Bomar and Andy's Birthday Bash......#EAF.......ish........

[wngrog]

Back in March we planned the biggest baddest free-for-all, #eaf trip to the Buffalo River to celebrate @Bomar and @ntsaint turning the BIG 40


We all looked at calendars, picked a date, started telling people.

This one was going to be the trip of the year. Camping along the Buffalo River. Bomar and Lou were going to cook. Families were going. Watersports, crossing Richland Creek, feet in the Buffalo. No wheeling, just get there and chill.

Utopia.

And then.........s***...........

 

[fountainhead]

I thought those pics looked familiar.

 

[wngrog]

Yep, JT.....It was a great plan.


When you actually go on an #eaf Trip that involves exploring you almost every time end up cutting downed logs, turning multiple trucks around when lost and of course most of the campsites are small and you compete with others for them.

Therefore the groups usually have to be small.

This campsite though.....it's easy to find and could hold 200 people.

Perfect for a Bomar sized Birthday Bash.

So as the strictly-adhered-to bylaws the OG EAF crew was invited and told the plan.

That's when we figured out that we had conflicted our date with the Razorback Ramble and JT and Bossman were out.

They chose these contraptions

Over these contraptions.

 

[slacker24-7]

This is gonna be good y'all ,Perfect example by the #EAF crew of adapting well to the conditions , well done guys

 

[wngrog]

Normally at this point we would start the vetting process of the remainder of the crew but since we had the monster campsite group size was not an issue.

After getting clearance from the Birthday boys, I told a bunch of people that had been interested in joining us on a trip.

We lay plans for the Birthday Bash trip during #TAF - Talladega As Fawk trip.

Food. Families. Boats. BBQ.

And then it started to rain.

 

[wngrog]

And rain. And rain. 2 times in the weeks leading up to the massive beach party the banks of the Buffalo swept trees and debris over out beautiful campsite.

As this was happening our core group began falling apart. Chef Lou informed us that his dessert Dude was going to return to Africa for 4 weeks so he was gonna have to do his job for money instead of his EAF job which is camp Chef.

All while this is happening we have our local scout guide @slacker24-7 sneaking in and out of the campsite and offering alternative campsites that were nowhere near as EAF as the Buffalo.

The mood among the group was low. Andy started commenting about how hot it was going to be. Bomar informed us that Tisa was working and he would have both toddlers alone. Red told me she was traveling and would not arrive home until late Friday night.


The Scout Guide sends pictures of the alternative site and trees are down everywhere.

Moral was low and I could see this entire trip falling apart when I started getting these texts from Jerry.......

It seems one person remembered that I had mentioned this trip after all. A full on newbie.

Holy crap. I thought everyone had forgotten.

I thought about it and realized we had a Scout but we didn't have a sniper since Lou was out (sniper is his secondary EAF job) so I let him know it was iffy and consulted the EAF counsel.

We agree it's a crap shoot so we go silent again. Operational security and we also Didn't want to get Jerrys hopes up.

8 days later he probes again

 

[wngrog]

Fast forward to a week out. Our scout sends back excellent recon on the massively awesome sandbar at the Buffalo.

Our fearless recon scout crosses Richland creek solo, traverses soft sand and sends pics back of the spot.

Hot damn. We are in business if the weather holds.

 

[wngrog]

Except it won't stop raining.

It's T-4 days and the attitude changes to F-it. We are going.

The house attorney @pmccraney suggests we find a cabin. Ride the roads and sleep dry.

Lots of ideas fly around on the group text and it is decided that the logistics director @ntsaint was going to search for a cabin.

Red informed me she had no plans to camp in the rain or be holed up in a cabin with my group text goons so I broke the news to Jerry.

Well she does, but not in the great outdoors.

I had Marines that worked for me in the Air Force. I was having flashbacks.

The plan hatches to take a 33 year old oil guzzling 100 hp FJ60 on a 2.5 day 800 mile drive.

I've got Jerry completely bamboozled at this point.

T-3.......

 

[wngrog]

Thursday.

Our navigator and trip planner sends this

He's sick. Bad.

Richland Creek is below the red line but LOTS of rain is in the forecast.

Meanwhile Blaylock the official #eaf photographer had flown the coop and is traipsing around the Buffalo and rubbing our noses in it

I prescribe steroids and a large tube of vagisil to Andy since I'm a drug rep and we all head to bed.

 

[wngrog]

The next morning I put together a group text and ask folks to share locations........

I set out about 7 am for my biggest doctor's office in Greenville with Pig in the 60. Andy is moving slow. Jerry is up and past my house by 7 am. Patrick has to pick up kids at 10 am at school. Dave of course is there. Bomar gets bad luck at work and begs out and says he will meet us Saturday morning.

Gratuitous Bridge pic

I made it to the Yellow Jacket right at noon.

I got this same picture in 2009 during the Great Crawl flood. I needed it again.....

Going through Hot Springs and up Highway 7 was clearly the long way. As I was sneaking up through the Quachitas Andy passed me up and Patrick was gaining. Meanwhile Pig and I were poking along and enjoying the ride

 

[wngrog]

So, back to picking on the FNG.

See, @Fireman was not here so we had to have a target

Jerry got a full onslaught for his admission to stopping at McD's

We rubbed it in by posting up
#eaf eats along the way

Andy was 1 hour back

Dave felt bad for Jerry because we were ragging him so bad he met him at CJs Burger Boy and got him fed properly

 

[MEMCruiser]

Lady at Hollis makes a mean Baloney Sandwich. Especially when tomatoes r ripe.

 

[slacker24-7]

I'll add my perspective of said scout for #EAF trips to The Ozarks. When this trip developed , I like everyone thought hell yea, sounds like a heck of a good time. So plans were started and texts exchanged, it's all good and written in stone. Then as we got closer, it started to rain. Then I was reminded it was also the weekend of the ramble as well as I'm supposed to host and participate in our state traditional archery championships, that same weekend . This tournament is the equilivent of the crawl in the traditional archery world. I was blinded by the awesomeness of the #EAF trips I've been on. As it continued to rain, and the creeks rise and stay there and I am getting pounded by my archery buddies it's not looking good on my part. I'm starting to fade and tell Andy I may be out. I do want to continue to provide intel so use that as a excuse to get out and explore the options. We needed a place that we could get to and not have to cross creeks to get to or at least have a excape route out another way. We've had several bad storms this spring dropping trees everywhere, this combined with high water was creating a challenge ....

 

[slacker24-7]

Several texts with Andy and it wasn't looking good, this thing was starting to fall apart. I kept sending screen shots of river gauges to Andy, high levels were getting higher . I had this other conflict I was getting pressured on and damn trees were down everywhere. It looked like it was going to be a no go. but Nolen and Andy wouldn't scrub the mission, and even with the outside pressure to dump this and help with the tournament, I really wanted it to happen , so I advised the guys at the shoot I would miss the first day on Saturday and make it there early Sunday. My plans were to bail from Saturday nights camp early Sunday morning and be almost 100 miles away by 7 am. I informed Andy I was back on with a modified plan to do my usual burning the candle at both ends. So as we got closer I continued to scout and talking to Andy about possible camp options. Then we got a break and the rains slowed and the sun came out. Maybe the gods were smiling on us after all.

 

[slacker24-7]

So I took a day, loaded the trusty 60 and headed to the Buffalo for more recon. Now I'm not the smartest dude in the world and do a lot of solo exploring and have put my self in a lot of pretty iffy situations, this was going to be one of them. I had reviewed the river gauges and saw I had a whole 2 inches below my self imposed maximum crossing depth of Richland . Yea 2 inches , wow that's comforting. So I bail off in the creek dang it's deeper than I was thinking, with water coming in the door seals and it looks to be almost half way up my doors. Damn what a DA. This crossing is long and the 60 keeps churning but close to the end it also starts sputtering from sucking some water. CRAP I'm within winching distance of a tree on the far bank and I'm thinking the 8274 may be able to snatch me out before I run out of battery if it dies, but then of course I have to come back across to get out. See what I mean about being a DA ? Anyway I pump the gas, the 60 sputters and pulls out of the creek. Luckily the carb cleared out and I pull the seat cover out from between my butt cheeks. I venture on but the return crossing is on my mind the whole way. Finding everything ok at the river i venture back to my dreaded crossing, but hey, it's a whole 2 inches below my comfort level, right ?

 

[slacker24-7]

If Nolen can do this in his Hundy I can in my 60 no problem. So I bail back into the creek trying to create the perfect bow wave and keep my revs at a good level. I can't really see the bottom to avoid rocks so that adds to the pucker factor as well . The 60 churns with determination , I don't think it wants to be in this creek either.. I get to within winching distance of the far bank and find a little comfort. But the 60 wants out of there and climbs the far bank. I again pull the seat covers out of my butt cheeks and open the doors to let the water pour out and I unlock the hubs and drink a cold one to celebrate another survived solo DA situation . And dirt road it back home.

 

[slacker24-7]

I report back to Andy that all is well and with a good long range forecast the creeks should drop and be crossable by the time of the bash, lets get this party rolling. Then it starts raining and the forecast goes to hell, so Andy does some long distance recon by reaching out to friends who have info on the area farther up river and we exchange texts and thoughts and the group comes up with a pretty good plan....

 

[Fireman]

Hell I wasn't even invited. I'm going to start 10 group texts a day with all thou fawkers just so y'all have to see green texts!

 

[wngrog]

Hell I was even invited. I'm going to start 10 group texts a day with all thou fawkers just so y'all have to see green texts!

Just to be clear, since you are part of the OG #EAF crew you are technically always invited.

You just might not be told.......

 

[Fireman]

I even had permission to bring the 100. Of course with the weather predicted the Unimog may have been a better choice.