This event lasted the weeked of August 9-11, 2002.  Three of the White Dragons, Ryan McCardle, David Thomsen, and Derrick Hampson, went up in the late morning to stake out a good camping spot. The campsite is on an Island called Frenchman's Island.  It is located in the middle of the Snake River, about 40 miles East of Twin Falls, Idaho.  Upon arriving to the island, only 1 other person (Mr. Cook) was there starting to setup tables, mats, etc.  We walked around a bit and scoped out a nice camping spot.  We also had our Code of Ethics banner, so we hung that across two trees at the entrance of our campsite.  After talking with a few people and turning in all our registrations, David and I headed to Twin Falls to get a few supplies.

It took about 40 minutes to arrive in Twin Falls.  We were trying to decide what to eat for lunch and ended up going to Quiznos.  We also stopped off at a placed called Big 5 Sports, where we I bought some water shoes and he bought a swimsuit.  Upon arrival back to the island, our "European Group" had arrived and picthed a few tents.  We went over and welcomed them to our camp and chatted for bit.

6:00 pm rolled around and one thing was on all of our minds.  Barbeque!  They grilled up some hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. After dinner was over, Professor C had a few of his people perform some katas for us.  Following the show, the instructors who were invited to teach the seminars each stood up and told us a little about themselves and what they were going to teach us. Those people were: Ron Bennett, Joe Cowles, Dan Lovis, Michael Mulconery, and Joe Souza.

That night was the first night of having a campfire.  It was just a small get together, since Saturday's night fire would be the most festivious.  After the main campfire died down, some of the White Dragon students had their own little get-to-gether.  It's a nice way to meet some of the people you see in passing at the dojo.  We chatted, told stories, played some drums, and headed to bed around 2 am.

The next morning we were woken up by people kicking our tents, yelling, threatening with us not being able to eat breakfest.  That is what drove me out of bed.  We slowly ventured out and found some cereal, bagels, & bananas awaiting to be consumed.  Half awake, dressed, and running on full stomaches, everybody ventured to the main area to figure out what we were going to be taught for the day.  They had 4 main areas setup in addition to a 'kids corner' off to the side.  This enabled the classes to be filled with adults and the coulds could stay out of trouble and learn with other students their own age.  We were able to attend 2 classes then the sweet sound came hurling through the air. LUNCH TIME!

What was in store for us? We didn't know because it was all covered up.  When the covers were lifted, a whole tub of spaghetti was waiting for us to dig in.  They also toasted some leftover bagels and tossed up some salad to go along with it.  After lunch we held one more sessions with each individuals teaching.  We decided to combine the last group, instead of having the last scheduled session, and have a fun hour where we just played around with the techniques that were learned in combination with defense moves that we already have been taught in our home dojos.

After a nice hard day of working out, we decided it was time to go play in the river.  There is a nice shoreline on the North side of the riverbank where you can walk out for 20-30 fee and not be completely submersed into the water. Some of use even put river-weeds on our heads and that turned into a river-weed throwing fight. After a nice hour of playing in the water, some of us went to town to stop the craving for munchies.  We figured it would be alright to buy some junk food because all the hard work was finished for the weekend and it was time to have some fun!

The dinner bell rang about 6:30 that evening and it was time for one last meal that night.  They roasted up some barbecue chicken wings along with applesauce as a condiment. They started the big old fire while some people sat around and chatted about different martial arts, past experiences, the seminars, etc.  Sensei Jess Bidlack had a birthday that Sunday, so we all ventured to our fire around 10 pm. We all sang happy birthday to him and the die-hards stayed up until 5 am just having a good old time.  At one point, we even had a conga line going around camp.

A few hours after falling asleep, they were waking us up again with the threat of going hungry for the day if we didn't come out and get something to eat.  It was a nice breakfast with eggs, ham, bacon, etc. After breakfast it was time to say our goodbyes to the new friends we met and wished them well on their way.  We all packed up and headed back to Utah to tell our weekend stories to our families!

Side note: It's almost been a full year since the camp and we still haven't received our tshirts.  Attend with caution.