Swamp Bowl: The Sequel
My boss asked what kind of idiot would plan a cub scout camping trip the night of the Super Bowl. I raised my hand and smiled. It was an accident, I tried to explain. He just laughed and said I was going to miss a good game.
Not if the dads in Pack 210 had anything to say about it. A few opted out, but Joe Springsteen had his own plan. He hauled his 32-inch HD TV to an oak hammock on the edge of a swamp, rigged a 20-foot free-standing antenna in a small clearing and then fired up his new Honda generator.
A dozen of us stood there speechless as he searched for a signal. Then, after a few tense minutes of channel surfing, he found the pre-game show and a collective roar of approval echoed through the woods.
By kickoff, we had a seafood boil cooking on a turkey fryer and a pot of Son of a Gun stew heating over an open fire. The crowd was evenly divided: the men pulling for the Giants, the boys for the Patriots.
Sitting in lawn chairs beneath a star-filled sky, listening to barred owls calling in the distance, we watched what may have been the best Super Bowl in decades. We all wondered how much Springsteen's coveted red chair, sitting on the campsite equivalent of the 50 yard line, would have cost if we put in on E-Bay.
One hundred? Five hundred? A thousand? Not enough. You just can't put a price on a night like that.
Looking for a great day hike for your toddler? How about a romantic paddle to a barrier island with your sweetheart? Planning to buy a backpacking tent but don't know where to start? Find the answers to these and other questions when you take a walk on the "Wild Side" with St. Petersburg Times Outdoors Editor Terry Tomalin, who has traveled the globe for the past 20 years looking for adventure.
Terry, at least I know I can bring my TV to the forrest with the help of HD Tuner and TV antenna. Actually, I envy you guys who went to Myakka River and could watch the game in the great outdoors.
Posted by: Anthony | February 09, 2008 at 12:15 PM