Oregon Camp; for posterity

[Little Apple]

Some tips:

1) Read that other Oregon Camp thread, it's usefull.

2) Do NOT attempt to take a greyhound across the country to get there, if someone in your group insists, knock them out and bring them in the luggage.

3) If greyhound (or any other establishment) looses the luggage that contains any of your groups' sleeping bags, ask around. The people are nice, and will help you.

4) Bring something soft to sleep on, even if you're big and tough, or camp a lot, it's harder to train when you can't sleep well.

5) When they say "cots" or "bunks" they mean bare wood. See above.

6) When in doubt, bow. Even if it's 2:00am.

7) It's hard to get through the sessions if you didn't eat enough, so stop worrying about your extra special uber-healthy diet, and fill your plate.

8) Don't be afraid of Ajarn Chai, he's nice.

9) Don't leave your food unattended around Ajarn Chai, he is a prankster.

10) Memorise the vocab list on the TBA web sight, there will be a test.

11) If you hear the bell, and you're not close to the field, it's time to run.

12) Mastering the art of switching Thai Pads quickly is a very good idea.

13) Jogging before you get to camp is also a good idea.

14) The morning jog is not a race, it's a warm up.

And finally:

15) Make sure you booked your flight home for the right month.

It was a blast guys, I hope to see you all next year!!!!

[Little Apple]

Wow this thread went off like a rocket, lol. Come on guys, I know your out there. Camp experiances? Anyone? If someone posts here I'll tell you the humorous story of my group's travels to camp.

[OctaviousBP]

Didn't make it to camp this year, but I think the new shirt designs are awesome!

[gregimotis]

I didn't get to go this year, but four of my gym mates did. I get to spend the next month hearing lots of great stories and watching everybody else's new found enthuasiam. Weee.

[Brian T.]

This was my first camp and I can't wait until next year! It was hard work, but I loved every minute of it. Wasn't it amazing how much energy everyone had when, on the last day on what we thought would be the last round of circuit training, Ajarn Chai told us that if we didn't pick up the pace a little, he was gonna make us go around the circuit again! Talk about motivation!

[Little Apple]

OK, my cat is attempting tp help me here, so pardon any typos I don't catch.

So, for the record: The Tale of Our Trip to Camp.

Once there was a small group of martial artist who somehow got themselves invited to camp. We will call them: Little Apple, Big Brother, Ark-ark, and Chad (heh, sorry Chad, but you just don't have a nick name that I've ever heard). Not being posessed of much money, they were orrigionally going to take Big Brother's car to camp...until he hit a passing dear. It lived, the car didn't.
Now of course Big Brother attempted to buy another car, but the only one he could find was an '87 Volvo in need of some repair. The martial artists then expanded their training to include Volvo Repair from a great Volvo Repair Master, however a road trip in this vehicle was deamed unwise around the time they got a wrench stuck in the engine. (It still runs, there's just an extra friend under the hood, heh)
However, by this time plane tickets were rather expencive, and Big Brother discovered that they could save hundreds of dollars by taking the Greyhound out to Portland. Note: they lived in northern Minnesota.
So tickets were bought and arrangements were made, and on the appointed day at the appointed hour, they arrived at the bus depot. Upon starting their journey, they were greated by the intercom which monotonedly stated that they were, in fact, riding a Greyhound bus, and that their driver's name was Bill. No smoking, drinking, or use of illeagal substances was to be tolerated on this bus. These were all statements to which our little group would become quite acustomed.
Their travels seemed to go smoothly, until the first transfer. It was there, at a run down depot in Rush City, that they were told the bus had been over booked, and they would be left there for two and a half hours until a shuttle van could arive. My I say, that there is very little to do in Rush City for two and a half hours. Anyway, the van got there, and rescued our little group from impending doom, and ferried them, plus two other guys it picked up, to some little town that Little Apple was too tired to get the name of.
At said town, they were reunited with another 11 of their previous bus-mates, who had also been kicked off due to overbooking. A special bus was prepaired, and the 17 travelers were sent off to thier next stop, Billings. The idea seemed to be that they would catch up to their origional bus rout in Billings, but due to a lack of radio use, their next bus decided it just couldn't wait any longer, and left 15 minutes before they arrived.
Because of this, the weary travelers were told they would have to wait about ten hours before a connecting bus would be through. Note: there is very little to do in Billings for ten hours. Especially when you got off the bus at midnight.
So after wandering through the city in search of Denny's, and filling their stomachs, the martial artists stomped around until they found a motel with openings. Said motel gave them a discount, as they got there at 2:00am. They recomend said motel, though the shower handle sticks a little in room 209. They then slept a peaceful 7 hours until 10:00am, checkout being at 11:00.
On the road again, and not really liking it, they stayed on one bus for the next 16 hours or so into Seattle. This was when they learned lots of vocab that they would need on the test at camp, possibly the one good thing about taking the bus: lots of study time.
So they arrived in Seattle, and within an hour, were on a bus to Portland. However, they knew there would be something different about this bus ride when the driver came down the aisle counting heads and saying to everyone, "Theys no drugs or alcohols alowed on this bus. So if you got any, you best give them to me. I am the only one allowed to drive drunk on this bus." Upon getting back to his seat and starting our journey, he came on the intercom, and to the best of my memory, said, "Now ladies and gentelmen, thank you for riding the Greyhound. Sit back and don't worry, I promiss to stay awake for at least the first hour. There will be no smoken' of tobacco, no drinken' of alcohol, and no use of drugs on this bus. If I find you doin' sutch, I will take your tobacco, alcohol, or drugs for myself, and I will kick you off this bus. Also, there will be no use of profanity on this bus, except by me if I feel like it. If you need to use the bathroom at the back of the bus, make sure you hang on with both hands, 'cause I ain't coming back there to pull you out of that hunny pot. Also please be aware that because of the sad sad loss of some of our fine Greyhound drivers in the bombings after the 9-11 incident, they have put this nice little screen up at the front of the bus. It is bullet proof. You have no reason to cross to my side of this screen, 'cause I can hear you just fine if you sit behind it and yell to me. If you do cross to my side of this screen I will take it as an act of agresson. You should know that my left arm is bionic, and if you pass that line I will reach over, pop your head like a grape, swing you from this bus, and then I will run you over. Also, if you happen to notice that I am bein' attacked, it is in your best interest to come to my rescue. Why? Because I am drivin'. I cannot fight and drive at the same time. Remember that if you have a problem with any other passenger, you can tell me and I'll yell at them for you. Thank you very much for riding Greyhound, we will be in Portland in time for all transfers."
And so they arrived in Portland having been on the road three days instead of one and a half. Note: Three days on a bus may as well be five years. It had been their plan to get there a day early, sleep in a hotel, use the gym and go to camp rested and fresh. However, due to the unfortunate events, they arrived the very day the needed to catch the shuttle from the newly christened "plane depot" to camp. So of course they were in a bit of a hurry when they got to the bus station to get their luggage.
Unfortunatly, even though thier bags had an extra 18 hours to get there ahead of them, two were still missing in action. One of these bags held Big Brother's sleeping bag, most of his training clothes, their tent, and his orthopiedic training shoes. The other held Ark-ark's sleeping bag, and most of his training clothes. Soon they saw that yelling wouldn't help, because the bags just weren't there, so they set off to the plane depot hoping someone would have some useful advice once they got there.
After getting lost in the airport for a while, they managed to find a group of people also going to camp, and soon, someone Big Brother knew. This someone was planning on renting a car to get to camp, and offered to stop by a payless for replacement shoes on the way. Our group took him up on the offer.
And so they arrived at camp, tired, stiff, and tentless. Though to make up for this, they did have two guys with no sleeping bags. They soon staked out one of the aderondak/adderondek/armadillo/little-wooden-three-sided-cabin-whatevers and settled down for a cold night on bare wood. To compensate for their situation, they split all the blankets and towels up between them, so that they all lived, but no one was warm.
Worry not though, the very next day they were lent a sleeping bag, Big Brother found that he packed his Bivy sack(sp?) in the wrong bag so he had it, and they bought camp hoodies, so all was well with the world.
Though amusingly enough, Little Apple found on the last day of camp, after all the trouble getting there, that she'd accidently booked her flight home for September instead of July. Don't worry though, she got back ok.

Ahh Camp.

[Brian T.]

Damn! And I thought the workouts were rough!

[fugetsu]

thaicamp drama

Little Apple-
Actaully, your experience is par for the course. There is quite a large amount of craziness that goes on before and after the camp, both for those just trying to get to the camp and for those who set up, run and then take down the camp (especially for them, we truly deserve a `behind the music` episode about those of us who have put on the camp). As far as camps go, despite the small discipline issue (which is not unusual, since the camp is a great place to bring your `projects` to whip them into shape), this one went off without major drama or trama.
In short, there have been those who had it far worse than you guys did. Nevertheless, you and your group did take one for the team. Way to go!
Fugetsu

[Little Apple]

Ha ha, no worries, I'm not complaining! I was really happy just to be there, and I fully expected all the sore muscles and exhaustion I got. I just personally think that our trip there is a funny story from begining to end, and therefore worth telling at least once.

You're right though, HUGE thanks to the people who set up and kept everything going! Everything from transporting the heavy bags, to making breakfast in the morning, to having an extra sleeping bag for people who's luggage was lost!

Let's have a big round of applause for the movers and shakers behind the scenes!!! Do any of them have there own funny stories they'd like to share?

[fugetsu]

behind the scenes camp stories

Little Apple-
There are too many behind the scenes stories to tell and besides, the statute of limitations for most of them hasn`t expired yet.
Fugetsu

[chalambok]

Interesting, Fascinating, or Just Plain Hilarious

There are so many, but here are some classics for your enjoyment, I hope:
Michelle and Larry giving an impromptu capoeira demonstration one day when the lunch line was moving slowly.
Master Chai losing his keys, locking himself out of his motorhome, not once, but twice now. Unfortunately for those of us attending him, both times were after midnight.
One of Mike Walrath's dogs grabbing someone's drying jock strap and tearing off through the crew camp.
Rick Sollo taking 20 very loud, agonising minutes descending the stairs every morning at Silver Falls.
Don Griswold just showing up to play the drums for us, 3 times now, out of the goodness of his heart because he knows how hard it is to make it through the afternoon sometimes.
Khru Norman Grimard making his students do 500 pushups in the middle of the night after hearing them using one of the '4 words' in French.
Alex Bay making a homemade keg of beer, twice now.
The first year having no meat because Carol Walrath refused to allow anything but vegetarian food in 'her' kitchen.
Kevin McKellar of Chicago riding the freight train like a hobo not once, but twice, just to work out with us. I took him to Portland after the camp, dropped him at telephone pole #1638, and watched him squat down in the bushes to weight for his ride home.
The first year Little Chai came to the camp, Master Chai and I would walk through the sleeping area every night at 1 a.m. so he could see how his son was sleeping, the pride evident. Even after I had to rat out Little Chai for cheating on the morning run. Sorry, Little Chai, but you know I could never let a nephew get away with something like that.
The year the girl came who was a former miler at the US Naval Academy, and beat everyone in the run by 28 seconds the first day.
And lastly, when Ted Perry was riding Bruce Raymer's 10-speed and ran it into the van, not hurting himself or the bike, but causing $1700 worth of damage to the van. Still can't figure that one...
There are lots of stories out there, I am sure everyone has one at least. After all, we are building a tradition here as well as a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude...lol

[pittbulldog]

Camp

I'm glad I could make it again this year. Although, I wasn't as ready as I hoped to be because of pre-existing injuries. Thanks again to everyone who made for another great camp. I hope to see everyone again, hopefully at Silver Falls.

[Little Apple]

Yeah, I've heard a lot of debate about having camp at Silver Falls vs. Wilkerson. Stuff about the run, the sun, the bags and the sleeping arangements. Lots of people seem to like Silver Falls for the view if nothing else. Is that the majority?

-Little Apple