TornaDope: the SW Ohio Picnic Style DopeFest!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Since Spring is bearing down on us, it’s time to think about more temperate weather, and stuff to do in said more temperate weather. So I have this idea. Actually I have a couple ideas, but they all build off one initial idea. (Which I am blatantly ripping off… being inspired by other, smarter Dopers. I know this. Shut up.) So it turns into a Multiple Choice DopeFest! Let me know what you think, will ya? (Actually I only want to hear: “Yes! That’s a fabulous idea! I will be there!”)

The Basic Plan:
A)** A DopePicnic**.
At a park near me (southwestern Ohio) we all gather and have some picnic food and enjoy each other’s company. Simple enough, and it’s Family Friendly Fun! The First Choice park is Caesar Creek. This beat out John Bryan State Park because of the “flush-toilet” factor. Caesar Creek has flush toilets, John Bryan doesn’t. Also, Caesar Creek is near a flea market, just so you know. (Hey, some people like flea markets.) Saturday, May 15th works for me.

I figure a “sharesie” picnic would be nice , where everyone brings something to share with everyone else. (Because I, unlike other people, ain’t gonna cook a pig.) I’ll bring the hot dogs and buns and some condiments and, of course, the charcoal to cook it over. The rest is up to whoever wants to show up. Games, frisbees, walking around and all the regular park stuff would be included with your purchase price. Not a bad deal for a little potato salad, if I do say so myself. And I just did.

That’s the basic set-up, these are just Add-Ons:
B) A Book Swap.
You bring your old books and see if anyone wants 'em. Simple enough.

C) Stone Soup for Dinner.
Are you hip to this? Stone soup. You take a big pot of water and a stone and you make soup. Only it would be bland, so you add stuff to it. Like salt. That’s a good start for stone soup. Only, it still needs more stuff. Like an onion, or some rice or barley, and carrots. Maybe some beef. Maybe some sausage. Maybe some ham. Maybe some rabbit. Everyone who is going to have some of the soup has to bring one ingredient to add to the pot. Just not the water or stone or salt. That’s the host’s job. It’s called other things beside “stone soup” but it’s all the same idea. So, would that be fun or what? (The correct answer is: A. Yes it would be fun!)

D) A Camp Out Saturday Night. (With a Carouse).
That’s why I wanted to do this at a State Park. They have camping right there. It’s just Car Camping, so you don’t have to “rough it”. And a Carouse is pretty much a campfire. Only more so. (While the park’s official rule is “Alcohol is Prohibited”, this really means “Just Don’t Make Anyone Have to Notice What You’re Drinking”. Not that I personally advocate the drinking of alcohol in any case.) With an 87% chance of Jiffy-Pop popcorn. 4% chance of “Kumbaya”.

E) If the Camp Out turns into a Big Deal, we could throw in Friday night too. Make it a Big Ol’ Camp-A-Rama. Or “Dope-A-Rama” if you prefer. (Dope-O-Ree?)
So. A picnic on Saturday, May 15th at Caesar Creek State Park. Whaddaya think?

2

All that and you misspelled “TornaDope”. Teehee.

3

I thought it was a birding dope, myself.

4

Shuddup Shibb. I have a crack team of Mods ready to jump right in there and fix that up. Just as soon as they feel like it.

You wouldn’t believe the rare and elusive birds that will be there Jonny. You should show up just to see them in all their glory. And bring some baked beans.

5

You’re welcome. :wink:

It sounds like a lot of fun - wish I could join you. But I wouldn’t vote for camping out unless that state park has room service. A girl’s gotta have standards!

6

I can’t make it. If it were only a week earlier…damn.

Sounds like fun, though, and that park is awful pretty in them pitchers. I may have to mosey on down there and check the place out.

Oh well. I guess there are plenty of other DopeFests I’m missing :frowning:

7

That would be lovely, and my calendar currently shows an opening on May 15th. I’m very pro Book Swap, moderately pro Stone Soup, and would camp if others seemed to be camping.

8

Elysian, re-arrange your life to more conveniently mesh with my plans. Get on that. Chop chop!

Woooo! My first “definite maybe”. Don’t worry Fisher, we’ll all “seem” to camp. Once you go to sleep though, we’re all moving over to the Holiday Inn. Ha! I kid. But since you are the first to say “I’ll be there!” you get a prize. I don’t know what the prize will be, but you’re getting one.

Oh, that reminds me- the whole “Multiple Choice” aspect means you don’t have to do everything. Say you just want to show up for the cook-out. That’s fine. Then you can split after you eat your hot dog. Or if you only want to deal with the book swap and stone soup. That’s just Jake. If you want to do the cook out, then dissapear until the Carouse, that’s up to you. (The spillway is always windy so you could go fly a kite. Or dig up some fossils. They let you do that in the spillway too.) Why Snickers, you could show up for the cook out, the book swap, the stone soup and then bag out on us at the camping. It means you miss the Carouse, but if you have “standards” I guess I understand.
Thanks Mystery Mod! Yer the best ever!

9

Why is it called “TornaDope”? That’s a good question. I’m so glad you asked. See, the thing is I don’t have a lot of luck with this whole “planning” thing. Pretty much all the fun stuff I head up, something goes wrong. Horribly wrong. The White Elephant III? Remember the Winter of Our Missed Content? They happened at the same time. PlaneDope? Freak winter ice storm. (It was pretty though, all that snow and glittery ice.) The Fall Hike? It rained. (But we went to the Air Force Museum and that was fun.)

But if I just go to a Fest, they are always the Best. Time. Ever! That’s what gets me. I figure one time I’ll throw together something and it’ll be wonderful. So I thought and thought about how I can make this picnic thing work. Short of me roasting a pig, that is. (lno, you set the bar awfully high!) So I figured using a State Park would be good since it would be easy to find. And have a variety of things to do all day so you don’t feel pressured into doing something you think is “stupid”. And even though it’s gonna be outside, it’s in May. Not a lot of chance for a winter storm. But it could rain. Ha ha! They have covered picnic shelters! Even some of the ones you don’t have to reserve. (And I’m gonna get there at the crack of dawn to put my dibbie down!)

But no plan is 100% perfect. There still could be an Unforeseen Circumstance. I figure it’ll either be a flood or a tornado. So I named the whole she-bang after the Tornado because tornadoes are just sexier than floods.

And speaking of the Winter of Our Missed Content, if you’re just toying with the idea of coming, you might want to write down my e-mail address, just in case.

ruededay (at) yahoo (dot) com

And really, you’ll want to come. They’ll be Chinese Checkers! And this game we played in Boy Scouts. You take a board and drill a couple of holes in it so you can jam a match in the hole and the match will stand up. Then you try to light the match by chopping it with a hatchet. Loads of fun!

Uhh… and I have Special Guests going to show up! Steve Irwin!(not really)Mel Torme!(just kidding)Linda Evans!(oh, I wish)Jonny Depp!(if he’s out of jail, so don’t count on it) And FisherQueen! (this one’s real)

10

Hm…that email address sounds kinda familiar for some reason…I think I got a spam on my yahoo account from someone who had stolen that address. Of course, it might have been you since I didn’t read the body before deleting…ah, well…

The more I think about it, the more tempting it is to go hang out and put some faces to your names. Unlike the last one this probably won’t require me hauling my lazy ass out of bed at some ungodly hour in the morning…

11

Come on, OhDopers! I don’t want to be stuck all alone in the woods with Rue- you just never know what he might do.

In fact, inspired by Rue, I will personally arrange for a prize for the NEXT person to say they’ll be there.

12

Yes! That’s a fabulous idea! I will be there!

I’m very pro Book Swap and Carouse, but moderately anti Stone Soup, having had some bad Stone Soup experiences in my past (no, I can’t talk about it… it’s just too painful), and would also camp if others were.

In keeping with the secondary theme of this thread, I’ll provide a prize for the next person to attend.

13

Um, well, you see, here’s the thing.

Persons of similar DNA to mine have a history, well, of making Bad Things Happen when there’s camping.

You think you’re joking about a tornado. I’m not.

And this one time, at fam camp, we had a flood.

And this one time, at fam camp, we had a hurricane.

And this one time, at fam camp, there was a forest fire.

And this one time, at fam camp, a tree fell on the next campsite over.

And so, well, because I am a pariah amongst all who value their lives and limbs, I can’t do camping.

Julie

14

I think the bring some chow for the group and just show up with a good attitude would work for me. I will be there if nothing comes up which i hope wont happen.

15

That hurts Slort. You throwing away my e-letter without even reading it. Your paranoia completely overrode the care with which I crafted the missive. Your loss, man!

What are you afraid of Fisher? I promise I won’t do my World Famous version of the Harry Potter books with hand puppets if that helps.

Yay! GorillaGirls’s coming! It’s a party now!

Boo! JS is a big baby!
One time? At Boy Scout camp? It rained for three days.
One time? At Boy Scout camp? It rained for two days.
One time? At Boy Scout camp? It just rained for one day, but it rained so hard out campground was under two inches of water.
One time? At Boy Scout camp? We found someone else (oddly) set fire to a campsite. We put it out.
One time? At Boy Scout camp? We chopped down a tree right in our own site.
You know you could just come for the day. We’d love to see you. But with your bad camping mojo, you’ll just have to go home in the evening. Or not. I’m sure I’d cancel you out anyway.

I hope nothing comes up on ya, grisham. It wouldn’t be the same without you.

16

Oh, that’s what’s gonna happen. Here I thought it’d be the 17 year cicadas swarming all over us when I planned this thing (Tornados? Floods? Don’t be so dramatic. I figured “bugs”.) and it turns out, the Board is going pay. Well, I’m sure it’ll all go without a hitch, but if the Worst happens maybe you’ll want to know where in Caesar Creek this is going to be.

Well, I don’t know. I haven’t bestirred myself to go check the joint out.

But if you go look at the map the Park People have on their site and look waaaay at the south side of the park. See that little triangle with “Visitor Center” right next to it? Now look around the lake counter-clockwise. See the first little picnic table? That would be my first pick. It’d be easy to find and easy to get to.

But if you have to reserve those or someone else is there first (what would be the odds of that happening?) the second choice is the next little picnic table there by the “Boat Launch”. Either way it’d be between the “Visitor Center” and the “Pioneer Village”. I’m pretty sure one of those should be available.

So, come for the picnic and stay as long as you want. What? Like I’m going to kick you out of a State Park? Yeah, right.

17

Just so you know, I officially can not attend. I would love to, but have to attend a bachelor party in DC that weekend instead. It was a close call (okay, not really so close, but hopefully it makes everyone feel better). Let’s compare notes later and see if more people get arrested at TornaDope or at the Bachelor’s Party.

18

Hey! Good news! Shibb’s not coming!

No… that’s not it. That would be, pretty much by definition, a Bad Thing. Boo! Hoo hoo hoo! Shibb’s blowing us off!

Anyway, back to the Good News: We should miss the swarm of the 17 Year Cicada (Brood X: The Big Brood) by ONE WHOLE DAY!. The Cicadas are supposed to show up between the 17th and the 25th. (That’s what they said in the paper anyway.) So the 15th will still be a Cicada Free Zone. And Sunday too if you camp over. But that Monday… watch out!

Unless you think a swarm of screeming horny bugs is just Nature’s Majesty and Spectacle. Then maybe you should hang out in Daytona Beach for Spring Break. Same thing really. Only more beer.

19

The really important question is “when will the locusts will be done swarming?”, so that I may return and visit my family.

20

They swarm collectively for about six weeks. The individual cicada only lasts a couple of days though since they ain’t got no mouth. Yeah, they can procreate like gang-busters, but a quick snack? Out of the question. Sometimes being a flying gonad isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

So you should be Jake by the beginning of July. Why anyone would want to come to Ohio in July is beyond me though. Even for family. Even for family you really like. Ohio should just shut down from July 1st through the middle of September. It would be best for everyone.