We headed out a day earlier than in the past on Thursday. The drive down was ok, traffic light and we sailed thru all the normal backups except in Shoreline area, but even that wasn’t too bad. We got into Aberdeen/Hoquiam area and hit a couple downpours but we could see blue skies a head of us. We kept our fingers crossed. Then blue skies n sunny!
We were the first ones there and had the whole campground to ourselves. We dropped off the things over by the Dinner/Raffle area and got back into our camp site to get set up. It was nice to not feel pressured for time and within no time we were set up and took a nice long walk down to the beach with our dog Sami, short for Samsonite as she was found with her two brothers in a suitcase in a dumpster in Puerto Rico. If you hadn’t guessed yet, yes she was a rescue dog. This was her first time to the beach so she was afraid of every movement and things.. But she got used to it quickly and was soon running around. She sure didn’t like the bridge over the small waterway, but on the way back she did actually walk across it.
Jason and Rhonda from the Rainer Ridge Rams were on their way as well as Charlie n Billie from BeChilliN. Thursday night turned out very nice. Stars were out and some saw shooting stars
Friday morning was dry enough to get tent city set up for our dinner and raffle the following day. Jason’s 10 x 20 would turn out the be THE life safer. We had 5ea 10 x10 pop up canopies set up along with Jason’s 10 x 20 and registration with raffle tickets ready for sale by the time people started trickling in Friday evening.
In talking with the owner of Tidelands Campground, Dave. He explained how he used to have a clam shucking, or cleaning station set up. But he had begun tearing it down and was down to posts in the ground. He had pulled two posts but scratched up his truck so he stopped.
Well this gave Casey an idea to have a Post Pulling competition among the four clubs Friday evening. With a little arm twisting we got all four clubs to participate. With the help of Charlie, Casey n Charlie came up with some quick rules.
Basically, they would be judged on least damage to surrounding ground as well as least damage to poles, then total time to get post out of ground and some dirt back in the hole.
We had Timber Tamers go first. Their pole was partially dug out already. So it was a quick pull with one rig winching and another rig snatch block to pole pulling straight up. I think the final time was approx 2.47?
Next up. The Rainier Ridge Rams. They used one rig with a tall bumper n pulled straight up for a time of 2.17.
It was time for the Top Shelf Wheelers. They had a rig with a stinger out front n a pulley already attached. They gave it a good pull and time landed somewhere in between the other two.
The final club was the Wandering Willies. They gave a good show but their post was in pretty good. It took them the most time but they were awesome sports and finally got it out and left Dave the campground owner with 4 poles out of the ground. Woohoo!!
Each team received a prize, compliments of Charlie N Billie Preston from BeChilliN. The price was novelty key ring called the “Monkey Wrench”, it features multiple wrench sized openings as well as a flat n Philips screwdriver.
This helped break the ice a bit for all clubs to get to know each other better and everyone had a great time.
Thanks to everyone who participated!!
The weather held out till later Friday night when it started to rain. The Rainier Ridge Rams hosted a night beach run that went well and they went all the way down to the North Jetty and back with all their fancy lights and having a good time.
With the pop up tents and Jayson’s 10X20 already up, it made for a good social area to chat and have some drinks and welcome the late arrivals as they pulled in. Raffle tickets were selling and people getting registered. And then it happened!!!!
Jello shooters arrived! The party favors were here! I will let your imagination flow with that idea in your head.
The rain came down throughout the night and I know I awoke at 5:30am to absolutely TORRENTIAL down pours. I thought the vent on the top of the camper was going to implode from all the rain falling it was ridiculous. Later I had heard the Dave Wilkenson had gone out by the tents at approximately 7 or 7:30am and drained off all the puddled rain in the tents that were not draining correctly. It was shortly after that that the PNW 10 x 20 tent made its last and final stand and it collapsed under all the weight of the puddles and rain that had fallen. We lost another 10 x 10 to the same assault that morning.
People in tents were lucky they either set up on higher ground or had blow up beds or cots to keep them off the ground thank goodness. There are pictures of the lakes or lake that formed from all the rain, as well as a couple videos showing the rainfall..I thought maybe were in a monsoon or something?
It kind of let up about 8am thank goodness as we needed to get things set up down at the beach entrance to hold a drivers meeting at 9am.
By 9am we had a pop up set up for a drivers meeting and forms to give out and general drivers meeting. By now the weather had calmed down a bit and it was drizzly but not bad.
Me and Casey stayed behind to catch any stragglers or to answer any questions anyone had. Evan Pauls came back after a few to relive us so we could go survey and repair the damage to the tent area as lunch was to be served from noon to one.
We got the tents situated so we could do a lunch and by then the weather was at least dry.
Rainier Ridge Rams set about getting lunch read and they had a great hot dog and chili feast for all to enjoy. Thanks to all the Rainier Ridge Rams for hosting the lunch. It really did hit the spot and it was delicious as always.
People got back out to the beach for cleaning and Casey and I and our little dog even got out on the beach for some dead whale sightseeing..dead seal sightseeing, and pulling a few stuck vehicles out of the sand.
We had a plan of meeting out on the beach at 4pm for a photo shoot of all the rigs and by about 4:15 I think we had everyone lined up and it really did look impressive. It was a nice little break and we got some reports of some vehicles that needed some help so we got the WHOLE swarm to Swarm around the vehicles needing help and I hope we didn’t scare anyone but they all were grateful for the help.
We even had a quick little hazing with one of our newer members, Cheryl and Ryan. We got Charlie and Billie Stuck in their big Dodge 3500 and had Cheryl pull to get him and then get her stuck,, to only then have Charlie pull her out… It didn’t work out that way and neither Charlie or the new member ever got stuck. But it was fun to play and everyone caught on pretty quick what we were doing including the hazed person. They took it well and all had fun and smiles were abound. It was difficult to let others know, not to say anything, when they saw Charlie’s break lights on!
At tis point we all gathered to go thru town for our so called parade. So with lights one and rain starting to fall again we made out way thru town and then back out to the beach for some of us and others up the highway back to camping area.
Dinner was served a little bit late but it sure was good and we had enough weather and tents and picnic tables for all to sit and enjoy their meal.
The rain started to comedown a little heavier as we got into the raffle mode. But I think we barely had enough room for people to stand and stay dry and kind of warm for the raffles. The prizes were awesome and the winch donated by Summit Offroad 4×4 in Monroe went to someone who really needed it. So it was all meant to be.
I can’t thank everyone enough for volunteering and showing up to make this an Operation Shore Patrol to remember. We had 86 People sign in, to clean up the Beach!
The weather barely cooperated but we made it thru it.
The clubs and people that showed up made this what it was, which was FANTASTIC!
And once again me and Casey were close to the last ones leaving. And as we stopped by a couple of businesses they thanked us again for coming out to clean up their beaches.
That thanks is to be extended to each and everyone one of you for coming down and putting in your time to make this a fun and exciting and worthwhile event.
Thanks to each and everyone one of you!!
Gary M
TT256
P.S. We are working on next year’s Friday evening “team building” event!
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