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Adventure

Don’t Run Up the Ramp

Mr. Yuk-Yuk’s bachelor party had me waking up at 4:45 AM on a Saturday morning. It was dark out, very dark. I swung by Wes’s to pick him up then we heading to the Tropicana to meet up with the rest of the crew and head out to the West Virginia vs Rutgers game in Piscataway. We just pullled into the parking gargage and ran down a stairwell drenched with urine that mysterioiusly emptied into some street in AC. As it was a little past 6 AM and we were running a few minutes late, neither of us paid much attention to where we had parked.

Next we met up the crew that would be embarking on this truly epic journey. Seemed like a good bunch of guys, all decked out in their West Virginia attire. I kept the fact that I’m not much of a fan to myself, the numbers were greatly in their favor. We then boarded the rental vans and our journey towards Piscataway began.

Ride wasn’t all that bad. Many a stories were exchanged, with a few mentioning alligators. Can’t say I recall the stories, but the memory of alligators does stand out. Passed a pair of accidents on the Parkway, with one involving a massive truck that went completely off the road. Can’t imagine how they pulled that one out of the forrest.

We arrived in Piscataway around 8 AM, home of the Scarlet Knights and would now stake our claim for land suitable for our tailgating endeavors. We eventually found a nice spot close to the poor port-o-potties, nothing would deserve the fate that they fared on this day. We set up both the tents and fired up the grill.

The food and drink were plentiful and the elements were growing worse as time wore on. This was my first time tailgating, so all was new to me. West Virgina must have quite a following in New Jersey as it seemed that almost half the fans in attendance were sporting their colors.

Some of use departed to actually go watch the game, while the rest of us including myself stayed under the tents and weather the monsoon. The guys outside were really enjoying listening to the game on satellite radio, that was until the Shepherd destroyed the reception. I’ve never seen a wire take quite a beating as to what the Shepherd did to this poor wire. With no game updates, morale took a major hit. The vans did possess a radio, so the poor quality of sound coming from the vans would now how to suffice.

It was around this time that the weather really picked up. I’ve seen some angry weather in my day, but this day was amongst one of the angriest these eyes have ever witnessed. A heavy, steady wind was attempting to make us take shelter elsewhere. In fact, the winds seemed determined to take out tents from us on numerous occasions. Each man was forced to take hold of a post and hold on for dear life if we wished to keep our shelter. Eventually the storm did subside and the weather turned out to be quite pleasant. Apparently West Virgina had won and that brought smiles to all.

Exhuasted from our early start to the day, we were finally going home. We boarded the vans and lost a couple of soldiers in the battle. The grill and one of the tents were so badly damaged that they had to be left behind. We will all remember the sacrifices both made for us all on this day. Thank you grill and thank you green tent, thank you so much.

When we finally arrived back to Atlantic City, we were shooed off the bus and left to fend for ourselves. Wes and I were now faced with what would turn out to be our most daunting task of the day, where the hell did I park in the morning? We spent a lot of time entering parking garages, and riding various elevators until we finally decided to go outside and walk around and hope that something stood out as familiar and it might come to us.

We walked around and recognized the parking garage we had pulled into. For some strange reason we thought it would be a good idea to enter the parking garage on foot where cars enter it. This in fact is not a good idea, in fact this is a very bad idea. Cars aren’t expecting two fools to be running up the ramps, increasing the odds of us being struck by a vehicle for each second we spent scaling the ramps. So we ran, and we ran fast.

We had scaled the ramp and turned the corner so happy that we were now safe, but sadly we weren’t safe at all. Instead we were now greeted by another ramp three times the length with an much steeper incline. So me mustered up all the remaing strength we had in our fatigued bodies and sprinted up this ramp as well, just hoping that we wouldn’t get struck from behind. Legs sore, catching our breath we finally found our car and managed to get home alright. Yes, today was quite the adventure.

Categories
Adventure

Implosion of The Sands

Sands Implosion

Went to watch the implosion of The Sands last night in Atlantic City. I still can’t believe how many people were there to watch it. The boardwalk and the beach were packed with people, many parked there cars on the beach and tailgated for the event. The ocean was lined with people on boats to witness the spectical as well, with even the skies filled with news helicopters filming the event.

Scott, Jared and I navigated our ways to a great spot to view the implosion on the beach. Again, I still can’t believe how many people were crammed on the beach. There was a brief fireworks display then the ground shook, and that’s when The Sands came crumbling down in just a few seconds. It was a rather brief event.

More amazing than 100,000 tons falling to the earth, was how the three of us got in and out of Atlantic City in record time. We arrived at 9:10 at Caesar’s. Parking was jacked up to $20, but since Jared is such a fine gambler and regular to Caesar’s, we needen’t pay for such a frivilous charge. Then we fought through the crowds to get a good view, and took in the fine explosion. We then ran through the exiting crowd of thousands from the beach onto the boardwalk, got into Caesar’s and somehow got out of Atlantic City by 9:45. Truly amazing considering the amount of people in for the event.

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Adventure

Alex’s Wedding

Alex's Wedding

Went to Alex and Alexa’s wedding last night. It was at her parent’s house in Linwood. The weather turned out to be very nice and it turned out to be a very nice occasion. The bathrooms were top notch, two thumbs up.

Scott gave a pretty funny speech, that left attendants impressed. A poem was read that reminded me of an epic game of Dungeons and Dragons. Table six which I was seated at was a good bunch. Chris and I put our differences aside for the occasion and decided that our hatred should get the night off in honor of the event.

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Adventure

The Catch

Every now and then you live to witness a clutch preformance. Well on Saturday night I gave the clutch performance during Alex’s bachelor party. The night was growing old and Wes, Jared, Alex and I decided it was time to get a cab ride home.

While leaving Game On we were taking the escalator to the second floor. With Wes and Jared halfway down the excalator Alex and I trailed. Out of the blue (this would become a recurring theme during our travel to our cab), a drunken Alex lost his balance and was beginning to topple down the escalator.

Luckily my reactions were sharp as I immediatley managed to grab hold of this intoxicated wrecking ball preventing him from bowling over the unsuspecting Wes and Jared as well as sustaining enough injuries to ruin the upcoming wedding photos he’ll be subject to the upcoming week or so.

Normally catching someone from falling face first down and escalator is a fine feat in itself, but catching an Alex from falling is astronomical feat, of perhaps unearthly ranking. He’s a pretty big fellow and the partying throughout made for quite a perspirated fellow. Not only was he heavy as hell, but he was also as slippery as a greased pig.

Some various excitement guiding the wrecking ball through Caesar’s casino floor as well as an adventurous cab ride topped off the night. Oh yeah and a destroyed mailbox (believe it’s the third time for that poor box) and a monstrous thud capped of my night of adventure. There’s no telling just how much damage “The Catch” saved, but we’re all glad I was there to make it.

Categories
Adventure Sports

Hall of Fame Induction

Denny's Draft

I had received one of the recent honors of my life the other day, with my induction into Denny’s Fantasy Football League’s hall of fame. The induction was held in Wes’s basement before the season eight draft for Denny’s. It was a truly humbling experience.

I was sure to dress appropriately for such a glorioius occasion. Wearing my championship t-shirt from season four and my newly purchased yellow sportscoat (which was several sizes too small) I was set to deliver my speech. I was sure to thank all those responsible for getting me to this stage of my life that I never even imagined as possible, the Denny’s Hall of Fame.

From the various response I’ve gotten from the ceremony, I think my speech and genuine appreciation of the honor really hit home with the members of Denny’s. It was a truly humbling experience and a great honor and no one can ever take away the fact that I’m a member of Denny’s Fantasy Football League’s Hall of Fame.

Categories
Adventure

Adventure Village

Mansion House
On my lunch break two extremely brave co-workers joined me on a quest to find the legendary Adventure Village. Sean served as the pilot of this mission, man does that car have some powerful AC. He located the fabled village without a hitch and made sure we didn’t turn down the dirt path of doom. Michelle also accompanied us on this excursion. I’ve known her long enough that there’s no way she could possibly turn down the chance to experience the adventure of a lifetime.

Apparently Adventure Village was a South Jersey attraction in Hamilton Township off of the Black Horse Pike a long time ago. The juggernaut known as Story Book Land ran it out of business. Though the business has been shut down for quite some time, apparently people do reside there now. Taking up residence in the town hall, saloon, shoe repair shop, just to name a few of the buildings. There were many shopping carts present, so they must be avid shoppers. Perhaps they would be interested in a Magical Vegetable Sponge, heard they replenish brains.

Luckily nobody got hurt and we made it through Adventure Village in one piece. It was a fine adventrue indeed.