dam #2

Pictures from Wildwater

Following the float and we changed into to dry clothes and returned to Dam #2, to see the whitewater turn into a trickle (as required by minimal habitat concerns).

Ocoee Dam #2 - minimal habitat trickle

We got some fireworks at the Tennessee border before heading across into Alabama as it seemed like the wild thing to do. We spent another night at Steve’s place in Huntsville, with Chris going home.

State Line Vice Shop Stop

Lighting off the fireworks at Steve’s place

The road trip back to STL on Monday was anti-climatic as the last leg of all trips seems to be.

Ride Home & Work Emails Loom

WMW 2016