A is for Adventure

Paintball Day II

October 23, 2004 by Zack Reynolds

Splat! Thanks, buddy, that was my shoulder you got there. Splat! And that, my dear sir, was my leg. Now it’s your turn. Splat splat splatsplatsplatSPLAT!

From Misc Images

I suppose you really want to know what on earth would lead up to a bunch of people getting together and shooting each other. Well, first of all, I want to assure you that we are all friends and hold no grudges.

The Adventure Clubbers (whoa—that sounds like ancient warriors!) who were present consisted of the following people (listed alphabetically backwards according to age); Leon Hedding, Adam Stanford, Joe, Mary, Jill Roebuck, Jason Stanford, Nate Sisson, and Zack. We also had five UMR students, a youth pastor, and a homeschooling dad come out for the paintball (plus some of my younger brothers and my dad).

The people from Illinois came out to our place Friday night, arriving around 9:30-10:30. We talked about a bunch of stuff, like driving in snow, and where we would like to vacation (you get the people who like Arizona, and then the people who just like warm weather.

The next morning, Barney (one of my younger brothers) had a nice alarm that went off at 6:30am (Adam said the roosters were crowing at four, but I guess I’m just used to them).

Well, around seven I figured I might as well stop pretending that I was asleep and go start breakfast. By nine-thirty, we had finished breakfast which consisted of food and a lot of talking.

Well, after breakfast, we started setting up for paintball (as would probably be expected). I guess it was probably around ten when we actually started setting up teams. We decided to start with our standard warm-up game—Attackers/Defenders. The problem with writing this narrative is that there were so many games that day that nobody can remember everything, so I’m just going to give exciting (hopefully) bits and interesting pieces.

Before we start, I should tell you the status of battle wounds. If you get hit in the head, the mask, the torso, or the gun, you’re dead (that is, if the ball doesn’t bounce off).

Leon suggested playing a Civil War kind of game; we divide into two teams (it ended up with about eight or nine people on each team), line up facing each other, then march at and shoot at each other. The loading situation was different also. Normally paintball guns have 200-round hoppers. We took off the hoppers, and borrowed 10 round tubes from Adam and Jason. Each of us got a tube, and we had to load one paintball at a time.). If you ever thought it was cool in those Civil War movies…think again. What made it a little worse is that each team had a “turn.” I.e., first our team got to move, then fire, then it was their team’s turn (each team only got one fire per turn). So each team would fire while the other team had to stand and take it like a man. Talk about psychological terror in real life. It’s like standing in front of a firing squad.

Their captain (who is unarmed) says, “Ready!” You smile bravely. “Aim!” You cringe, and wonder whether it’s better to look or not (something inside makes you look). “Fire!” You jump, then watch the paintballs fly at you (and hope you don’t get hit).

Unfortunately, I was the first casualty. I got hit in the belly button, but…we had to stay on the field, so we laid down where we died.

So after I laid down, our line marched forward (leaving me behind to…be buried, I guess), then fired at the other line. Then it was the other team’s turn. Then I realized something, being the first (and as of yet, the only) casualty. Dead men could get hit—again. So by dying, I really didn’t gain that much except a lower profile.

A ball whizzed right by my head (accompanied by an appropriate yelp—from me, not the ball). Fortunately, it missed.

Well, the lines kept marching closer and firing, but people weren’t getting hit (or worse, the ball bounced).

There was a guy on our team who posed a big target. The problem he had is that the balls wouldn’t break on him! He’d yelp, and then our team would search for the paint, and finding none, he’d yell and later shoot at the other line with all the more determination.

Well, I got hit in the hand. I tell the other team (in no uncertain terms), that there’s no honor in shooting a dead man. Then I got hit in the foot.

As the teams marched closer, they got low on ammo. The other team began picking balls up off the ground, while our team took ammo from all the dead men (we lost two men early).

It really got crazy as the two teams got closer…and closer…and closer—and still, few people were getting hit (except for the dead ones, of course)

Finally, the big guy on our team gave up (we concluded he died from blood loss), laid down and died. The guy next to him was also shot at the same time. Then the big guy, who was already dead, remember, got hit again…and again…and again.

By the time the two teams were getting close, we had lost one more person, so we were down to three combatants plus the captain. By this time Nate (who was our captain), was handing out the ammo (collected from the dead) and the other team was shooting only one or two balls at a volley (which they collected from the ground.

The opposing team was starting to thin as we would march 3 steps forward and shoot a full volley (of 3 people) and they would stand and shoot whatever balls they could recover.

The opposing team was shot down until only Mary, Jill, a character named Robby (who engaged in a series of antics to keep from getting hit), and their captain were left. They were totally out of ammunition and our captain (Nate—who was unfazed and unfliching) gave them surrender terms—You surrender and we don’t shoot. Their general refused (though something tells me the troops might have been amenable). We shot. Mary was hit and they went down to two people and their captain (Barney).

That was probably the most notable incident of the day. Leon still insisted that it was fun (I don’t know if anyone agreed or not). Personally, Leon can do it again if he wants. Next time, I’ll stick to real paintball.

From Misc Images

Showing how the gun works.

The rest of the day seems like a blur of hits and misses—i.e., I get the hits, they get the misses. I don’t remember having a particular winning or losing streak.

Once, we were splitting into four teams, and Jill, Mary, Gideon (one of my younger brothers), and I ended up on a team, and every else was split into three teams. Our team had the most people, partly because I was partially disabled (remember my knee?).

So after walking what seemed like miles (to me, anyway), we finally reached a spot where the rest of my team professed themselves comfortable with (I really didn’t care—as long as we didn’t have to move any more). Where we were happened to be along the back fence, quite a ways, actually, from the entrance. We heard plenty of shots, and saw people chasing each other in the distance. Finally, I saw Nate and someone (I later found out Robby) coming up towards me. I prepared to fight.

Nate came pretty much directly at me, while Robby swung around slightly. When they started getting in range, and paintballs started whizzing sporadically, I noticed that Robby was shooting an empty gun (a paintball gun without balls makes a distinctive sound to the paintballer’s ear), so I ignored him and focused on Nate.

Well, then I heard talking from the rest of my team (content; unknown). Finally Mary came over and told me that Joe and Barney were coming up on the other side of us, pinning us between them and the other team, making us receive fire from both directions at the same time. At that moment, Nate decided to charge (since I looked rather busy). Fortunately, Mary saw him, and popped off a few shots. I just stepped out from behind the tree and plastered him with paint (I think I hit him twice in the mask and once in the gun, though Mary claims that one of the hits must be hers).

With Nate gone, I could focus on Joe and Barney. Unfortunately, Jill had gotten shot just about the same time as Nate. I went for Barney, but got caught behind a tree that wasn’t quite big enough. That was about fifteen feet away. I got hit in one arm (watch where you’re throwing those speed balls, buddy), so I shifted slightly, and got hit in the other arm (ouch!). I shifted again, and got hit in one thigh (ouch!), shifted again, and got hit in the shoulder (ow!). I figured that it was probably around time to move. I backed up, swung around, and found that Mary and Gideon were already dead. I moved at Joe, started shooting, and ran out of ammo a few seconds later. As we walked out, we found that we were the last ones out in the field, so Joe and Barney won that game.

Later, the other members of my team were complaining (I don’t really blame them) about my lack of leadership (i.e., not moving out of the crunch). There were two reasons that I didn’t move out. One was my leg, and the other was I didn’t know that the rest of my team were caught in cross-fire until too late (I wasn’t getting any cross-fire, so I didn’t think about it.) Oh, well. If I had known, we would have moved out, and hopefully would have won (hey, hindsight’s always 20-20, right?).

From Misc Images

Explaining what happened.

So when Robby requested a rematch (because he ran out of ammo), and Mary was busy making supper, I’m not sure exactly how keen Jill and Gideon were on keeping the same teams. We kept the same teams. This time however, instead of going first, we went last. We went up to the back fence, walked along there for a while, then moved down through the middle of the field to the bottom fence (in the direction of the shooting), and came up in time to distract Jason long enough for him to get shot in the back. I got splatter on my mask, and went over to a group of dead people to find out if it counted as a hit. They figured that it didn’t, so I went back to my team, only to find out that Jason had shot Jill just before he died. That got me. It’s like, I try to run a perfect team, and people still get shot (Jill didn’t complain about my leadership that time, though). I found out that it was only Joe and my team left.

Joe tried something that would seem crazy to some people, but it does make sense. He ran at me, and did a drive-by shooting (i.e., running past me, shooting as he went). I rolled around the tree as he went by, so I only got hit in the arm.

Then I got up and ran after him, after collecting Gideon from the woods.

Joe disappeared, so Gideon and I had to search for him. I sent Gideon about one hundred yards to my right as we went through the woods. He finally yelled that he saw Joe, and Joe ran down past me, and down past me on the left, back towards the entrance.

I followed him, and watched him talk to some people at the gate (I tried creeping up, but the leaves were too noisy). When he saw me, he took off running, and I ran after him, shooting.

He dove behind a pile of logs, and began shooting at me, so I dived for the nearest barrel. We shot back and forth for a little. I called Gideon a couple of times, but no response. My gun jammed, so Joe jumped up and ran over to bunker me. I was trying desperately to unstick the ball that was jamming, and I finally unjammed it as balls were landing around my ears like flies. I shot a few balls, so Joe, who was standing in the open, dove for the grass, and then it was my turn to jump up and start shooting. After about twenty shots (I moved forward as I shot), he yelled “Out!”

We walked back to the gate, and wondered where Gideon was. We heard shots out in the woods, so we blew our airhorn. He heard that. Maybe he was shooting at the birds.

Jill was happy that the “underdogs” (as she termed our team) won. I was just sorry that she got hit—otherwise, we would have had our whole team survive. Oh, well.

We played one more game, and then we had supper. The only problem was, most of the neighbor’s sheep had gotten out and was on our property somewhere. Another neighbor had penned them up in one of our pastures, but they had jumped the fence. So while some of us put away paintball gear, others went to look for the sheep.

We got supper in shifts and finally we got around to the dance. When the dance was over, we went to bed, while Leon read, and Adam, Jill, Joe, Mary, and I played psychiatrist (I was the psychiatrist, for those of you who wish to know). After asking a million questions (like, “do you like chocolate?”, “do you have trouble concentrating?”, “do you have trouble with algebra?”, “do you have an eating disorder?”, and of course, the inevitable, “are you selfish?”), I finally got onto the right track. Well, by about 2, we finished that game, and then somehow, we started talking about glasses filled to 50% capacity with water, and how would you describe that glass. After some normal sounding answers (like, the glass is half full), Joe asked Adam how he would describe it. Adam thought for a second, then said that the glass was obviously totally full. Joe applauded the answer as agreeing with his own. (For the details why ask them.) Then Joe asked Adam if there was anything else he could say about the glass. Then Adam said, “How recently was the glass filled?” Adam told us he was thinking temperature (as he could theorize the water was room temperature), but everyone else immediately thought evaporation. Then we asked Jill, and she started describing the glass (“the glass is clear, without a chip, and it tapers down from the top…”)

After Jill described the glass, we somehow got onto the topic of favorite shapes. Adam said a triangle, Joe said a circle and fleur de lis, Mary said something, and Jill said like a heart, and I forget what else. I couldn’t really come up with a favorite shape. I didn’t say it then, but I realized later that it’s just because I can’t stand the same thing forever. Finally, at 3:30am, we went off to bed ( Leon went to bed around 2, I believe).

We got up leisurely the next morning (like 8:30). By the time we finished breakfast, people needed to leave.

So then, again, came the inevitable good-byes. I like getting together with other Adventure Clubbers, but the good-byes are bad, because you know it’s going to be a while before you see them again.

Well, I’ll see y’all at the next adventure! Bon Adventure!

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asd

Corn Maze II

October 2, 2004 by Nathaniel Bluedorn

I got lost.

From 2004-10-02 Corn Maze

Dewayne Fender, Alec Fender and Hans looking at the map.

From 2004-10-02 Corn Maze

Johannah and Hans walking down one of the maze paths.

From 2004-10-02 Corn Maze

Me, when I was lost.

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asd

Caving Trip III

August 29, 2004 by Nathaniel Bluedorn

Our first caving trip is such a success we all decide to gather for a one-year anniversary.

August 27

From 2004-08-28 Meramec State Park

We arrive at Meramec State Park while it is pouring down rain. When it stops raining we pick up some pizzas and eat them at the park. We go to sleep with the sound of rain pattering over tents.

August 28

It rained all night, but most of us are perfectly dry.

From 2004-08-28 Meramec State Park

Both of our groups share day plans and don caving gear in the parking lot of the park welcome center. The ranger explains to the group headed towards Bear Cave that it is more full of water than had been expected. With this warning, he hands them the key.

Those going into Bear Cave must wear life jackets. There is a large underground lake in Bear Cave which explorers must cross to see all the cave.

Half of our group heads the other direction towards Little Scott Cave, fifteen minutes down the road.

From 2004-08-28 Meramec State Park

Zack Reynolds unlocks the grate into Little Scott Cave. Caves are locked to prevent people from getting lost in the cave and to protect the cave from vandalism.

From Misc Images

Climbing down into Little Scott Cave isn’t as difficult as it looks. The floor is only seven feet below the grate and there are handholds to help you lower yourself.

From 2004-08-28 Meramec State Park

Ava climbs along a ledge. We discover this is unnecessary when we find a second way to move forward.

From 2004-08-28 Meramec State Park

All of us halt for our pack lunch. This is a photo of Zack taking a photo. I am standing on a ledge above everyone else. Zack reads some poetry to us about caves.

From 2004-08-28 Meramec State Park

Jill stands next to a formation that looks like the jaws of death.

From 2004-08-28 Meramec State Park

When we return to the entrance, we look up the grate and hear thunder above us. Rain begins to pour down the hole and into the cave. We get more wet and muddy exiting the cave than we did exploring it.

When we reach our cars, we are soaked. This makes for an interesting situation which will later require some good car-cleaning skills.

From 2004-08-28 Meramec State Park

The group exploring Bear Cave decide not to bring their camera. They bring a lot of the cave back out with them (mud) instead. They report how they waded though mud, swam across an icy lake over 100 feet wide, and saw beautiful untouched cave formations on the other side.

All the guys roast our supper over an open fire. Everybody brings way too much good food.

From Misc Images

We hold a dance after supper. Leon shows us a few English Country Dances. We start in the parking lot of the picnic shelter, but it starts to rain so we move inside. Everyone tries to follow the caller’s instructions in this Square Dance. We all retire to our tents tired but happy.

August 29

We decide to split up again into two groups. One group will canoe down the Meramec River to Green’s Cave while the others hike one of the park’s trails.