Just a little flattery

It’s been said that flattery gets you nowhere, but yesterday at least, it made for a mostly level Hash trail. It wasn’t so much an aversion to hills; there just weren’t any around in the part of San Antonio we visited. Still, we laid a long (10K) trail with a 6K option for those who don’t like too much of a good thing. Most of the hike was through farmland (primarily rice and corn), but it was in an area that hadn’t been Hashed in years, so it was new to almost everyone in attendance.

The On-Home was at the FRA, a venue I always enjoy when I visit. It’s always nice to get out of town for a change of pace. Here’s how it all went down:

This depiction of our trail is on the level. The black line chops off that 4K loop on the right. I did almost the whole trail while laying powder and chalk, and I was flat tired at the end.
My fellow Hares, Pubic Head, and Anal Receptive
The FRA, from whence the trail began and ended.
A short excursion up the highway
Marking the junction–short trail continues straight, and the long trail turns right
Now what do we do?
Well, we sure as hell ain’t crossing that bridge!
The only traffic we encountered on this road
Let’s turn right and go thataway…
Briefly back on the highway…
…before turning up this sidestreet
Cutting through the fallow field
And past the cornstalks
I love this old tree
Keep on keepin’ on!
What it looked like where we was…
This was the biggest surprise of the day…when we scouted the trail last month, you could make this crossing without getting your feet wet. Not so yesterday.
Luckily, it wasn’t all that deep.
Almost done now

We returned to the FRA at noon, and the bus from Barretto arrived at 12:30.

Here come the Hashers!
Providing guidance to the group before they head out for the trail. I opted to keep the water crossing near the end as a surprise. Why spoil the fun?
On-On!
Through the fields, they go!
Posers
Flatlanders
Marching along
Looking good, Whatever You Want.
What kind of nuts are those?
Made it through the water.
Back at the FRA and chowing down.
Drink ’em down, Hashers!
Sweet FRA waitresses did a good job taking care of the group.
Circle up!
It’s nice on ice!
And when it was all over, the group bussed safely back to Barretto.

All in all, a good day, even if we didn’t get too high. I finished my trail marking responsibilities around noon, so I naturally started downing the San Miguel Zeros. We finished around five, and I was definitely done. I went straight home and spent some time with the devil.

I don’t know about that.

2 thoughts on “Just a little flattery

  1. I guess FRA is “Fleet Reserve Association”? I had to blow up one of your photos to see what it stood for. I would have said “Fried Rubbery Assholes.” Yum.

    Marching along

    That’s a gorgeous shot that really emphasizes the big sky. Nice.

    It’s nice on ice!

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before: three(?) smaller blocks of ice instead of one big block. Go figure.

    Looks to have been a great walk with plenty of convivialité at the end. What percentage of the Hashers ended up taking the shorter route? And how do you know who took which route (aside from relative start/finish times)?

  2. Kev, yep, FRA=Fleet Reserve Association. I should have spelled it out, but it is a Navy-centric veterans organization similar to the VFW (support for vets and community service charity projects).

    Glad you liked the “Marching along” photo. I didn’t take that one, but it does capture the flatland beauty of the area.

    Re: the ice. Our regular supplier in Barretto brings the ice in that large block form, but when we do outstations, we take what we can get from the local providers. Putting the smaller ice blocks together on top of the beer containers did create the same effect, though.

    There really is no way to tell which trail folks chose to take other than the after-hike feedback. You always have the “hardcore” group, but I’d estimate that 50% or more did the long trail on Monday. The group knew in advance it was going to be flat, and since old fuckers like Scott and I were involved, they knew the trail wasn’t going to be overly difficult. I was actually surprised at some of the long-trail adventurers, including Angie (a newbie). I was worried when she was so late in returning, thinking she might have gotten lost, but she just chose to take the long way. Good for her!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *