Writing on this blog is some of the most entertaining writing I do and yet it always takes a backseat to the stuff for clients so I am sorry it has taken me 10 days to finish this up!
Before I forget - Emily Watson and Africa doing the obstacle course Saturday afternoon.
After sleeping late because I had the gall to trust a hotel alarm clock - I finally got back out to Barnwell in time to be put in a front end loader and raised I don't know how many feet in the air to take the group shot. This a first for me and a little unnerving to say the least - the up wasn't bad, it was the tipping the bucket forwards to make sure it stayed even that felt a little odd. I now have a much greater appreciation for how smooth some operators tip their bucket - I am sure it wasn't as bad as felt but it felt pretty incredibly jerky from inside the bucket!
I am still waiting for someone from the group to send me a pic of me in the bucket to add to my collection of 'Odd Photoshoots I have Survived'. It should look good beside the one of me on top of some guys Disco at Moab last October on the 'Top fo the World' trail (if you've been there, you know the spot!) trying to organize a cover shot for the magazine. Amazing how bossy you can get when its 35 degrees Celsius at 8000 ft up with no shade on top of a very reflective silver Disco - great place for a red with no hat to spend an hour or two...
After the front end loader ride, I felt pretty safe in Clay Templeton's Disco II even though he classes himself at the 'insane' level of driving experience and the trails he took the group on are some of the most challenging at Barnwell. Don't believe me?!? See the pics - visit my gallery and click on the Saturday morning (Sat. am) shots! Judge for yourself! This was a photographers dream shoot - thanks go to Clay for letting me ride along!
We got back to the camp area around 1pm - just in time for the obstacle course. The rules were that anyone with under one years driving experience could do the obstacle course as you would expect - sighted. Anyone with over one years experience had to do it blindfolded with a navigator directing them from the passengers seat...yup, you read that right...needless to say the spot I picked a to photograph the event from had a nice thick tree between the trail and me and I was ready dive at any minute. Ended up not being me that nearly lost their life - have a look at the vid a few posts before this one and you will see what I mean.
The banquet was amazing - my first taste of Texas bbq and now I know I will have to come back and after dinner came the requisite raffle ticket draw. I have never seen so many raffle items donated - the generosity of the sponsors was something else! And I don't know if it was rigged or not but one guy of the Arkansas guys would have had trouble fitting all the stuff that he won into his rig to get it home.
Ever seen a homemade margarita machine?!? This was new for me too. It involved a brand new Garbarator and one of those huge drink cooler that you see being dumped over coaches heads after football games. And I think a generator was in there somewhere too. Anyway, made great margaritas and I wish I had taken a moment to take a picture 'cause I don't think anyone back here in Canada believes me!
Along with the bucket ride earlier in the day, I had yet another new and rather white-knuckling experience - off road driving at night. It took a little to relax and I don't know if it was the margaritas or the driver's skill but Scott Hildreth, who offered up his passenger seat to me, proved it didn't have to be as scary as it sounds. Most of the time. It had its moments. Next year I will have to bring a tripod and night shooting stuff to catch some pics as it looked cool with all the lights in a row bouncing all over the place.
We had to finish up driving for the night at 10pm and at this point I figured it was a good time to get back to the hotel to pack and download pics etc. Good thing I did 'cause it was still after 1am before I got to bed.
Sunday was a sad day with everyone packing up to head home. Christopher Pullen and his two boys drove me back to the airport - thank you Christopher! From there the real adventure began with flights two hours late, running for connections and ending up arriving in Vancouver in the middle of the night with no luggage. People ask why I never check my camera equipment and why I am more paranoid about losing my discs of the backed up pics then my passport ;-)
See ya' next year, Texas Rovers and thank you for making this Canuck feel so welcome!
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Here's the hi-res link to the previous pic if you want to crop and color-adjust it.
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