In which we move into camp

Moving into the camp – today we moved the food and supplies to the camp. It was, as always, a major military operation requiring two vehicles and a number of sorties some anticipated, some surprises.

Sam had packed Mom’s van with the stored supplies in her basement (dishtowels, pie irons, tents, chairs, giant coffee pots) and then reloaded the van with the food that we had purchased. We pulled out of her house and headed for Nick’s hamburgers.

Nick’s is a youth memory. We didn’t eat there all the time because although Spartan, Nick’s burgers as a per unit price are not inexpensive, but they were the first meal that I had in Brookings in 1964. They are small burgers, cooked in fat on a flattop, served as doubles and singles in soft, delicious buns that are not the typical hamburger bun but more of a yeasty dinner roll. Getting a double with cheese and everything means that you get catsup (not ketchup), onions, mustard relish. Your burger might have a toothpick through it to hold it together. No fries, chips. And if we sat at the counter we always had a chocolate milk poured from one of those food service stainless steel dispensers into a wavy glass. To- go burgers always are presented in a white bag with the order written on the side of the bag. I had two doubles with cheese with everything. This digression took a little bit of time, but we had a great lunch and made it to Camp Shetek only 15 minutes later than our appointed time.

The camp was in good shape with most everything essential in working order and only the shower house apparently out of commission. When we fired up the water there was a leak that caused water to come squirting out at a 90° angle to the ground. Talk about “in your face.” We did some major scrubbing of the bathrooms and the kitchen and unloaded the van full of food. Produce was still to come. So we waited.

Phone service is spotty, but we got all got a voicemail from Al – the RV that they rented from someone on Craig’s List (who wanted to sell it for $1000 and Wendy convinced them to rent it for $200.) broke down. They were waiting for AAA to come and tow them in. Liz went off to the rescue and Sam took Mom’s van off to Marshall to pick up the rest of the stuff in storage.

Everyone arrived at once. Liz was called off the rescue as AAA had arrived. She returned followed closely by Al and Wendy pulled by a tow truck and Tim in the troop carrier full of people and cases of produce.

Provisions 95% here, we made pizza and salad and the party started.