2007 NSS Convention July 23 - July 27

NSS Conventions, regional caving events, local caving events. Please spell out event initials for new members.

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Postby caverdoc » Jul 28, 2007 3:54 pm

I'm now safely home in Kansas. The drive home began at 4am and took 8 hours, it really sucked because I kept getting sleepy. Finally got some coffee and was GTG after that.

Jodi and the kids are in Omaha at the zoo so I have the house to myself. First priority was to get the car unpacked, at least the muddy gear and rope from yesterday's Gory Hole trip. That stuff is now clean and hanging up to dry. Still moving caving gear down to the basement, getting ready to start laundry by washing my "poison ivy" contaminated stuff (2 X).

Convention was great, even with the natural disaster Thursday night. I was camped next to JSS and their huge white tent almost took out my car. Fortunately my Target store Coleman tent weathered the storm OK, no doubt protected by a hedgerow. After the storm let up I put on my big SF trauma pack and grabbed a radio from medical, walked the campground to check for injuries. Only casualty I encountered was a scared albino hedgehog, hunkered down in the water by the walk-in camp sites. I scooped him up in a styrofoam meal box and told the folks around where he was recovered whom I was and that the beastie would be in medical or across the street at JSS. The JSS folks told me he probably wasn't doing too good in the cold so I wrapped him in paper towels and stuck him inside my gore-tex parka. That got him warmed up! His owners recovered him within an hour of me finding him.

As much fun as I had this week, it's good to be home again. Back to work tomorrow at the clinic (Sundays are usually interesting). Thanks one and all for the insights and chance to meet ya !

caverdoc (aka Jay Kennedy, MD)
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Re: The flag still waves...

Postby mgmills » Jul 28, 2007 8:36 pm

Wayne Harrison wrote:Thanks to the Tri-State Grotto, the Stars and Stripes still wave over the convention camping site... as they used their wrecked canopy structure to display the flag after the storm:


Image



Wayne - I was camped right next to the Tri-State folks. I watched them build that work of art. In fact I was probably there when you snapped that picture. We were in the green Dodge truck with white camper shell with the sleeping bag drying out on top of our kayaks on top of the truck. You got an early version of the art. There were more items added as the day went on but we didn't get a picture because we couldn't find the camera. All our stuff was scrambled as we tried to sort out things and get some clothing dried out to wear Friday night and Saturday for the trip home.

We sustained damage to our truck, lost an easy-up and had two broken tent poles that we managed to "field repair" so we could sleep in the tent. Our sleeping bag was soaked but we had a slightly damp blanket that we slept under.

Sorry I missed meeting you. I got to the Howdy Party late and Wendy and I tried to find you.
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Postby Komebeaux » Jul 28, 2007 11:24 pm

junkman wrote:Crap, Tri-State is my Grotto...:shock:

It looks like we will have to get a new canopy before OTR.
The one in the picture is our new one, I think this was the first time it was put up.:hairpull:


Yep, and it only took about 6 months to finally decide on that canopy!
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Postby Teresa » Jul 29, 2007 5:28 pm

We too "lost the canopy". Maybe we need an official T-Shirt: "I Lost My Canopy NSS Indiana 2007"! Ours wasn't an Easy-up; was 10 years old-- purchased before the 1998 Suwanee convention. What hurts was losing the bat/pink flamingo/Peeps lights with it.

I will have to say-- despite the campground chaos-- this was the 'friendliest' convention I've ever been to!

I appreciate that the staff had the Marengo-English VFD there ASAP on Thursday night... and the Red Cross...we did offer the VFD some of our wine and cheese, in lieu of waiting for the Red Cross and coffee and donuts-- though I am certain that the dry blankets and cots were GREATLY appreciated by those whose tents had turned into swamps. The Convention staff performed excellently under near panic (by some) conditions. And the Friday AM 4-H hot country breakfast was absolutely marvelous once you found your dry breakfast makings floating (or not) in 4 inches of water INSIDE of a closed Rubbermaid container. (Still trying to figure that one out; the container was under the table, to boot.)

Hey, almost everyone in the campground went home muddy, whether they had actually caved, or not.

On Thursday afternoon, in the Geo Section, Al Ogden said central KY was 10 to 12 inches short of rain...they probably aren't anymore, and they have US (not Sister Winkie) to thank!

The rest of you...you missed it!
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Postby George Dasher » Jul 29, 2007 6:27 pm

My tent weathered the Thursday-night storm all right (and with no water inside), but that was partly because Yvonne Droms and Mark Minton made the rounds Thursday evening and fixed some of the tents (including mine) that had had their tent stakes ripped out of the ground by the wind.

THANKS, Mark and Yvonne!!

We had two tarps tied to a soccer goal, and the wind flipped the goal over backwards and dumped it onto the next-door property. It threaded the bottom section of the goal onto three fence posts.

Of my two tarps, my recently bought Kelty tarp was shredded by the wind, while my 20-year-old OTR tarp (that you can read a newspaper through) was undamaged. I also lost a lot of nylon cord.

The worst thing was coming back to the campsite and seeing my Cannondale mountain bike impaled upside-down on the barbed wire fence under the soccer goal. But it turned out to be ok.

And no one was hurt in our area, although several tents had water in them. Bannerman's tent was in particularly bad shape.

We also managed to find all of the tent stakes that were ripped out of the ground by the flying cords. I was thinking of the poor guy who has to cut the grass, and fix his lost-stake-caused flat tires while we were doing this.

John Wood said two storms came through, and that force of the wind was pulling the stakes out of the ground and shooting them like missles. He also said that some camp trailers were impaled by flying tent poles, and that Bill Balfour's truck had broken windows. He also said two people were hurt by flying debris, and that one woman got hit in her face.

The Red Cross was very quick to get cots into gym, as several dozen people ended up sleeping there. They--and the person who called them--are to be credited for their fast response.

My tarp poles were not broken, and interesting--despite the fact that they flew all over the place when the soccer goal was up-ended, the partly full garbage bag tied to one had not moved.

george



P.S. Evidently Charleston got bad winds and rain at about the same time. There were tree limbs and water damage all over the place when I got home, but no damage to my house.
Last edited by George Dasher on Jul 29, 2007 6:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby wendy » Jul 29, 2007 6:31 pm

Well I am closer to home now.

I left the banquet about midway thru (was in the back, couldn't hear a dang thing plus we drank all our wine), so I left, saw a bunch of other cavers at the gas station on the I-64 Marengo exit.

ended up sleeping at a motel 6 somewhere in KY friday night, woke up in the morning to find myself one exit away from the Jim Beam distillery. free shots at 9am, woohoo

then went to Mammoth, were everything but the self guided tour was sold out, even thru the next morning, so I did the self guided tour. Also went to see Sand Cave, where the life of Floyd Collins was ended. Met up with a ranger that took me to Floyd's house and to Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave. That was really cool and I got lots of inside info.

Ended up eating lunch in Cave City and the Bel-Air restaurant, if you ever go get the mammoth cave burger, oh my gosh it was good.

Hit lost river cave in Bowling Green.

Slept saturday night in South Pittsburg, TN which was killing me not having any contact info with me for th eChattanooga Grotto folks, I was wanting to go caving today. I even drive over to Cedar Ridge Crystal cave hoping to find some cavers there. I even cruised the Krystal's pakring lot cuz I know its a meeting point for morning cave trips.

Ended up at the TN aquarium, it was great.

Now in Mid GA.

cavedoc where are you when I need you. Last night my ankle was itching, so I scrathed it thinking it was just dry skin I put vit E lotoin on it, then it was burning, today it feels like needles scraping my skin and i got a weird rash. if i don't see it getting better in 2 days I'll go to the doc in the box back home
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Postby Teresa » Jul 29, 2007 7:16 pm

wendy wrote:cavedoc where are you when I need you. Last night my ankle was itching, so I scrathed it thinking it was just dry skin I put vit E lotoin on it, then it was burning, today it feels like needles scraping my skin and i got a weird rash. if i don't see it getting better in 2 days I'll go to the doc in the box back home


I'm not cavedoc, nor do I play one on TV, but this sounds like poison ivy to me! There is a variety of poison ivy (sometimes called poison oak) which has exactly these symptoms. It's different from the run of the mill stuff, in that, before it is all over, it prickles like pins and needles, may actually hurt if touched, and will 'weep'-- that is, ooze a clear liquid, even if you usually aren't particularly susceptible to the leaflets three stuff. But it's not fatal as long as you aren't highly allergic, don't go into anaphylactic shock and is tolerable though you have to be careful that you don't spread it to other parts of your body by touching it.

Prescription: calamine lotion and Benadryl for the histamine reaction as long as you don't have an adverse reaction to either. Go for the doc in the box if it persists, but I betcha this is what ails you.

(I'm not practicing medicine--merely contributing an opinion based on personal experience.)
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Postby Scott McCrea » Jul 29, 2007 7:45 pm

I heard of several people with chiggers. But Wendy's description doesn't sound like chiggers.

Our grotto tarp was flattened. 10 poles bent/destroyed. Lots of grommets ripped out too. Special thanks to Cincinnati Grotto and Central Connecticut Grotto for attempting to save our tarp and clean up afterwards. I sleep in my truck, so I had no water or damage there.

The person that got hit in the face got six stitches. No sure where he/she was from.
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Postby mgmills » Jul 29, 2007 8:09 pm

wendy wrote:Slept saturday night in South Pittsburg, TN which was killing me not having any contact info with me for th eChattanooga Grotto folks, I was wanting to go caving today. I even drive over to Cedar Ridge Crystal cave hoping to find some cavers there. I even cruised the Krystal's pakring lot cuz I know its a meeting point for morning cave trips.

Ended up at the TN aquarium, it was great.



Geez Wendy - wish I'd known. I live 20 minutes from Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave. If you'd tried my cell phone though I'm not sure it would have worked. It got wet in the storm as it was in my bag in my tent. . . I hadn't taken it to the quarry with me.

The aquarium in Chattanooga is very nice.
Hope your leg gets better.
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Postby wendy » Jul 29, 2007 8:22 pm

Teresa wrote:
wendy wrote:cavedoc where are you when I need you. Last night my ankle was itching, so I scrathed it thinking it was just dry skin I put vit E lotoin on it, then it was burning, today it feels like needles scraping my skin and i got a weird rash. if i don't see it getting better in 2 days I'll go to the doc in the box back home


I'm not cavedoc, nor do I play one on TV, but this sounds like poison ivy to me! There is a variety of poison ivy (sometimes called poison oak) which has exactly these symptoms. It's different from the run of the mill stuff, in that, before it is all over, it prickles like pins and needles, may actually hurt if touched, and will 'weep'-- that is, ooze a clear liquid, even if you usually aren't particularly susceptible to the leaflets three stuff. But it's not fatal as long as you aren't highly allergic, don't go into anaphylactic shock and is tolerable though you have to be careful that you don't spread it to other parts of your body by touching it.

Prescription: calamine lotion and Benadryl for the histamine reaction as long as you don't have an adverse reaction to either. Go for the doc in the box if it persists, but I betcha this is what ails you.

(I'm not practicing medicine--merely contributing an opinion based on personal experience.)


ya this is faintly red, with little red dots, ni blisters, looks dry, and feels like needles if touched, ok if i don't touch it. I had my socks on all day saturday and it only itched when i took them off. I'm thinking I got into something when I went off trail near sand cave at mammoth, i guess floyd is punishing me, as i have never had poison ivy or oak reactions before
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Postby wendy » Jul 29, 2007 8:24 pm

mgmills wrote:Geez Wendy - wish I'd known. I live 20 minutes from Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave. If you'd tried my cell phone though I'm not sure it would have worked. It got wet in the storm as it was in my bag in my tent. . . I hadn't taken it to the quarry with me.



i thought bout you when i was looking for a hotel room. I was driving thru the curvey roads on I-24 when it got dark, rained, and foggy.
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Postby Scott McCrea » Jul 29, 2007 9:04 pm

I added the rest of my pics from Convention to my Flickr site.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccrea/set ... 003827595/
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Rainy conventions.

Postby cavedoc » Jul 29, 2007 9:11 pm

wendy wrote:cavedoc where are you when I need you. Last night my ankle was itching, so I scrathed it thinking it was just dry skin I put vit E lotoin on it, then it was burning, today it feels like needles scraping my skin and i got a weird rash. if i don't see it getting better in 2 days I'll go to the doc in the box back home


Well, I don't play one on TV...but common things being common I'd still bet on poison ivy. The stinging aspect makes me wonder whether you got into some nettles though? That should give you some immediate sting when you make contact. Yours was the next day? Probably poison ivy.

We got out on Friday afternoon just as the next rainstorm hit. Our tent was between two water courses in the grass and did fine, even the WallyWorld shade structure. One water course though went up a friend's tent and in the screen. Left out the down stream screen. Left 6 inches of water in the tent as that was how high his screen was. At least he knows his tent is waterproof...
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Postby hewhocaves » Jul 30, 2007 8:13 am

Teresa wrote:On Thursday afternoon, in the Geo Section, Al Ogden said central KY was 10 to 12 inches short of rain...they probably aren't anymore, and they have US (not Sister Winkie) to thank!


Ha! I remember that! lol... he jinxed us! :tonguecheek:
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Postby CaverScott » Jul 30, 2007 9:27 am

Finally finished posting 200 Convention Photos.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.j ... 4xlwk&Ux=0
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