Saturday, July 13, 2019
Tannersville, PA
Schedule
Participants
Dave (23rd), Marc (23rd), Span (), Brian (), Eugene (), Matt (), Mehr (), Eric (9th)
Photos: Highlights | Complete Set
Videos: Highlights | Complete Set
Anecdotes
Reviews
Planning
Very early in the year, on February 12, 2019 to be exact, Marc was speaking with Mehr for the first time in a long time, and Mehr decided to ask if anyone had brought up plans for the next MBBB yet. Mehr mentioned that his old AOL email was now defunct, and so he wouldn't have seen any correspondence on the subject if it had been sent, and regardless, he was now much easier to contact via text (Marc noted that this seems to be the case with a lot of people). That being said, Mehr also indicated that he didn't want to be part of a long MMS chain because he (jokingly) said that he didn't want his phone chiming all the time and making it seem like he was a drug dealer. Marc advised that no emails had yet been sent, and so he would mention it to David, Matt, and Span the next day (via MMS, how ironic!) and try to jumpstart the planning process.
Upon hearing this story, Matt brought up the idea of doing a less active "overview" chain of MMS's as well as a more active "planning" chain so that people could choose which one they wanted to be a part of. Matt also mentioned the possibility of using Slack instead of MMS; unfortunately, this was actually as far as the planning went for a few weeks.
Tired of waiting, Mehr again took the initiative on 03/15/19 and texted Marc asking if there were any updates on MBBB. When Marc said no, but that they could start a dialogue, Mehr took it one step further and sent out a group text to everyone while at the same time declaring that he had finally upgraded to a smart phone. (This is an inside joke: all of his life, Mehr has been notoriously tech-backward, e.g., taking years and years to upgrade from VHS to DVD despite the numerous objective benefits of doing so.)
The first order of business was choosing a location. While Long Island is always a tried-and-true option, especially when it's a been a year or two since MBBB has been held there, a number of people offered up the possibility of a neutral site (i.e., not someone's hometown). David noted that one MBBB was actually held at Six Flags, Matt mentioned that the Poconos were previously discussed as a possibility, and Brian said that Cooperstown was also previously mentioned.
After tossing out a few ideas, Camelback Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania was chosen due to its relatively centralized location as well as its breadth and variety of activities that had not yet been done for MBBB (e.g., Segway riding, treetop adventure, etc.). It was also a fine choice because David was able to find an AirBnB (?) that was in close proximity to the resort. That meant that the group could save money (as opposed to a hotel), share the space (for games and meals), and it would also help them stay on schedule during the day (much has been made, rightly so, of past MBBBs where not every member got to breakfast on time because they were coming from different houses or hotels).
After finalizing the location, David, Matt, and Marc started to discuss any and all eating options for the day. A diner for breakfast seemed easy (and they knew everyone would be happy as diners had been used for breakfasts at so many past MBBBs), Panera had potential for lunch, and an Indian restaurant/Subway became the probable plan for dinner. It should be noted that Camelback has a number of on-site restaurants, but they weren't a realistic option because they lacked vegan-friendly options. When David (?) called, he was told that they could potentially prepare something, but that they were not geared towards it. Additionally, to save money and because he's very health-conscious, Marc indicated that he was happy bringing and cooking his own food for dinner. While the gang briefly discussed using the house's grill for the meal, it was quickly rejected as they felt that the preparation for cooking on a grill would be too time-consuming.
Many months passed before the next big push to finalize the details for the day. In mid-June, Matt and David agreed to ask if anyone objected to spending the amount of time that would normally be allotted for two events at Camelback instead. As no one objected, they then asked people to advise which activities they would most like to do at Camelback. This way, they could decide if they needed to break up into groups while there.
Matt said he was very interested in doing the Segway tour, while Marc and David both expressed interest in the treetop adventure as they had done a similar one on Long Island the previous year for their 40th birthday. Matt suggested the possibility of two groups: one doing each of the two aforementioned events, then meeting back to do some community events (e.g., the mountain coaster, Euro bungee, etc.). People started chiming in as to which they preferred, though some people had interest in both (like Eugene). After a few days of hemming and hawing however, the group had pretty much locked down the two separate groups, one for each event.
Following this, David asked what supplies people could bring for specific events or just the day in general. On the refreshment side, a few people were happy to oblige, and they ended up bringing a 40-pack of water bottles (Matt), lemon-line and orange Gatorade (Mehr), and some bottles of Peach Iced Tea Snapple (?) (Span). Mehr took it a step further and used ice from the freezer at the rental to fill a cooler for his drinks. For the activities, Marc, Mehr, and Eric pledged to bring cones for kickball, and David brought the ball itself (which might have been the same kickball that they used for Ga-Ga last year?) plus a pump and pin in case they needed it to inflate or deflate the ball. Finally, Marc, David, Matt, and Eric all brought frisbees, a few of which were from the popular game of Kan Jam which had been played at MBBB 15. Matt meanwhile would bring his set of "professional" disc golf frisbees that he had also shared at MBBB 20.
Pre-Breakfast
With so many people coming from so many directions, it was only natural that people would arrive at the rental at very different times. Marc, Eugene, and Brian planned to get there in the early evening (they all took a half-day off from work), but, due to overwhelming traffic (presumably), Google directed them through some sidestreets in Brooklyn or Queens and caused them to get into a minor fender bender. This, plus the seemingly endless wait for the cops to arrive delayed them well into the evening instead.
As a result, Mehr arrived at the rental first and had to wait a decent amount of time for David, then Matt, then Marc/Eugene/Brian, and finally Span as the last to arrive. Span would note that he went to Five Below to pick up a frisbee for frolf and planned to be in and out rather quickly, but ended up spending way too much time there because it's such a great store (agreed!). Meanwhile, Eric had already planned to attend a Yankees game on Friday night with his nephew (it was a combination Mariano Rivera and Captain America bobblehead night, so why not! P.S. the Yankees won 4-0!), and so he arrived in Pennsylvania (the diner for breakfast actually) on Saturday morning.
Getting to the rental was a little complicated. Despite plenty of room right outside the house, there was a strict policy that only two cars were allowed in the parking lot. This meant that only the first two arrivals (Mehr and David) could park near the rental while everyone else had to park down the mountain about half a mile away. Of course, because Mehr and David were the only ones who had easy access to their cars, they were tasked with driving down to pick up the remaining members and everything that they had packed. It was also probably the reason that Mehr and David ended up as the designated drivers for the event on Saturday.
The night of the arrival is very exciting as it's always the first time in 12 months that the whole group is together. As such, they usually don't head to bed until very late in the night. It was just the same for MBBB 23 with a variety of topics talked about. Here are but a few that they discussed before going to sleep:
1. Beginning when Eugene picked Marc up and ending when Span arrived, no one could help themselves from commenting about Eugene's hair. It's safe to say it was grown out much longer than anyone could have anticipated. A MBBB record, really, and it would also come into play later in the weekend.
2. Because the Wimbledon championships were happening during the weekend, this was an obvious point of conversation. The Women's final at Wimbledon was scheduled to start around 8:00 AM on Saturday morning: could they watch the entire match if it was relatively quick and ended before 9:00 AM (their scheduled time of departure for breakfast)? For example, if Serena were to win 6-0, 6-0 (editor's note: later in the day, they found out that Serena had actually LOST 6-2, 6-2, so theoretically they could have watched the entire match, but they were otherwise too busy getting ready).
3. Another tennis topic revolved around how, at the end of his career, Sampras thought his record of 14 major titles would last for decades. However, since then, not only has one player surpassed his total, but incredibly three have (Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic)!
4. Finally, there was yet about discussion about sports. Mehr hypothesized that he could become a professional golf player if he put in enough time and practice. Knowing Mehr's natural atheltic ability, the rest of the group didn't necessarily disagree, however David did note that there was a study conducted that indicated that you would need around 10,000 (?) hours of focused practice in any activity to become an expert in it. This jogged Marc's memory, and he said that he was pretty certain that this study was used to determine how much time Bill Murray's character was stuck on the same day in the movie "Groundhog Day". This, as he became proficient in ice sculpting and playing the piano, etc. Mehr said that golf was probably the only sport that anyone could become a professional in with enough practice because it didn't really rely on inate athleticism. David thought perhaps bowling could be an option, Marc said the same about long distance running, but Mehr rebuffed Marc, so Marc clarified that it probably only applied to older runners since younger long distance runners are honestly very fast.
Breakfast
Getting ready the next morning was a little complicated as the seven people already at the rental had to share the only two showers in the house. Nevertheless, everyone was able to squeeze in their morning routine which included Marc going for a brisk run through the mountains before most everyone else had woken up.
As the group was gearing up to leave, Span found a pencil from last year's mini-golf event. If you read the recap for MBBB 22, you'll know that this was the second year in a row that this happened! Span clearly wears these shorts only on the most special of occasions!
It's also worth noting that the group actually left the rental for breakfast on time; this almost never happens, but it was probably owed to the fact that (almost) everyone was in the same place at the same time. As mentioned above, Mehr and David would take up the responsibility of being the drivers for the day as they were the only ones who could park their cars near the rental. Though they were consistently the drivers for the rest of the day, passengers were constantly swapping cars so that they could interact with different people during the day and during the sometime very long rides between the locations of the events.
There was one sidetrack before breakfast. As Eugene has a high degree of lactose intolerance, Mehr drove him down the road to a grocery store so that he could buy some food that he could eat at his option later in the day. Then, while waiting for them at the diner, Marc realized that he had forgotten to bring vegetable oil to cook his burgers. So, he quickly texted Eugene, Eugene thankfully heard his phone ping and responded that it would be no problem at all. Eugene also ended up purchasing some toilet paper because apparently the rental didn't have much of it when they arrived.
It's noted above that almost everyone was already at the rental; Eric was driving up Saturday morning instead, and he texted David a few times on his way up to meet them at the diner for breakfast. Eric further advised David as to what he wanted to order; he said he was going to be a little late because he was "doing something along the way". David asked why Eric he didn't just admit that he was stopping at a geocache which led to Marc blaming David for introducing Eric to geocaching during MBBB 15 in the first place. However, David interjected that it was actually Brian who had first discovered the activity, so the blame for Eric being late was then cast onto Brian.
There was plenty of conversation before and after Eric finally arrived. While ordering, the group noticed that there was only a $0.70 upcharge to go from two pancakes or slices of french toast to three. Needless to say, many people took advantage of the deal. However, even after ordering a variety of items AND upgrading, Mehr said that he felt that he probably hadn't ordered enough food for himself. This...is normal for Mehr.
The group also talked about getting autographs from athletes; for example, Marc remembered getting a Flyers autograph with Eric a long, long time ago. Marc thought it had happened in Philadelphia and asked the table who was the best hockey player for the Flyers during the 90's. Matt and Mehr both said Eric Lindros, but Marc didn't think that was who they got the signatures from. Marc said Eric would be able to confirm once he arrived, so after Eric did, he jogged his memory and recollected that it actually happened after an away game at the Meadowlands. In addition, it was not Eric Lindros, but Jeremy Roenick; Eric said it must have been because he knew from experience that Lindros was very nice about signing autographs for fans.
Another example was when Span said that he had tried many times to get Don Mattingly's autograph by attending games when the Dodgers played in Baltimore. Since he was unsuccessful, Eric noted that he could always try mailing a photo to Don Mattingly because that's a trick that had worked for Eric in the past, particularly with hockey players.
When the food was finally served, David mentioned that he had been the last person to receive his meal and that this was a trend for him for pretty much every meal that he got at a restaurant. When the rest of the group asked what he had ordered (perhaps it had been a complicated meal to prepare?), he replied that it was nothing of the sort. It was a simple veggie omelet. This led to no shortage of jokes about the reason for the delay:
1. The chef thought, "Someone actually ordered vegetables, and NOT meat?
2. "Uh oh, we better dust off these vegetables in the back!"
3. "This is just great! Now we need to drive all the way down to the farmer's market just to buy some vegetables for this guy!"
Additional conversation during the meal included Marc telling Eric that he had been rejected in their quest to get tickets for the 2020 Masters golf tournament. Upon hearing this, David, Matt, and Eric himself all confirmed the same thing. However, when they asked Brian if he had gotten Masters tickets, he was unaware of it. Marc asked Brian if Eric had asked him to put in for the tickets, but Brian was still very confused. Good grief!
Finally, though it cannot be 100% confirmed that this took place during breakfast (but it would make sense if it did), Mehr said that the only thing he missed about living on Long Island was the food. It's also possible that he mentioned bagels specifically.
After everyone had had their fill and the check was requested, the waitress asked if the group preferred to receive separate checks, one for each of their orders. They said yes, so long as it wasn't any trouble, and she assured them that it wasn't. That's how you end up with a great tip!
Segway Tour, Treetop Adventure, & Mountain Coaster
The three cars (now including Eric's) drove back to the parking lot that was located down the hill from their rental so that Eric could drop off his car and also to collect some supplies for the rest of the day. They wouldn't be back until dinner time. Though Mehr and David continued to drive, some passengers swapped cars. Then, when Marc went to open the door to get into Mehr's car, Mehr decided to pull the old pull the car away gag. While Matt and Eugene laughed, due to Marc's many years working in the insurance industry, he let Mehr know in no uncertain terms that he'd better personal liability AND umbrella liability policies in case Marc got hurt. Mehr said he does!
However, the adventure for the riders in Mehr's car had only just begun. As they approached the parking lots for Camelback, they tried to follow the signs to the Segway tour and treetop adventures. The only problem was that, best as they could tell, the signs seemed to indicate that they should park by the water park instead of much further down the road. By the time they asked an employee of the park, it was too late to go back to the car (they had an appointment), and so they chose to simply walk down the hill directly to the correct location. In the end, they ended up being a little bit late, and so the participants of the treetop adventure had to push back their start time from 11:00AM to 11:30AM.
After meeting up with the group that was already at the registration building, waivers were signed (though it was difficult considering there were so few pencils!), and the two groups waited a bit before splitting up: Matt, David, and Eric would do the Segway tour, and Mehr, Eugene, Marc, Span, and Brian would do the treetop adventure.
The participants of the Segway tour hung out inside for a little and chatted after the people doing the treetop adventure disembarked. Then, at noon, they headed outside and met their guide. She led them to a spot near the mountain coaster, and they were picked up by a large jeep that drove them up a hill to one of the hiking trails.
Once there, the tour guide had each of them practice riding a Segway. They did so for between 10 and 15 minutes and then started the tour afterwards. There were seven people in the group plus the tour guide: there were two couples (each appeared to be in their 30's) and the three MBBB members. They moved along a hiking trail in a single file with David, then Eric, and then Matt being the final three in the line.
In the beginning, specifically the first half of the trail, Matt was much more tentative on the Segway than the other two. In fact, at one point, Eric and David looked behind them and couldn't even see Matt because he was around a curve in the trail! Matt was not thrilled with this arrangement.
The tour took place along a very nice hiking trail and then stopped at a point where the trail was dug through a rock formation. The gang guessed that the trail was where a railroad had previously been. While waiting at this stop, they took pictures, hung out for a few minutes, and then doubled back. It should be mentioned that, during both parts of the trip, Eric took a few videos while riding (!). It was his first time riding a Segway, so it was impressive that he was able to film both the person in front of him (David) and the person (way) behind him (Matt).
During the return journey, Matt was definitely a little less tentative with his driving/riding. And, once they were finished, the jeep picked them up and brought them back down the hill. It was probably 1:30PM at that point. They were a little concerned because their coaster tickets were for 2:00PM, but the jeep driver said that they should make it in time especially considering that the line was so short at that point.
After each of the three members took an exhilirating ride down the one-person mountain coaster, they headed back inside the registration building with some of them purchasing snacks and drinks from the vending machine. Eventually, they moved outside and sat at one of the tables under an umbrella. They considered doing another activity, but Matt commented that he was fine just chilling out for the time being. And, in fact, after the coaster, David and Eric went up to the ticket counter to see if they could do the 4,000 foot zip line, but they were told that the next available time was 3:30, and they figured that would be too late considering the other group would be returning soon.
Speaking of which, while David, Matt, and Eric waited inside, the other five members traded in some collateral (a smartphone or two?) for their harnesses and walked out to meet some of the employees who would be assisting with the treetop adventure. Most of the guys couldn't appropriately harness themselves and so were very willing and gracious to accept help when it was offered. No one had any desire to fall from the forest trees!
A few ground rules were mentioned while they got hooked up. One was that no one was allowed to take photos or videos while in the forest. Upselling, really?! Another concern was for those with really long hair. They didn't want women (oh right, or Eugene!) to get their hair caught in the zip lines or other metal hooks that were strewn all across the treetops. This meant that Eugene had to tuck his ponytail into the back of his shirt.
After this, the group walked up a pretty steep and rocky hill to the opening of the forest where their temporary guide went through some additional instructions. She completed a demo of the practice section, and a father and his two kids went right after her. The MBBB group hung back, and while they did, they got to talking with the guide. She was very young, maybe still in high school, and they actually ended up talking about things like voting rights! It was a pretty positive discussion about things like mail-in voting becoming more prevalant and the idea of making Election Day a national holiday.
After the entire group quickly moved through the practice course, they parted ways with their instructor and walked over to the real deal. The course had three parts with escalating difficulty and height, and anyone could bow out in between the parts if they needed to. But it would not be that way for Mehr, Eugene, Marc, Span, and Brian (in that order). They went across tightropes and rolling logs; they walked, and they crawled. Eugene even gained so much confidence towards the end that he started trying to complete sections without holding onto the guiding wire in the middle!
It was a great time. Marc was also very impressed with Span; this event didn't seem to fit into Span's forte. So, after they descended from the first stage and waited to ascend to the second, Marc gave Span a big high-ten! The best parts were probably the zip lines and a Tarzan swing during which you had to let go and grab onto a vertical net made from rope (like a spider web). It was very American Ninja Warrior! That being said, the ziplines did cause some anxiety and humor. A few times, people were unable to grab onto the tree at the end, bounced back, and had to pull themselves across using a hand-over-hand technique.
There was also one zipline where Span crashed into the tree so hard that he almost lost his shoe! (maybe?). Other than that, there wasn't a lot to tell. However, Brian did tend to lag a little behind the group, and at one point, everyone else in the group saw some employees speaking to him in a semi-aggressive manner. Apparently, for just a moment (but that's all that it takes!), Brian disconnected both of his carabiners from the wire. He received a stern warning, but thankfully he wasn't removed from the course.
After completing all three stages, the quintet walked back down the hill and met up with Matt, David, and Eric outside the registration office. The trio said that they had done the mountain coaster while they waited and highly recommended it. Of the group that completed the treetop adventure, Marc, Eugene, and Span decided to do the coaster as well.
Unfortunately, when they went to purchase their tickets, the attendant advised them that they would first have to fill out a second waiver form. Why? No one knows. After doing what they were told, the trio walked outside and joined a short line at the entrance to the coaster while Eric stood by to take photos. Eric also let them know there would be a LOT of reading to do during the uphill portion of the coaster. As each member started the ride, they saw what Eric meant. The signs were written to make sure that each rider enjoyed him or herself without also flying off the track or getting hit from behind.
That final point was very important. As each coaster housed a single rider, each rider could control his own speed, and so David recommended that they should push the bars that controlled the speed as far forward as possible. The further you pushed forward, the faster the speed. As Marc had Eugene behind him, he pushed forward very hard. After all, Eugene is known as a thrill seeker who drives fast, and Marc didn't want to slow Eugene down (or get hit!).
Thankfully, Marc's concern ended up being unfounded, but he ended up being a little concerned for an entirely different reason. After he and Eugene finished their respective thrilling rides, they met up and started talking and waiting for Span. But where was he? It took a few minutes, but they finally saw him. Apparently, Span wanted to enjoy a much more relaxing ride than everyone else. The kicker of the whole thing were the photos taken of the riders during their descent: Span's arms were relaxed, and most of the others had their arms extended pretty far. Eugene, however? Yeah, his bars were pushed down as far as possible for maximum speed! You can see them in the photos linked above.
Lunch
After a long but very fun afternoon at Camelback, the two cars took a long trip to a mini-mall (?) that had a number of eateries to choose from. Normally, during MBBBs, even if people eat at different locations, they still meet up at a central location by getting their food to go. This year, however, Mehr, Brian, Eric, and Eugene ate at Five Guys (though Eugene ate cereal that he brought?), Marc, David, Span, and Matt went down a small hill to eat at Panera, and they didn't meet up again until they were ready to travel to the next event.
There's not a whole lot to note here, however Marc did notice one thing that was a little peculiar at Panera. It took a really long time for some patrons (not just the group) to get their meals after ordering and paying for them. When someone complained to the expeditor working behind the counter, she replied with her own complaint that some customers were taking the wrong orders and causing confusion. But then, the group saw her try to give Span a vegan smoothie which actually belonged to Marc, so...no comment.
Frolf
It was a long, long drive to the park that was home to the frolf course and kickball field, and this gave everyone plenty of time to talk about topics both old and new. And the driving kept on keeping on even after arriving at the park; the group found that it took a few minutes of driving through a forest just to traverse to the first hole of the frolf course.
After taking out their frolfing supplies from the cars and applying some more suntan lotion and bug spray, the group walked towards what appeared to be hole number 1. However, this would be a common issue throughout the event. That is, determining where holes actually began and ended. Only some of the holes had numbers, and even fewer had maps near the tee off station that indicated where the goal was. This led to numerous walks/jogs through the trees in attempts to track down what they thought were the correct goals in each case. It was particularly bad between holes 1 and 5: no signs, and no tees either, really.
Despite all this, the group had a very enjoyable time and even reminisced about earlier frolf/golf events. For example, a number of people in the group had done pitch and putt fairly regularly back when they were younger, and there was one time when Eugene accidentally stepped into what he termed as a nest of ticks. Driving home from the beach as quickly as possible, Eugene took a shower as soon as he got home to wash them all off, but he still suffered from red dots on his ankle from their bites for many months after. Thankfully, one thing he didn't suffer from was Lyme disease, though the group was shocked to hear that he actually waited years afterwards to get himself tested!
A big reason that this topic of conversation came up was because there was some really tall grass on the frolf course, and so naturally people were worried about ticks. Brian and Eugene were relatively safe as they were wearing long jeans despite the summer weather. Everyone else was wearing shorts, and tried to take care by high-stepping through the forest and/or checking their legs semi-regularly. Later that day, only one tick was found. It was on Matt, and he got it off of his leg before it had a chance to burrow. So, in the end, you could say that they were pretty lucky.
As far as the actual competition went, well, there was a lot of psychology involved. First, consider that there were two types of frisbees to choose from: smaller, heavier discs that frolf experts use (as mentioned above, Matt brought a set), and larger, lighter discs that most people are more familiar with. Every member of the group chose one or the other, at first anyway. For example, halfway through the course, Mehr and Brian agreed to swap frisbees: Mehr got a smaller disc, and Brian got a larger disc. This change didn't help Brian, but it did help Mehr who eventually switched to a forehand throw that gained him a lot more distance and a little less curve.
Brian's bad luck was compounded in a few other ways. The first was of his own doing: every hole, Brian kept saying that he had no confidence in his ability to hit his putts. Despite the group's continued effort to encourage him, Brian apparently dug his own grave. As you see from the scorecard below, he finished in last place.
One other issue with Brian's putting was that he wasn't taking a step (as long as he kept his pivot foot on the ground) to get closer to the goal when throwing his putts. Brian replied that he was worried that that would be considered cheating, but everyone else (except Eugene perhaps, who was also told?) told him that they were all already doing it!
Getting back to the topic of choosing discs, Eric actually decided to carry at least four frisbees; one was from the great game of Kan Jam, and the others were from a set of eight discs that he borrowed from his nieces and nephews (at least one was a "professional" frolf disc). However, did he ever use the smaller disc? Matt likewise used two (?) frisbees from his frolf set.
The aforementioned psychology of the game was on full display pretty much throughout the event, and Matt suffered the brunt of it. Eric was ribbing Matt all day, but no more so than during frolf. He kept calling Matt for foot-faults during his tee-offs even when Matt was so far away that Eric couldn't possibly see him (in fact, Eric even turned that into a joke saying Matt's foot-faults were so bad, he could even see them from long distances). Why was Eric so hard on Matt? Well, Eric's a Cowboys fan, and Matt's a Giants fan!
Marc came to Matt's defense by noting that it was unlikely that Matt would foot-fault considering how good of a bowler he is. After all, foot placement is very important in bowling. Marc wasn't 100% supportive though: he chided Matt for not being able to practice putts because, over and over again, his frisbee kept landing directly under the goals which meant all he had to do was tap in repeatedly.
The final two points of strategy that are important enough to mention were the following. For one, later on in the course, Span changed over to a forehand for putting after having a little success doing so. Unfortunately, that success didn't last long. For two, Eric decided to take a mulligan on hole 6. His second throw was even worse, and he was hedging on whether to take a second mulligan before finally deciding against it. His choice ended up working out great: with an excellent second throw, he was somehow able to catch up to everyone else and even get a better score than Mehr and Brian.
It was mentioned before that Mehr started seeing a lot more success in the second half of the course after he changed his disc and throwing motion. He was so successful in fact that he wanted to continue playing past the 12th hole. Span was right there beside him, but Marc had to throw cold water on the notion: if they didn't start playing kickball now, it might get too dark too soon to do so.
After tallying up the scores for the 12 holes that they got to play (see below), it was determined that Marc was able to come away with a narrow victory over Eugene and David. During the match, Marc had brought up the fact that the last time they played frolf (at MBBB 20), Eugene cleaned everyone else's clock. Eugene had a distinct advantage: because each of the holes in Delaware were so long (SO long), Eugene could use his excellent throwing strength to just bomb away while everyone else could only manage much shorter throws despite their best efforts.
Marc noticed early on that Eugene was not destroying everyone and mentioned that it was probably because this course was much less wide open and required the players to manuever through and around the forest trees rather than just throw as far and as straight as possible. That said, Eugene still almost won, so he's almost certainly the best all around frolf player in the group.
One final story that was talked about was perhaps the funniest moment in all of MBBB history. It was mentioned partially because Eric hadn't been there and so was unaware of what happened. Back in 2002 and during the planning of MBBB 6, the group decided that they wanted to try out a game of frolf as they had been avid fans of frisbee games (particularly ultimate frisbee) back in high school. However, back then, there weren't any local frolf courses on Long Island. So Marc took it upon himself to walk down to his local elementary school (which he also attended) and create/test a course of his own.
He started at some of the on-site, outdoor exercise equipment, went through the path that the buses take to drop off the students, then behind the supply garage, and eventually to the playground and beyond. However, on the day of the actual event, they would not get beyond the playground. When Marc had created the course, there was no one on the playground, but this was not the case the day of. On that date, there were plenty of kids and their parents (this second part is key).
The fools that they are, the group felt that they could play through this hole without disrupting any strangers. It worked out okay at first; Marc had put the hole near the edge of the playground, and a few people were able to come away from the hole unscathed. When Span threw his disc however, either by sheer coincidence or divine intervention, a big gust of wind swooped up and pushed his disc up away from the goal and towards a family instead. It hit the father in the head, and he proceeded to berate the entire group despite their apologies and calls for calmer heads. Eventually, they had to leave, and never finished their first attempt at completing a frolf "course".
Kickball
The ride to the park from the lunchtime restaurants had been a long one. Thankfully, it would be a simple walk in the park ("rim shot") to the next. As they were already in a state park, it was very easy to find a large swath of grass that they could set up their kickball field on. Numerous people had brought orange cones which were used to form the foul lines and home plate. The general idea was to have pitchers roll the ball between two orange cones which formed a line from which the batter would kick the ball (incidentally, the gang originally placed these two cones relatively close together before moving them further apart to make both pitching and kicking easier). After that was done, Mehr laid out the rules which were pretty much identical to the rules used during MBBB 9 and MBBB 17.
The teams would play on half of the field, self pitch to their teammates, and use invisible runners if necesssary; these runners would only advance the same number of bases as the batter. This would leave the defending team with four outfielders and, as seen below, not much room for the kickers to get hits. If a kicked ball didn't reach the first set of cones in the infield, it would be a foul ball, and three foul balls would result in a strike out. As for ground balls, as the teams were only playing on half the field, the defensive team would throw the ball to someone covering second base instead of first base to determine outs.
Offensively, as noted above, a ground ball would have to get past the first set of cones to become a single. As there wasn't a fence, a fly ball that wasn't caught simply became a double, triple, or home run depending on how many bases the batter could successfully round without being tagged or hit with a thrown ball. The final determination to be made before they could start the game was the constitution of the teams. To make it easy and seemingly fair, it was quickly decided that the four Struck brothers (Eric, Brian, Dave, and Marc) would face off against everyone else (Mehr, Span, Eugene, and Matt).
As for the game itself, it's almost pointless to include a score card. With four outfielders on defense, the scoring was scarce and outs were abundant which even included multiple strike outs as people tried to kick the ball down the third base line resulting in three foul balls. Funnily and/or annoyingly enough, depending on one's perspective, the foul balls would sometimes roll down a relatively steep hill near the field culminating in either an offensive player or defensive player needing to sprint after the rolling ball. All that said, it is sufficient to simply list all the runs that were scored in the next few sentences. The first few runs were scored, quite surprisingly, by the Strucks who got off to a quick start by scoring two runs in the first inning (and this was actually done with two outs?). However, on the contrast and somewhat unsurprisingly, they never scored again.
Because the scoring was so low, the innings went quickly, and after five short innings, it was determined that they should extend the game two more innings as there was still a good amount of sunlight left. The non-Strucks were delighted to get that chance. Having been down 2-1 for much of the game (?), they rallied to tie the game in the 7th and final inning when Matt used a well-placed single down the third base line to score a runner from third. However, that would be the final run scored. Tied at 2-2 after seven innings, both teams agreed to end the game in a tie as a lot of people were getting tired. Mehr even commented that he had been spent after only two innings.
The only other interesting note about the game was that Mehr said that someone mentioned that maybe they should have inflated the ball prior to the game. Though the final score was very low, it was not for a lack of trying. Plenty of people ended up kicking the ball very far (including a time when Span surprised Marc and David by getting a ball over their heads); it was just very difficult to get consecutive hits with four fielders on a half field. Anyway, the lesson appears to be that whoever said they should inflate the ball was apparently wrong (no vaguery here!).
As it was a long, long ride to the park from lunch, it would be another long, long ride back to the rental at Camelback for dinner. And there would be some trickery at play too, at least for one of the cars. When Mehr's car arrived back at the resort, he tried to use a back entrance (Gate C) to re-enter the development. It was supposed to be a quicker route to the rental. Mehr said that the security guard had given him a card which he said he could use at any of the gates. However, despite numerous attempts to find a way in which he could scan, swipe, or otherwise use the card to raise the gate, nothing happened, and Mehr was forced to drive back to Gate B. The other passengers (Marc and ??) humored themselves by theorizing that it was probably just a joke perpetrated by the guard, and that he must be having a hearty laugh at their expense. It's also possible that it was comeuppance for the trick that Mehr played on Marc earlier in the day. You decide!
Dinner
Once everyone arrived back at the rental, it was time to figure out dinner. However, despite having not eaten for hours and having partaken in two physical activities since then, there didn't appear to be much urgency in choosing a place to order from. Most of the group started looking at a menu from a hibachi/sushi restaurant named Desaki, but by the time they decided on their orders and tried to called them in, they found out that Desaki had closed for the night! (?) That was okay by some; the prices on the menu were a little out of line.
Looking through some more of the menus that the owner of the rental had left them, things finally started to come into shape. The original group looking at Desaki found a comparable restaurant named the Ichiban Hibachi Steakhouse, and Mehr, having a taste for Italian instead, discovered a menu for Tony's on the Mountain. Eric liked the idea of eating some pizza, so he joined Mehr in the order, and Eugene, despite his lactose intolerance, wanted pizza as well, so he took some medicine to calm his digestive system down.
Marc, being a vegan, decided early on that he was going to bring his own food. His decision was based on the fact that the rental had a full kitchen, it would likely be difficult to find good vegan food up in the mountains, and it would probably be healthier if he just prepared his dinner himself. However, as he started cooking his Beyond Burgers, he wasn't sure they would fill him after such a long, exhausting day, and so he asked Eric to get him some french fries from the pizza place too.
Dinner ended up being a scattershot. Marc ate his food by the stovetop, the Italian food was placed on the island in the kitchen, and the hibachi order went over to the kitchen table (?). It was notable, but not that surprising that, from the large pizza that Mehr ordered, he ate a much larger portion of the slices (six) while Eugene only ate two.
As for conversation, there was some, but most of it was lost to the whispers of the night. One conversation that can be recounted however was when Mehr asked Marc and Eugene if they still see anyone from high school. He asked them specifically as they are the only two that still live on Long Island where everyone in the group went to school. They both replied that they don't; Marc said he occasionally sees someone who's running for public office and that he also see his son's dentist (intentionally, of course), but Mehr agreed that that doesn't really count.
Board Game
Laziness continued to seep in after a heavy dinner, and the group was lackadaisical when discussing what the post-dinner activity would be. Some people tried to get interest in a board game going (specifically Codenames), but for about a whole hour everyone kept saying that they were too tired to actually get up from their chairs/couches and set it up. Some people (Brian and Eugene) even fell asleep on the couches in the living room nearby. Finally, growing restless, Marc took the initiative to get the box and empty the board game of its cards and other components onto the kitchen table.
In the first game, David battled Span while Eric, Marc, Mehr, and Matt acted as a collective group of guessers. Span got off to a blazing start by using the clue "rainforest" to try to get "Amazon", "log", "rose"?, and "giant" (the gallery got two of the four) followed by "titanic" to get "rose" and "gigantic" and "cast". In David's one turn so far, he had only used "martian" to get "alien", and so he was down 5-1 in the early goings. Suffice to say, David was not confident at all; he had only tried to get one card with his first clue because, as he put it, his cards were really hard to match!
Though David was a big underdog to win (Span only needed three more cards to finish him off), David continued to try to claw away, though sometimes the gallery didn't help. For example, he tried to use "Hilton" to get "hotel", but the gallery guessed wrong with "model" since Paris Hilton was a model. Also, when David used "hibernate", the gallery was hesitant to choose "park" because they thought it might be Span's since Span had previously used "rainforest" as a clue (the ultimate irony: it turns out that "park" didn't belong to either!).
That being said, the gallery did get "bear" and "cycle" (or "hotel"?) from "hibernate", and Marc tipped David off by continuing to wonder if "cycle" was also David's card. It was, but he wasn't using "hibernate" to get it! However, based on Marc's suspicion, later in the game, David decided to play a straightforward clue for ?? in the hope that Marc would lead the gallery to guess both that card and also "cycle" for the win. Luckily for David, he was right! After the start Span had, it was a major upset, and Span could only shake David's hand after he secured the unlikely victory.
The next game pitted Marc against Span. Span went first and played "organ" to get "church", "pipe", and "key". Marc countered with "tequila" to get "shot" and "glass". Marc was thinking of using "Normandy" as his first clue to get "parachute", "day", and "Germany", but "plane" was also out there and it was Span's card. So, after Span cleared "plane" (and ''stream") off the board with "jet", Marc had his chance. But he decided to switch up his clue to "Hitler" instead of "Normandy" so that he could nab "Germany", "ruler", and "gas".
Crazily enough, Span thought that Marc might actually use "Normandy" as his clue (great minds think alike) so that he could get down to one card remaining. With "Hitler", he had gotten close (two cards left). Span was now feeling the crunch with Marc desperately close to victory. This required a broad clue that could potentially win the game for Span. So, on his next turn, he went for another three cards using the clue "sign" and aiming for "luck", "Saturn", and "post". However, Span forgot that you sign cards, and "card" was the assassin. The gallery immediately picked up the idea of signing cards: you sign birthday cards, baseball cards, even playing cards when a magician does a card trick. Both Span and Marc knew the game would end soon, and when the gallery agreed to choose "card" in a relatively quick fashion, Marc raised his hands almost instantly in a display of victory.
After the game, Span lamented about how difficult it was to match his four final cards: "Saturn", "post", "spine", and "luck". Part of the problem was that "telescope" was also on the board, and Span knew that he would have a very difficult time crafting a clue that would lead the gallery to "Saturn" without also leading them to "telescope". It was actually rather bad luck for Span. The group had specifically tried to eliminate such conflicts at the beginning of each game (as well as to eliminate difficult cards like "unicorn", "playpus" in general), but somehow hadn't noticed this connection.
As is the often the case with Span, he couldn't quite let the loss go and kept thinking about how he could have gotten those final four cards with one clue. Someone suggested "cards" to match "post" with "luck", but how did that match up with "Saturn" and "spine"? And since "card" was the assassin, would someone have chosen it instead? Could he even use "cards" if "card" was the assassin? Well, it was too late in the night to check the rules or debate the scenario further.
Having worked their bodies earlier in the day, and now their minds, the still conscious members of the group agreed that they should all go to bed. After all, it would be a long drive for everyone involved in order to get back to their houses and waiting families.
Sunday Morning
For some, it was a quick morning: Mehr departed the rental first at about 8:00 AM, and Eric left soon thereafter. Others hung around for a little and took the opportunity to watch the first set of the men's final at Wimbledon between Federer and Djokovic (remember, they had considered doing the same with the women's final the morning before). It was a LONG first set with lots of long rallies and actually ended in a tie breaker.
While they were lounging around, Mehr sent a text to everyone saying that, on his way home, he had seen a black bear on the side of the road only three exits over from the park where they had played frolf and kickball the day before! As most of the frolf holes went through the forest, Marc joked that having a bear there would have made for a much more difficult frolf hole.
Finally, the time came for everyone else to go home. Marc, Eugene, Brian, Matt, and Span packed their things into the two remaining cars (Matt had moved his car up from the downhill lot when Mehr left) and checked the house thoroughly so as to not accidentally leave anything behind. While checking downstairs, Marc found...Span! Why did Marc think that Span had already left?
Anyway, there actually was one final moment of interest for the weekend during this departure. Matt said he would drive Span down the hill to his car which was parked at the outside lot. However, Matt's car was a little (a lot!) messy. Matt did his best to clear a space for Span, and they were ready to go until Span noticed that he and Matt weren't the only ones in the car. Ants! Matt said they must have been attracted by the food wrappings that his kids left behind. Always blame those not around to defend themselves!
So, Span jumped from Matt's car to Eugene's car (which was moved up the hill when David left), they all drove down to other lot, hugged (or shook hands - masculinity!), and said their final goodbyes until next year. As Borat might say, this MBBB was yet another "Great success!" ::double thumbs up emoji::