lastBB

This was a somewhat sad Big Bear meet because it was the last one to be held at the Big Bear Water Resort (BBWR) in Waterford, Ca. Next year the event will be known as the Tower Park meet located on the Sacramento Delta between Rio Vista and Lodi. This event, for me, was shadowed by the knowledge of it's being the last Big Bear Hoorah and because of the death of a good friend and partner, Anne Medovitch. Little Annie, I hope you're in a better place.

The festivities at Big Bear got off to a wonderful start with a core group of guys and gals all deeply interested in all things Olive Drab (OD). Wednesday afternoon most of us were there and set up for the four days of fun. Chuck Lutz made award winning spaghetti with French er a... freedom toast for Wednesday night's dinner. The beer was cold, the food hot and the stories even hotter. Once chow was finished it was lies, beer and more lies.

Thursday Morning found Jon Schneider and my wife Chris at the cook stoves working short order cooks. Scrambled eggs, bacon (thanks Mike, how are your arms doing?), hot coffee, fruit, rolls you name it we had it available for the morning meal. Then it was off to make the deal of the day, or so we thought it was. The day was filled with bouncing from vendor table to vendor table looking for that one special, I gotta have item. The deals were not as good as I've seen at past meets but they were abundant nonetheless. Then it was back to camp for the usual "going over your buddy's jeep" to look for mistakes and such. There weren't too many this year. I think we took care of most last year.

Thursday night it was the traditional Bill H. BBQ. Ribs, chicken and a New York cut that Mark Tombleson brought that would have filled a pack of hungry lions. Mike Seymour brought "Mom's mac salad" and as usual, it didn't last long at all. All was good and bellies were full. Following the BBQ was more beer drinking and lie telling.

Friday we had a wonderful time cruising to the Nut Shoppe for ice cream and then a small group of us were off to an off road vehicle (ORV) park for some vehicle testing. That was the most fun I had in the jeep the whole trip! I was amazed by what some of these vehicles were able to do.

Friday night was more of my BBQ dinner for everyone. More chicken, ribs and a good time around the "Odd Squad motor pool" camp site with the "odd squad". Octavio Aguilar really disappointed all of us by not showing up until late Friday night, but just in time for BBQ.

Saturday was looking like rain in a big way so by noon we had loaded up and were gone from Big Bear forever.

Yes, this was it for BBWR! No mas! By this time next year it will have housing track homes all over it. I'll miss Big bear, we'll all miss Big Bear.