The Trip - Part 2

In case you are wondering what the H-E-double-hockey-sticks I was doing taking two thirds of a week off work to trek to Halsey, NE, I was attending BOW.

BOW... Becoming and Outdoors Woman. This is a program designed for women to learn outdoor activities without the usual pressure of a familiar man breathing down their necks. Fathers, brothers, husbands, are all wonderful people in most situations, but many times, not as teachers. So, they bring in other experienced men and women to teach women about archery, shotgunning, turkey hunting, deer hunting, fishing, canoeing, orienteering, etc.
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Even though our alarm went off at 5:45, we didn't shove off from Gramp's house until 7:30 AM and headed into Burwell for breakfast. Gramps was still sleeping when we left though we poked our heads into his bedroom long enough for me to say "Love yah Gramps!" and for him to assign R-bo another errand.

We sat outside the dentist's office so I could check my classroom using their wifi. We also ate next to the former Burwell Sanitarium, which, much to my disappointment, was not a mental institution, but rather, a plain old boring hospital.

We ate a Verda's. It was delish. We sat next to a couple from Burwell and the man knew every distance from here to there, and every bar in a 100 mile radius of Burwell.



As you know, I am easily amused, and I did find this sign charmingly witty, particularly due to the author's use of "don't".


The single item I forgot to bring to B.O.W. is a hat, so I purchased this little gem at a gas station that was very near Halsey. It has a built-on bottle-opener in the bill. Be jealous. Be very very jealous.



We arrived at the 4-H camp around 10:30. We claimed two beds in the Cottonwood Cabin. Mine the middle one, the one to the right is R-bo's. The one to the left was our roommate, Shannatron's. She was a ball of energy and very sweet. We totally lucked out in the roommate department. I very stupidly did not get a pic of Shannotron. Shannatron, if you're reading this, will you send me a pic from the weekend?


I set up shop right away. Good thing I brought a big-ass stack of books. They were nice and heavy and didn't get used once.


Me in a cabin, quaint.

Here I am gearing up for the shit your pants line. It's this rope that they strung up from a little deck and ran down to the bottom of a big-assed hill. Then you're supposed to jump off the deck and just fly down, hoping the rope doesn't break. A man at the bottom yells, "Feet down! Feet down!" He has to say it twice because when you are in the air, shitting your pants, you don't listen to people's instructions right away.


This actually could be really erotic, if you think about it. Tie me up, tie me down baby.


You can't hear this on the video, but at the end of my ride, the guy who was waiting at the bottom said, "What a hoot." I've never heard anyone use that phrase seriously before, but he was serious. He thought me carrying a camera down the hill was a hoot. Come to think of it, I think it's a hoot too. Then he told me that he was not "getting fresh" -- that he just had to help me unbuckle my "chastity belt." I told him I prefered to think of it as a diaper. He didn't like that as much as "chastity belt". I think he was trying out one-liners on me because the other people that came down after me did not get any of those fun phrases from him.




I took a class on Friday called "Map and Compass" which is a class where we learned how to use maps, then compasses, then both of them together. I met a lady named Eilenotron in this class, who turned out to be one sweet chick. We spend mucho grande time together on Sat. More on that later.

The class was taught by a wildlife biologist and a land surveyor and they were both amazingly patient teachers. Maybe this type of thing comes easy to most people, but for ol' Morgetron mapping and compassing are not easy concepts, but these two teachers broke through the confusion for me. Good thing because on Saturday, I actually had to put these skills to use.

No joke.

The people who sat at the table with us thought we were so weird for taking so many pics of each other.


Hello double-chin shine face.

I always forget that I have my prescription sunglasses on inside. I think people think I'm trying to be "cool" which I am. "Trying" is the operative verb.

Holy moley!

This was dinner. We did not go hungry. After R-bo took this pic the lady sitting to our right said, "I'm sure there was a good reason for you to take a picture of your dinner" as if people don't normally do that. You guys do it, right?


To be continued.