It was shaping up to be a perfect Saturday. We had a car full of stuff, and were cruising to Mazo early in the morning to meet up with Gaia. Today was the big summer festival!
We brought two tables, a box full of prizes, a shoe rack that doubled as a ticket bucket, two markerboards, and a roll of paper to cover things with so we could write anywhere. Since there were NO volunteers at the event coordination page, we purchased and brought Bocce Ball, Lawn Darts, and LadderBall. This was among a lot of other stuff that we brought. Our car full of stuff was parked, waiting, in the Mazo parking lot.
It was a lousy start to the day when we watched a big white truck roll in, go around the parking lot, then floor it on the way out to spray gravel all over. (No cars were hit.) I also checked the porta-potty while we waited, and discovered that all of my posters were gone again. We called Gaia at the time she was supposed to be there, and she hadn't left the house yet. She was waiting on someone else (who had a big truck) to give them a ride, and they were about a half hour away. We waited some more, and watched people trickle into the parking lot. Some people, especially the Elders, are impressive with how much they can fit on a bike. During our wait, Gaia called a couple who were on their way and told them we need help in transporting stuff. When they arrived we quickly loaded up their car. They used their gate key to drive to the beach while we walked. (This is the legal way to do it.)
At the beach, we unloaded their car and I snuck into the porta-potties. Both had the posters still there, which cast a big shadow of doubt on my idea of who was taking them. Where all the other posters went still remains a mystery.
Setting up the tables, it quickly became apparent that the Mazokats had no idea that it was Nude Recreation Weekend. We had advertised on all the common websites and Yahoo groups, emailed the thousands in the FOMB distribution list, taken lots of phone calls from Nude Rec Week advertisements, and often (or sometimes?) had posters at the beach porta-potties. Despite this, a majority of the 500 people who were there had no idea. Many hadn't even heard of TNS either. Also, nobody was there for the AANR skinny dip as far as I could tell, which is a good thing because we did NOT participate in that.
Instead, we were graced with the presence of Gaia, Captain Planet, CatHerder, and a TNS photographer. For those who don't know my character name mapping, they are all TNS or TNS affiliated. If my two tables were a shack, then their setup would be a mansion. They brought 2 grills, about 4 large tables, and about 4 more smaller ones, 2 gazebos for shade, an official tug-of-war rope, a huge stack of boxes and coolers for food, and a large wheelbarrow with a fat sand tire to shuttle it all from the overloaded truck. Combine that with the potluck they encouraged, and they had a free all-you-can-eat buffet with a better selection that most restaurants! It went so well that they did it again Sunday just to use up the leftovers!
My side of the event was the games, and they were going poorly thus far. The Contenders fulfilled their promise of bringing two volleyball nets -- one for the "pros" and one for the "special olympics". Captain Planet had the tug-of-war rope. We had the 3 lawn games we purchased. Nobody else brought games. And other than the Contender's usual games, nobody else was looking to play. I even sent my trusty girlfriend around the beach to let people know what was going on and to recruit people for games. Many went for the free lunch, but chickened out of the games.
I asked Gaia what was normal for game play. She said that after people have lunch, they are in a better mood for playing games. This was partly true. We had many different people play the lawn games. Almost nobody played the normal-person volleyball though, even though the Contenders and I both hear people complain that they'd play if it weren't for the pro's. They had their chance to play today, on their own net and with people of similar non-pro skills, but only a couple did. We tried and tried to get games started.
A good chunk of the tickets for prizes went to several people who brought food, and many who played lawn games. The rest were given out to the winners of the most popular game...
Mid-afternoon, Captain Planet declared a war... a tug-of-war! The rope was laid out along the edge of the water, and about 16 people piled on for the first tug. Soon after, the count was over 20 for the second tug and people were getting tired. It was break-time for a while.
Mazo beach wasn't the only popular one that Saturday. People were camped out on all the beaches we could see across the river. Many were on the island in the middle too, including three hovercrafts. (Cool! We want a ride!) The island that many naturists walk to (but shouldn't) also had a number of textiles, including a group of 8 cute college-age girls in bikinis and one guy with them.
My girlfriend gets super bonus points for setting up the most memorable event the beach has ever seen! On her own, she decided to wander over and talk to that group of young girls. Before I knew it, they were front and center on our beach and picking a fight. They were picking up one end of the rope, and several naturists (both guys and girls) were picking up the other end. A battle between the nudes and the textiles was on!
Of course, the naturists outnumbered the girls, so a few joined on their side to balance things out. Soon enough, the pull was on! Would the bikini girls kick the bronzed naturist butts? Or would the team everyone cheered for prove to be the true Olympians? The tug was dead even for what seemed like several minutes. Muscles were flexing on the rope, and feet were digging into the sand, but both teams held their own without an end in sight. Everyone at the beach was cheering loudly and were at the edge of their towels in anticipation!
To Be Continued....
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