TAG Fall Cave-In 2008

Well I for one had an incredibly awesome TAG (albeit minus Paul - which was sucky - everyone missed you Paul!) TAG is always the highlight of the fall season for me. I can think of nothing more fun than camping, caving and staying up till all hours for 4 days with friends. And this one especially seemed to be jam packed with coolness...

Camping is always cool (especially when it doesn't rain - and this is the 1st TAG I've been to where we did not have rain!)

Discovering cute little slimey salamanders under logs while hunting for fire wood is cool.


Helmet shopping with Tommy is cool.... and funny.


Ridiculously bright lights are always fun. (3 compact floursecents taped to a helmet + battery + inverter = comments like "DANG!" and "What the hell?" and "Is that the sun?" and "Where can I get one of those?" followed by lots of explanations of how its just a joke - that its for cave photography) And then getting to play photographer while Nathan gets to be in front of the camera for once was quite nice also.


Late night "crafts" are cool.


Nathan showed Andrew, Vic, Ohad JR and I how to make a soda can stove. I'm thinking I might do a tutorial on this later on - now that I know how to make one.

Camping still lifes are always cool - especially when they incorporate plastic squid, sausage, rubber dinosaurs and bananas.


Weddings (like Tiny and Nikky's wedding on Friday) are cool . The ceremony was Friday at an overlook in Cloudland State Park - perfect weather - a happy, beautiful bride and handsome groom - lots of nice friends and family - some tunes & some food. I didn't get to take any pictures since I was in the the wedding...so you'll have to take my word for it that it was beautiful - or ask Nathan since he took all the photography. I did snap this one photo of Nikky in her fun veil with Nathan and Brent. Congrats Tiny and Nikky!!


The SCCi making the announcement Friday night that they've got Fern was frickin' WAY COOL!

Seeing the shirt I designed for Fern Cave being worn by masses of happy cavers is super cool too! Learning that they sold out of the shirts - ever better!

Friends you don't get to see that often mixed with friends that you do mixed with old friends and some new friends are all definitely cool.

Vic, JR, Nathan, Andrew, Joe and I

Tony and Chris

Me, Geoffrey, Andrew, Jennifer, Brandy, Donovan, Nathan (what the...? uh...where exactly is your other hand?!) and Steve

Ok now that's a bit better.

Annette, Nathan and Kelli at the NSS tent.

The Pope, Tommy, Michelle and Bruce during our Huntsville Grotto potluck.

Steve, Roger, Jim, Gerald and Avis too.

Geoffrey, Michelle and Phillip around our campfire.


Toni (Will you braid my hair?), Tony and Ohad also around the campfire Saturday night.


Everyone on Saturday night waiting for the festivities to begin.


A Huge "TAG" hanging up at registration is cool.


Hairbraid tug-of-war in the SCCi booth between Geoffrey and Nathan - cool.


Full sized pool tables are cool - especially in the middle of the woods.


Getting to watch "Vertical Bill" climb is cool.


Walter Cronkite impressions are always cool.



Winning 150' of PMI rope for frogging 30 meters in 2min 29sec is cool.


Huge TAG bonfires are always cool.



Giving two pairs of my favorite but unwearable caving boots a good send off (onto the TAG boot funeral pyre) is very cool. (Brent, Nathan, Brandy and Steve C. had the honor of the boot flinging. Thanks guys!)

This would be a really blurry me chucking the first boot in.

Brent is attempting to chuck the last boot in... this last boot took like 5 tries before we got it in.

3 am ice water fights are cool! (sorry no pics of that...I was too busy running and tossing ice water) but I think a few folks in the grotto can attest to hearing the maham.

Michelle and Vic putting out the fire and having to say goodbye to a bunch of friends... kinda a bummer... but still cool - hugs and waves all around. And a good cave trip was still ahead too...


Running over friends on the way out... I mean - Andrew goofing off that we'd hit him...cool.


And of course cave trips, like the one we took on Sunday to Guess Creek, are always cool - especially with massive doses of sleep deprived sillyness at the back of the line. I think we were bordering on the Three Stooges... if only we'd added the "nuk nuks" I think we would have had the routine down. And of course taping when no one knows you're taping... that's particularly cool.



38 foot waterfalls are cool too - even if you guys couldn't see it. (Look on Nathan's Flickr site over the next couple days for the nice pictures of the waterfall and some other pretties from Guess Creek Cave)



Then there's Joe's - a Joe's Pizza picnic is a very very cool ending to a phenomenally fun filled TAG weekend. (Try saying that one 3 times fast!)

Walter Cronkite impressions - again - very cool.



(HA ha! Made you look! So does it count?)