GW16 photos

Photos courtesy of Joe R's iPhone, taken by some dude who worked at the tubing place. Most of us who usually bring cameras neglected to do so this year, hence the shortage of images.

Return to Blue Ridge

Another excellent Guys Weekend is in the books. I'll try to capture some of the highlights and memorable moments in some kind of narrative form here.

Guys began assembling Tuesday night in the metropolitan Atlanta area, when Mark and Amorak flew in after the thunderstorms finally cleared. The two of them took MARTA in Joe A's general direction (with only a slight misstep along the way), and Joe A picked them up at the Medical Center station, transporting them to his house for a late burrito dinner and some PS3 pinball before bed. On Wednesday morning, the three of them (and two of Joe A's kids) went to Andretti's arcade for a while. Then they hit the road (without the kids) bound for Blue Ridge. Lunch was Chick-Fil-A and some cheeseburger place.

Joe R reached the River Ridge cabin about 3:30ish, maybe 10 minutes before the three of them arrived, and it took about two hours to unload all the food Joe R had brought (two hours is perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it was a TON of food). Then they relaxed and hung out for a couple hours while waiting for Scott and Christopher to arrive from Birmingham. They got there shortly before 6 p.m., marking (to the best of anyone's recollection) the earliest we'd ever had six people at a GW. Dan, we missed you! We spent the next little while being highly entertained by Scott and his tales of people he's sworn at since we last saw him.

Then we chowed down on some delish BBQ -- provided, as ever, by Joe R -- and played/watched a few minutes of MetalliHalen Rock Guitar Band Star Hero (or whatever) and then settled in for a long night at the poker table. Cards! Plus lots of beer! And it was only Wednesday.

Then it was Thursday, which started as a lazy day of hanging around the cabin. Eventually, we all crowded into Scott's Explorer and headed for a riverside park, where we played kickball. The three oldest guys -- Joe R, Scott, Amorak -- ended up on the same team, and got the snot kicked out of of us by the youngsters (Joe A, Christopher, Mark). A young fellow named Trey joined us and played all-time offense. He was young, but he wasn't that good. :) As we were wrapping up our game, another kid (Austin, I believe he said) asked if he could join us. We told him we were just finishing, and someone said, "We're old." Austin chuckled and said, "I know." Then we beat the hell out of him. Or we would have, if we weren't too old. Oh, and also at the park, Scott pegged Amorak square in the nuts with a nerf football. WTF, dude? Seriously? That, like, you know, hurt and stuff.

Then it was back to the cabin, burgers for dinner, another evening of poker.

Friday we got up at a reasonable hour and went tubing on the Taccoa River. That was some breathtakingly cold water, dude. And deep, and moving pretty swiftly. Our asses were numb. But it was certainly $5 worth of fun. (Cheapest GW ever? Cheapest in a while, at least.)

Then back to the cabin. In late afternoon, we gathered for a game of Scotland Yard, where Amorak drew the lot of Mr. X and tried to escape from London. But he didn't make it. The five detectives teamed up to catch him in about 13 moves. Then we all enjoyed one of the best meals in the history of Guys Weekend -- steaks, baked potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob. Holy feast, Batman. Eventually we dragged our stuffed-ass selves back to the poker table. The good news about Friday was that it felt like Saturday all day, but it wasn't. We still had a full day to go ...

... which brings us to Saturday. Slow start, but eventually we all crawled out of bed and got ourselves to the Ellijay bowling alley by noon. We bowled three games each. Once again, the three oldest guys ended up together, and once again the snot-nosed punks prevailed. Joe A tied his lifetime best bowling score -- 185 -- and then went in the gutter on his final ball to miss his chance to set a PR. Then we went to lunch at some Taccoa riverside restaurant (I'm not remembering the name) where we ate fried dill pickles (second GW in a row, I believe) and shark bites, and heard all about the penny-pinching micromanager. We also saw posters offering rewards for the return of lost pets: $1000 for an orange cat, $5000 for some yappy-looking little dog named Cinnamon.

Then it was back to the cabin. Some napped, some played another round of Scotland Yard. This time Mark was Mr. X, trying to evade three detectives, and he made it a few more turns than Amorak did, but still got nabbed eventually. Top Chef Joe R grilled some sausages and brats for yet another fantabulous meal. Boy, did we eat well this year. Seriously. Best food GW ever.

Then the usual Saturday night routine -- the beginning of the packing & cleaning, and finally hitting the poker table near 10 o'clock. Cards. Bed. Sunday morning. Tired. Pack, clean, eat, say goodbye, drive. Until next year, fellas.

A few activities/notes that didn't make it into the narrative:

• Six-handed spades, this time with two decks and two three-man teams.
• Mark, Amorak, Joe A., Christopher playing a shoot-each-other version of Call of Duty. Watch out for those dogs. They're nasty -- and fast.
• Mark, Christopher, Joe A playing Little Big Planet. Scott, unimpressed by the game.
• Joe R, Scott, Amorak playing spades -- Joe R won, despite rolling over on sandbags. Heading into the final hand, all three of us were around 460 points. Scott had crap cards, Amorak bid 6 and went set, Joe R made his 6 bid and won.
• Playing Werewolf on the screened-in porch. Not quite enough people to make it work really well, though it was worth a shot. Joe R was the werewolf first, Joe A the werewolf second. Joe R won, Joe A got lynched.
• Joe R also grilled hot dogs for lunch. Thursday, I think.
• We drank every single beer.
• Joe A tried to get our waitress fired by running some sort of free-refill scam at the restaurant. Didn't work, though.
• This was the most sleep-deprived GW in years, for Amorak, at least. Stayed up way late every night starting with Tuesday, slept as late as 9:30 just one time (Saturday), and never took a nap. Yeesh. Took me almost a week to recover.
• Oh, and the redbugs! Many of us took home some souvenir itchy spots to remember the weekend by.