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Friends with ROGAIN. XD

I have been recruited, as of today, to help set up a trip into Lake Chautauqua territory. I attended a meeting today that was not at all productive, but I’m still very glad I went. It was an interesting experience. RORAQ was in town, and he hadn’t been in Utah, like I thought, but he was in WASHINGTON. Gee, I can’t keep his travels straight. He wanted to visit Padua again, but I told him that he’s not allowed to relive the high school experience vicariously through me. Also, Allison, MC, Ted, Rebecca, Jan, and Christy were there, along with three other girls that I can’t remember their names. :S I’m not so good with names. (I’m sooo sorry…) Andrea came too, but she was late. Zach once said that I hated friends, do you remember it? Well, I had forgotten what it feels like to have a sweet, rather than sour, history with someone. The meeting, rather than being productive, was a great social experience. And I got a big slap from the dearest group. Read on. XD

It was, apparently, our “fourth rogain experience.” I objected to my recruitment, stating, “I have never been rogaining in my life, much less have even HEARD OF IT until now. Why have I been selected to help with this?” Rebecca gave me this evil stare, like I’d just insulted her. I gave her a piteous shrug, as if I were saying, “What is it? I’m sorry, but I don’t quite understand.” Watching the exchange of body language, Christy burst out laughing. I didn’t understand what was so hilarious about this. Jan, whom I haven’t seen since the official break-up of TG, interjected, “OK, wise guy (referring to me), why don’t you start of the meeting by telling us about what is entailed in a perfect rogaine experience.” I gave her a blank look, like my head was full of bubbles.

Christy whispered to me, “You’re an idiot.” I didn’t take offense to it. It wasn’t like a horribly insulting phrase from something TGish, but rather random. So I ignored her. She then began rifling through the papers she had in front of her. They were various maps of the Chautauqua basin area/watershed/whatever. She then yelled, “You look like my eleven paddock riders.” It wasn’t the way she said it, or however random it seemed. We all burst out laughing, with the exception of RORAQ (he was eyeballing us from the table, as if we were all insane). It was an inside joke, from a camping trip long ago.

This was the moment when Andrea stormed in. She said something along the lines of, “I lost it!”
RORAQ had the idiocy to ask her, “Lost what?” You’d think he’d learn by now that it is not wise to interrupt Andrea when she’s panicky. Let her vent, and THEN cool her down. But MC saved RORAQ’s face when she exclaimed, “HER GIFT FROM GOD!” The way she said it, it was kind of as if she were serious, as if it weren’t a joke.
Allison gasped, and then said something that was inappropriate but hilarious. We all cracked up.

Zach once said that I hated friends. (Gee, you can really tell that he’s on my mind today! Grr…) With this laughter, excitement, and self-prodding, how could you possibly hate something like this? Who, in their right mind, does not like this? I must admit, these people are more eccentric, more strange, and more HILARIOUS than he is, but this may be one of the things that makes them all so special. My strange, bubbly, not-at-all boring, off the wall people.

No, Allison is NOT perverted. She just comes from strange thought processes. :S We all love her and everything she contributes to the entire camping/rogain experience, from her fear of spiders, to her love of spreading whipped cream where it doesn’t belong, to her FASCINATING horror stories around the campfire. She’s great. Really. If Zach thinks my friends are too weird for him, than he must prefer the boring sociopaths of society. Either that, or he prefers to obtain the monopoly of wit and humor.

Ted was quietly contemplating in the backdrop of the scheme of things. (With Ted, you have to be careful; He seems rude, but he’s just shy. He seems moody, but he’s just restless. He seems gay, but he’s just a loner. He seems a lot of things, but if you give him the chance and really get to know him, you’ll fall in love with him.) He’s a quiet person, like Calvin Cooledge, with expressionate, deep brown eyes. Everyone loves to go on one-on-one hikes with him because of his finesse and knowledge of terrain. It’s one thing to look at a map before you set out on a trip, and have it memorized. It’s quite another to not touch a map, set out, go wherever the country calls you, and still never get lost. He says he hates maps, and I admire that about him. It may SEEM careless and stupid, but he has IMPECCABLE feel for directions. He is a navigational mastermine, and I’d love to have him on an orienteering team. (except he might wander off if he’s bored with us). Out of nowhere, when the conversation cooled down, Ted said something along the lines of, “Dandelion, (he’s one of the few who won’t let me live that down,) I wonder why you were told to get help us, too, but I’m not surprised. You were a ROGAIN PILOT, and you came to only one of the safety meetings.” I was surprised how he spoke up. I was also surprised about the tone he used, caustic and biting, as if he held it against me.

“I never went to a Rogain meeting…” I began to protest, but he interrupted with his caustic tone—“You don’t even know that you’ve done it plennnny ‘o’ times. What do you think it is? How many times ‘ave you been camping? Rogain is pillowless.”

That last line lit a lightbulb in my head--- Rogain is pillowless. Granted, I know that sounds weird. But it all made sense. All my life I believed there were THREE types of camping, “PILLOW” camping, BACKCOUNTRY camping, and “PILLOWLESS” camping. Yes, I’m an idiot. “Pillowless” camping meant “ONLY the bare necessities, and VERY LITTLE ELSE.” Pillow camping, on the other hand, could have all the comforts you felt the urge to bring.

1.) PILLOW CAMPING—ah, yes, all the commodities. We have inflatable mattresses (Well, I don’t. I prefer the ground, not the hassle of the stupid airbag), radios, electricity, flushable toilets a short jog away, and most importantly—CAMPSITES that have been pre-mapped out. You can park your car, pitch your tent, and call it camping. I always felt it was cheating to already have a campsite waiting for you. It seemed wrong and weird.
One of the greatest things about Pillow camping, other than all the comforts of home nestled in a place of natural beauty and surroundings, was the WATERSKIING. Yes, I waterski. It’s one of the most exhilarating sports. XD
This was the type of camping we did most; least planning, least risk, least worry.

2.) BACKCOUNTRY CAMPING—We still had way more than the essentials, or so I thought. The main difference between pillow camping and backcountry camping was that we all carried all of our stuff into rugged terrain to pitch a camp just about anywhere—or at least, a suitable campsite with little vegetation, and not too close to water. Y’know, the stuff you worry about when setting up a campsite. Yes, we got there on our own, PITCHED AND CHOSE a campsite rather than having one pre-made, and settled into REAL, untouched nature. Granted, civilization was only a few miles away. BUT this camping was also labeled as “Pillowless” or “Pillowed.”

3.) PILLOWLESS CAMPING--- we were going to travel from POINT A to POINT B, carrying only what we could pack in a small frame backpack. There was to be a tarp (combine with a trio to make a tent, and there were 6 to a team, if you felt the necessity of a tent. Or, you could just wrap up in your tarp and fall asleep,) a few changes of clothing, bare essential toiletries ALL biodegradable, odds and ends of camping equipment and mesh tins, and room to put cans of food, matches, and other GROUP essentials. There was to be NO PILLOW (hence the name,) not many commodities, and no luxury items. Everything that we needed to carry, we had to carry for a long distance, so you wanted your load to be light.
Pillowless camping is GRUELLING, and the food would be gross if you weren’t hungry. But each time, after trekking however many miles in a day, times 4 or 3, I would have this wonderful feeling of victory against nature herself. We survived the trek, as physically demanding as the rough terrain and load was.
We wouldn’t camp somewhere for more than most of a night. We had to keep going.
It wasn’t until now that I learned that we didn’t consider this camping at all.
This was my experience of rogain.
I had rogained.
And because I missed so many meetings, I didn’t even know what it was called. At the times that we did discuss it, we always jokingly referred to it as “Pillowless camping,” not Rogain. So that’s what I believed it to be all of this time.
It brings me to wonder how many people I’ve made myself a fool in front of.

I should probably update you on the Zach situation, but I don’t feel like it. Comparing his issues to this great excitement, it really is quite boring. “Eclipsed,” one may say. BUT I have another, unrelated camping experience, that I need to invite him to sometime. (It’s a retreat for WYD, or our regional version, anyway. XD). Wanna come?
Oh, and RORAQ and I talked after the meeting. I asked him what he thought of “Realism,” and he laughed and told me that he was a realist. My mouth dropped open. MY RORAQ, a realist. Imagine that.
I need to write about that sometime.

Until then, I wish you happy trails.
And always take the road less traveled.
And you look like 11 paddock riders. XD