The Last Drive…..

Over the years, I’ve had several “lasts” that I knew I was having… my last day of school, my last days of drum and bugle corps, the last “gig” I had with the last bar band I played in, my last day at a job I had for 19 years, and the one thing in common with all of these was the last time I had to drive to the “venue” for the last time doing “whatever”.  So that last time getting into the car, putting the “gear” I needed into it, and going to the place was always a mixed thing.  You always have that “life passing in your mind” kind of feeling where you remember the first time you walked into that place, and met those people for the first time, and did whatever you were doing for the first time.  The past few weeks driving down to the quarry, I’ve had some of those feelings, and have had to reminisce about some of the people and things that happened while I was coming here.  In some cases, I’m thankful that I’ve written some of these memories down, and can go back and read them! (my mind isn’t what it used to be…)

My first arrival at the quarry was on August 25 2004.  Not long after I got into this activity.  On my 40^th birthday (October 7^th 2003) I was snorkeling in the Florida Keys, and decided that I should give diving a try. (hey it LOOKED kinda fun!)  Almost one year later, I was two dives in from a Discover Scuba session in the Keys, and ready to take my Open Water “check outs” at the quarry.  Being a rather large person at the time, renting a wet suit wasn’t a good option, so I tried buying a BIG one from a place online, and that seemed to do the trick…. No hood…no gloves, but in August, the thermocline wasn’t an issue since we weren’t going THAT deep, and we weren’t staying in THAT long…sucking down an 80 wasn’t a big thing!  (And I also figured that since we were going to the Keys with reckless abandon, who’d NEED a hood, gloves and anything more than a 3mm!)(boy was I wrong!)(but more on that later)  But 125 “diving minutes” later, I was a certified diver, and figuring that I’d probably only have a few more dives in that quarry for my Advanced Open Water, next summer.

The next six dives I did were all in the Keys, But for some odd reason I hung out with a class using a rented steel 95 from BSC and did two in August of 2005, before my next two dives in the Upper Keys after the Orange Bowl in January of 2006. After I took my Nitrox course, I went along on two dives with Jeff who was giving dives 3&4 to an Open Water student, and I learned to use a 7MM with hood and gloves because my days in the Keys seemed numbered. (and if I remember correctly, the 7MM was on sale, pretty cheap, and I thought I could do the “occasional” dive up here in the frozen North) Not too long after that, Jeff hooked me up with some guy named Rob Sullivan and his friend Rick McCann since I mentioned that I’d like to maybe start doing a few more dives at Bainbridge.  Little did I know that I’d be doing a helluva lot more dives with Rob!  (and a helluva lot more dives at Bainbridge)

I originally met Rob at Lebanon Valley’s pool while he was going through his Open Water classes, I was already certified, and Jeff said ‘come on down’ so I could do some warm up dives before I went on a Florida trip.  But this first Wednesday night at BSC was one of my original “classic” dive reports that I used to put up on the old Divers Descent website, and I think Rob still reads it occasionally when he’s had a bad day. But July 19 2006 was the first night Rob and I did a dive together at BSC and we’ve never looked back. Talk about someone that you are “comfortable” diving with, you can anticipate their next move,  you know when it’s “just not happening” and you know when it’s time to call it. And you also don’t feel bad if each other needs to call it because that’s just how it works.  (we’ve had a FEW of those! In fact I found one 12 minute dive in 2007 that just meant earlier beers!)  When I tell my wife that I’m diving with Rob (or John, or a few (very few) other names) she doesn’t worry about my well-being.

During that time besides Rob, Rick was another one who was with us a lot early on, Rick and I did a few here and there that we weren’t supposed to do, and I always remember him saying “don’t tell anyone I had you here”  before I was “advanced” certified!   Rick was one who had to move on, but we then had another guy, Lee Hansen who came along. Lee was a LT. Colonel in the US Army who was being stationed in Carlisle for some advanced military training, he found me on Scubaboard seeing my “Hershey” location and figured that since I was in Central PA, I’d know where to go.  He sent me a note and asked me if there were any places locally to dive, and if there were any good dive shops around, he needed to get his regulators serviced when he got into town.  I told him about “DDS” and Bainbridge (not to mention Dutch Springs where he pretty much became a resident on the weekends) and said I’d meet him at the shop that Saturday, I also met John Weaver for the first time there that day (who happened to be working in the shop) John’s another person who’s been around for a long time, and continues to dive with us to this day.  It seems that the last three people left in the “Scared Turtle” divers that continue to dive at BSC regularly are Rob, John and me.  Early on John would dive a lot with his daughters, but as his daughters went away to college, and did other things, he ended up with us more so than anything.  He and Rob seemed to do a lot of different dive courses together as well.  It was always fun with Rhea who made as much noise as I do down there! I remember one dive when we came back up and Rob said to me “wow, you were really burping and making a lot of noise down there tonight”, and Rhea goes “that was me!”  With a big proud smile on her face!  John’s wife Anne seems to only come to Dutch Springs with us, but I seem to remember her a few times at BSC.

A few others that I met at that time besides some of the shop principles were Frank Lynch who got “re” certified (I think “re”) about the time I was getting certified, and did a lot of diving with us,  Layne Wonica, who has apparently surfaced again for one of the recent trips, (and I ran into him about a year back at the ”Grange Fair” up near State College)  and Christopher Rosing whom I originally met in a PADI Equipment course, but started showing up on a lot of Wednesday nights, he ended up doing a whole lot of diving with us. One fun time was during my Advanced course, Christopher was there for a few of the “modules”… one of them being my search and recovery…he saw where I dropped my “object”, helped me recover it, then we just did a “fun” dive for about 20 minutes to pass the time and make it look good!

Another good regular at the time was Lee Millard.  It seemed that if I wasn’t able to dive with Rob, Lee was there, so I had a good Wednesday night crew to dive with.  One of my favorite times at the quarry with Lee was when I first got my dry suit, and Lee was ready to try his in open water (he DID try it in a pool)  But in March (which was pretty early for quarry diving at the time)  Lee and I decided to go “dust off the platforms” (his comment) and try out our suits for the first time in the quarry.  It was a fun time, and the dive report I wrote up had some funny stuff, including my feet first ascent, and our passing each other going up and down at the line!

A few years back Todd Swain started diving with us, I think I first met him on his daughters Open Water dives that I was hanging out. Not long after, he started hanging out with us on Wednesdays. He’s obviously gone crazy with the cave thing, and purchasing the rebreathers and scooters, and…ok, he wins as far as cool dive gear!

Over the years a few other people wove in and out of our crew, John Cheeseman, decided to dive with us, then went to other shops, then found other people, then stopped being affiliated with shops, but would dive with certain people occasionally. Mostly a nice person though, as is his wife Liz.   Justin was another one that was there early on, and disappeared after a while.  Lou Starzl came for several Wednesdays, but disappeared just as quickly as he appeared. Lou experienced one of the FEW dives where I was able to lead!  I did the hard part and got us to the pipeline that leads to the CAT, and he took over from there!  Ron Hivner and his lovely wife Mindy show up occasionally. It seems that the past few years Ron did a dive with Rob and me the first and LAST Wednesday nights, although this season he went with us a few more times. Mindy isn’t much of a BSC fan, but she’s taking her divemaster course and has no choice.

Here’s where I get to mention Jeff and Annette again.  I think the last time I got to talk about them was when Jeff was closing down his website and I was starting this one to post my dive reports,  and I thanked them for the help early on. Honestly, without the two of them, I probably wouldn’t have one eighth of the dives I have in the quarry, and would probably be one of those “need a refresher I’m going on a vacation where I might do four dives” kind of people.  I wouldn’t own my own cylinders, a dry suit, or even one third of the equipment that I have.  Jeff got me into the quarry, and that’s why this is a tough thing!

Other people through the years that we didn’t dive with, but saw on a fairly regular basis;  Jim Brown, who I originally met on a PA diving website while inquiring about the whole Bainbridge thing way back, before Jeff just said “ come hang out on a class, and I’ll introduce you to a few guys on Wednesday night”,  “Beanie and Cecil” (Of which we did a dive with Beanie a few Wednesday’s back since Cecil didn’t show up)  Then there's the guy that blows in, does a solo dive and gets annoyed at everyone because he left his DECO bottle on a platform, and thinks he need to do some DECO, but blows it off because he’s mad. (but we guess is OK because he just grabs his gear and leaves) The guy that gets annoyed because we all started diving doubles, and continue to dive in dry suits during the summer. And thinks we’re in over our heads (ok, we ARE diving!)  And others that are just too numerous to mention.  (mainly because my mind isn’t as sharp as it once was)(I blame the viz)

Now to the people that RAN the Quarry. Steve and Susie.  Most of the time, it seemed that Steve was puttering around doing something, either over by the barn, or on his little golf cart,  and Susie was in the shop checking creds. 99% of the time when I got there I had to hit the men’s room (due to the extreme hydrating that you’re supposed to do before diving that I did on my way to the quarry, yeah I read the books!) and Susie wanted to talk!   Not being a rude person, I usually stood there and talked to her, and was polite.  Got to know her FAIRLY well over the past 11 years, and thought that she was really a nice person. (what's funny was we were talking today and she asked me how old I was...when I told her she was amazed that I was 51!  She thought I was late 30's!   God Bless her!!!)  Steve got to know me from just seeing me, and knowing that I was one of his patrons.  We’d chit chat about different things, and he’d join the conversation when Susie and I were talking up a storm.  I always got a “Hi Ben, how are ya!?” whenever I saw him.  Great people to know, and just fun to chat with whenever you had the time. I feel bad that some people were rude as hell towards them when they announced the closing, I’m not the happiest camper about it, but when you want to retire, and you get no good buyers, what can you do!? I wish them well, nonetheless!

Anyway…a lot of great memories from me, I can only imagine what everyone else has…and the things that I forgot, forgot to mention, and the things that I’ll remember after I post this!  We can only hope that at some point the new owners realize that this place is still worthwhile for what it’s been used for over the past 30-odd years!  Things don’t look good as far as diving here in the future, but we can only hope… I just checked my stats, I did 225 dives there from August 25, 2004, until today, including my Open Water, Advanced Open Water, and Nitrox dives.  Rob and John said that they had a lot as well.

Leaving Bainbridge is like breaking up with an old easy girlfriend…she may not be the prettiest thing, but you know you’ll always get a reliable trip to the Pump House and occasionally:  A Barn Run!

 I’m gonna miss ya old girl! So long old friend, thanks for letting us blow our bubbles and make some great memories there!

My First AND Last Wednesday Night Dive....

Today I decided to get a little nostalgic....the first part is from 2006....

My FIRST Wednesday Night Dive

(This is a reprint from a story that ran on July 19, 2006)

I’ve made a commitment to myself to dive more this summer, Jeff said something like “Yeah right, I’ll believe it when I see it” and then mumbled something to the effect of “you warm water wimp” So I’m finally starting to hold up my end of the bargain. Two weeks ago, I accompanied Jeff and Matt Brown on Matt’s dive 3 & 4 of his certification where I broke in the 7mm (which has been hanging on its hook since I purchased it LAST summer…well, make that last spring, along with the hood and gloves I bought at the 2005 Splash party, to take advantage of the low low prices and friendly service you’ve come to expect at DDS) and broke in my brand spanking new Nitrox specialty! (Yeah baby VooDoo gas!) So since I had more time on my hands I checked if anyone was diving soon, and th  subject of Wednesday came up...”Alright, I’ll give it a shot!” Rent the tank, pack the dive bag (in the semi darkness of my basement due to the power outage Tuesday night) and set everything out to run to Bainbridge after work. (work never seemed so long…shame I can’t get overtime for my perception of how long the day went!) Anyway, got home, tossed everything into the car (well except the tank which was ever so GENTLY laid into the trunk) and started the rather quick drive to the quarry.

Checked in and went back to Upper A and set up my kit. I met Rick and Rob whom Jeff set me up with for the evening, and started talking dive plan. Being three of us that have followed on a lot of dives, one of us had to lead, Rob volunteered.

While setting up, Rob found that his tank sprung a leak (dang purple “O” rings!) so rather than risk a flame out on re-entry, he set off to the shop to have it repaired and his tank refilled. Rick and I cooled our heels and waited for Rob to return, which he did after making it back down the road in record time! We set up only to find Rob had another leak, this one in his dry suit inflator hose, so a quick repair and we were ready to squeeze into our wetsuits. Down the road and after a quick safety check… thumbs down and we’re off.

Rob led, and lead he did! The frustration of his equipment issues took over and I think he would have left Justin trying to catch his breath. We learned a new signal in those first 10 minutes, kind of a combination of the PennDot worker “slow down” motion and a hound dog panting. (thankfully, Rick works in Cardiology, but we didn’t need his services at depth) Rob got the message and kept it slow the rest of the dive. (Hey, I needed my cardio workout anyway!) I was afraid to look back and check if Rick was following me because my neck may have snapped from the “prop wash” coming off Rob’s fins. Rob commented later that he was at 52 feet while I was at 51, I had to stay at least a foot or two above him to avoid swimming INTO the current!

We didn’t find the Pennsy, but we did find a boat. (According to Rob we at LEAST found the quarry)

We took a short break to get our bearings and finished out the dive at around 20-25 feet, weaving in and out of the trees.

I think I made some strides with the 7mm, when we stopped I had a half decent hover happening and I didn’t shoot to the surface at all this time. (That’s a lot of neoprene to wrangle) In the “issue” dept. for me, I didn’t get to achieve, with my mask, what me, Tupperware and a Walrus have in common. (We all like a tight seal) So I was clearing my mask a lot. Other than that not a bad dive at all!

Interesting thing to note, my last 3 dives have all increased my personal depth limits by 1 foot each! (Dive one July 1st, 49 feet, dive two July 1st, 50 feet, and July 19th, 51 feet!) At this pace I’ll be ready to take my “Advanced” in approximately 30-40 dives! (mmmmm…NO!)

We packed up, went to Little Italy and munched. Now I’m on a 168 hour surface interval if the wife lets me go again next Wednesday (or unless I can get out this weekend, that is)

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

(Stats on that dive:   Duration 28 minutes, Deepest Depth 51 Feet, Coldest Temp 58º)

The LAST Wednesday Night Dive  (August 19, 2015)

Well it’s finally here.  The last Wednesday night… Hard to believe that after all of these years this is all over.  It was really fun while it lasted!  I loved the mid-week diversion that you got for those four months, and dreaded the eight month layoff when it was over and done with for the season, I can only imagine how I’ll feel now with it ending six weeks earlier, and being done for good!

A few different “shops” (dive groups, what have you) were having “farewell” tours tonight, and the Scared Turtles were right there with them!   I think we were represented almost all of the Wednesday nights by at least ONE of our members (well of the current members in good standing, that is) and tonight was John, Rob, and me out in full force!   We didn’t have as many people at Upper A, which was nice because it gave us all a better chance to mess with Ron.

The plan was once we got through the murky bowl area, to drop down and head out to the outhouse, come back towards the ledge and follow that in, come up and finish back in the bowl. Or something fun like that.

We all wandered down the steep access, and the orders for a 20 ft. bubble check were given. I was hoping that my leak from my second dive Sunday was just something I neglected to do, and it seemed like it was, so at the tree, I felt like I was dry on the inside.  “OK’s” were handed out all around, and we started on our journey.  As we started through the nothing-ness, I somehow got stuck on a tree, so the lighted “ok” wasn’t returned in time, so as I got free, I saw Rob turning, and was able to give him the “all is fine” signal.  John was going through things, and I wasn’t recognizing anything, (who could in that visibility) Rob also admitted that he didn’t see anything that he remembered. John said that once he ‘bumped’ into the pipe, he knew where he was. (knocked a little sense into him) (of direction, I guess)  I saw the pipe, so I followed John under it (well I bounced under it)  We were soon passing where the Aqua Adventures truck should be, and the signal to go down the hill was given.  We were soon alighting on the Pump House, and starting along the bottom of the wall.  The visibility here was a little better (although the fog over the 110 ft. Trench was inviting)(cue Careful with that Axe, Eugene!)(Google it Rob)  Along the bottom of the wall until the Tripod tree was in view which meant only one thing; Outhouse!  John went by and gave it a quick shake, as did Rob, a few more boards fell. I shook one of the boards, and surmised that thing is going to stay standing for the next millennium!  So I just cleaned a little dust off the top, and turned to follow the rest of the crew.  John was taking a heading, and we were soon passing the Volkswagen rock and swimming into the nothing-ness towards the wall.  Several fin kicks later, we were going past a few trees. (or through them) John took a heading and soon we were looking at the “other” Toolbox (I peeked into it) and soon the Tanker.  Passing the Tanker, John looked down into the hole and said  he saw Huck mulling about, so he gave him an “OK”, and it was returned.  We followed the ridge until we saw the line, then followed that for what seemed like a good half hour. (it really wasn’t)  We were soon at the pipes that the line was attached to, then passing the Deep Boat.  We started up the slope, and as we got nearer to the CAT John’s light went out.  I was wondering if he turned it out for some reason, but when I saw a different beam, I knew that his primary light must have somehow given up.  We took a little break at the CAT, then continued up and into the murky bowl, through the trees, and along the walls. (I bumped into a few)  A few minutes later we were at our safety stop depth, and just hanging out watching (and messing with) fish. I wonder what the fish will do when they have no one to play with?  Oh well, not my concern after this weekend.  Five minutes later we get the all clear, and we’re heading for our exit spot and we’re done!

Duration: 44 minutes

Deepest Depth: 93 feet

Coldest Temp: 36º

Other than light issues, masks leaking, getting stuck on trees, sinus issues, and cruddy viz, it was a pretty good dive overall!  I think the worst part of it is the viz in the bowl area, but the mask leaking was a common thing that we all shared, and probably the biggest annoyance. (John’s mask clearing bursts in the light was something to behold as we swam along the ledge) But there IS something about snorting quarry water that I won’t miss! Hahaha!  (ok, yeah I will!) 

After packing it up we took a drive down to PizzAtown for a beer and quick snack.    We’ll be back for one more on Saturday (well if we can get these steel cans filled up)  Then there’s some dive classes on Sunday, not sure if I’ll make it for those, but Saturday should work for me.  Hard to believe I probably only get one more in this cold dark hole.

Let’s Play Two!

It’s not often anymore that I get to do two in one day, but with the pending closure of the local hole, it seems that days like these will be the norm…(well without the grilling and prizes and stuff).  Our local dive shop had its annual customer appreciation day, and since the two gentlemen I usually dive with are employed, and I patronize the shop, I felt that I was eligible to get the $2.00 off coupon, and partake in some burgers and brats on the grill!  So we loaded up Rob’s truck at 7:45 at the Hershey Sheetz, and made our way to “O’ Little Town of Bethlehem” with a swiftness. (Rob was driving) None of us purchased memberships this season (heck I never have, Rob and John have previous years, but have seemed to JUST make it, or not make it a worthwhile investment)  So the three of us were standing in line a little while after they opened paying our way in, and getting the little 2015 sticker on our cards.

After going in, we ran back to the pavilion, and unloaded, attempted to get some tables secured down below, but were unable, so we just set up where we were (thoughts of schlepping up and down the hill with those loaded 130’s on my back were un nerving) Thankfully, once more people showed up, tables were found, and  we were in business.  Since John and Rob are affiliated with the shop, they were asked to do some leading and mentoring, which wasn’t a huge problem for them.  The set up for the first dive was John leading (with me as his partner) and Rob mentoring a new-ish diver named Tim. (I think I overheard that he was on his sixth total dive, correct me if I’m wrong) He is also taking his Advanced Open Water next weekend, so where we had planned wasn’t going to be TOO much of a task load for him at this point in the game, seeing that part of that course is a “below 60ft.” plan, and the trolley is about at 70 ft.   The plan was to head out toward the Trolley, let him swim through it if he desired, then assess his gas, and go from there.  John and I continue, with or without them (if necessary, they go back, if not…crane, etc.)  Simple plan with contingencies for all involved!

We dropped in, and slid over the platforms.  I stayed with John, and kept an eye on him watching Rob. It seemed that they were having some early issues, so (as I found out later) Rob decided it was better for he and Tim to go do their own thing, so John and I continued on, past the boat, and along the bottom towards the Trolley. John went in, so I followed.  We came out, and John asked if I wanted to go down the hill (since that wasn’t in the original plan) I agreed, as we swam around the Trolley we noticed a rather large lift bag attached to a rather large cement block.  Wondering if that’s something being placed for the new plane being sunk at some point? (or related to it…we never discussed that afterwards)  Over the hill and down to the ‘Cuda (which is looking pretty bad) John took a left and we decided to not take the DEEP hole route,  and headed towards the “Duece and a Half”  (looked a little weird to me, but ok…maybe I wasn’t as narced as I usually am)(or more narced…tough to tell) We then came up over that slope a little and started along the bottom of another slope towards the Crane. We both went under the Crane, and followed a line to the Silver Comet. We spent no time there since what appeared to be a class was forming on that, so we followed the line up to the platform, and took a bit of a safety stop over the platforms, once we got to the exit point (wrong one, but close enough for Rock and Roll) I lost control and slid up to about five feet, then came back down to 20. John looked at me and just gave me a thumbs up and we were done.

Duration: 43 minutes

Deepest Depth: 89 feet

Coldest Temp: 45º

As usual for Dutch not my best dive, but better than most of what I’ve done there.   I have been messing with my weighting, and at the end of the dive, just couldn’t seem to get to a point where I could stop and blew through my 20ft. Thankfully It wasn’t something I really needed.

Surface interval started off fun, some people decided to drop all of their junk on our lower table, so we just put our wet cylinders and other wet stuff there, serves them right for moving things.  Burgers and Brats were consumed, as well as some great pretzel salad that Tim made (that stuff with the pretzel base, some whipped cream, and strawberries in strawberry Jell-o!)  Texted my wife to let her know I survived dive one, got a few reminders to hydrate, as I checked out the scenery wandering around Dutch this afternoon, and thought (you never see stuff like this at Bainbridge...what you do see is…well never mind)

After a while the decision was made to dive again, so we put all of that hot gear back on, and went back down the hill. This dive John was tasked with assessing watching Ron lead a dive (that included the student, Tim)(although I wasn’t sure that was the entire premise of the module) this dive also included Ron using a compass to find certain underwater attractions. (Ron’s a Divemaster candidate)  So Ron would lead, Rob and Tim would be in the middle, and John and I would bring up the rear.    We decided that it would be a good idea for us to drop on a platform, but the platform we wanted was in use, so we had to surface swim a little further, to where we wanted to be. We dropped to the platform, and got ready. Everyone gave OK’s so we moved off of the platform. Tim seemed to drop a bit, so we followed him.  Rob went down, and got him back on track, we went a little more, and he kept falling, meanwhile, I felt like my hand was getting wet, so I kept messing with my glove.  I got a “OK?” signal from John and I went to write on my slate, but my big bulky gloves are too bulky to grab my pencil…so I had to work at that for a few seconds, (either I need to use the pencil I can grab, that won’t stay attached, or the one that WILL stay attached that I can’t grab…no win situation)  so I wrote “LEAK”  John thought I wrote L ‘ear’  No problem…I was sort of fine, it wasn’t BSC during January where I was freezing, and it didn’t FEEL like any sort of catastrophic leak, so I kept going, at any rate, Poor Tim was struggling, at one point he just dropped to the bottom, I was lower than everyone so I just dropped down with him (And I’m sure four guys with similar black gear all carrying doubles was confusing to him) he turned around, so  I looked him in the eye and gave him an ‘OK?’  signal, he signaled back “OK”…  Rob turned and came back, and John came down.  He’s new, we all had those same little things at first.  We made it to the bottom of the hill where the Cessna is located, and started up.  At the top of the hill everyone checked in, Rob decided that it was time to take Tim back in, so they peeled off, and John and I continued to follow Ron.  A few fin kicks later we were in front of the Helicopter (which is looking REALLY bad) We swam through it then reconnected outside. I took a big gaze at it, and wondered if it would be here this time next year, or if they’d just get rid of it somewhere.  Ron took his next heading, and we started for the School Bus. A few more fin kicks, and there we were…  Not bad!  (other people were wandering through it….a little too small for my liking, so I just swam outside while Ron and John went through, and I met them outside.  From there we swam along the wall, and just took a nice leisurely swim along the bottom of the wall until we found (again, the wrong) exit point.  John wanted to do a valve drill, so I kept an eye on him, then Ron wanted to do one.  After a few minutes, we were done!

Duration: 41 minutes

Deepest Depth: 61 feet

Coldest Temp:  53º

A better dive than the last one, but with the leak, a little uncomfortable.  Rob tends to think I didn’t seat my neck seal properly, which is probably right since it was a bit of a mess getting set up the second dive…Weekends up there are usually a bit of a pain, since there are a LOT of people milling about.  I think my weighting at the end of the dive was better due to the water in my suit…maybe I’m on to something!  

After everyone was done, more food was put out, and things were finished up.  Some items were given away as door prizes, (I won a SeaCure Mouthpiece!) and everything was packed up.  The long drive home was a reminder of what we have to look forward to unless something drastically changes….ok, try not to dwell on it.

Next time out is Wednesday for the “Last Wednesday Night Dive At Bainbridge EVER” Party, hope you can make it!  It should be a hoot