Relax and Party!
Every year since high school the members of the band have taken an annual
vacation down to Arkansas. Scott W. has a summer home down there and a Kick
Ass Ski Boat. Scott also has a 30' Pantoon Boat with a large gas grill.
Partying, water
skiing, toobin', exploring the 1000 miles of shoreline, and eating like kings
sum up what it's like when the band goes down there. We usually get up around
10:00 a.m. and while Scott and Chris go into town to fill up the fuel tank
in the boat, John and Scotty cook up a huge breakfast. We usually go shopping
the first day we're down there and stock up on tons of Alcohol and supplies.
There was a trip some years back that turned out to be an experience before we even started to head down to Arkansas. Scotty,
along with our friends Tim and Travis insisted that the beer for the trip be purchased up here in
Chicago because it's cheaper and Arkansas is "Dry" on Sundays (No Alcohol
can be sold on Sunday). Our transportation down was a new Caravan we borrowed and we had done
our food shopping already up here and the van was packed tight. We drove to the
liquor store and Scotty, Tim and Travis bought 10 Cases of beer. The van was already
packed with too much stuff. Scotty and Tim managed to fit 2 cases in the van and
tied the other 8 to the roof of the van using string they got from the guy at
the counter. Scotty and Tim wrapped the cases on the roof with black garbage bags
and tied more string around the bags. 
The van was so overloaded that the rear bumper would scrape every time we hit
a bump. The more we drove, the more that the garbage bags were tearing from the
wind. We checked and tightened the strings holding the cases every time we stopped
for food or gas. Somehow we made it all the way (10 hours) to Arkansas from
Chicago without
getting pulled over.
When the band is down in Arkansas we're out on the lake for at least 8 or 9 hours. Each of us turns out looking like a lobsters by the end of the first day there.
John ended up getting poison ivy a couple of years ago when he and Chris fell down a mud slide on the side of a cliff and landed in a huge area of sticker bushes and poison ivy.
