Walking in Memphis

Days: 28-33 Carbondale, IL; Memphis, TN; Jackson’s Gap, AL

We did finish early on our fishing pier with the exclusion of some minor additions the camp wanted added to the project (a small bench/tackle storage unit). It was a pretty cool experience to stand back when we were packing our tools and see some of the kids using the platform and fishing. The rest of evening involved a beach party down at the lake with the campers and staff. It was a great time and I got to go out on their pontoon boat and cruise around the lake; so relaxing.

Friday was another fast morning where we got breakfast and loaded the vans for a weekend in Memphis. The staff counldn’t have been nicer to us and we decided to continue the tradition of past Pi Kapp groups (not BAM) who have came and left a sign paddle for their experience at the camp. One of these previous team to come through was a Push Camp back 2005 when my chapter was just starting (we weren’t chartered yet and just an associate chapter of Pi Kappa Phi) and a group of guys from WSU drove all the way out to build for the week; Ian Turner was one of them. Of course our BAM team had to out do all the previous paddles so we built it out of 6x6 PT post that was scrap from the pier’s foundation.

Memphis was awesome. We actually stayed just right out of Memphis in a gorgeous suburb city called Germantown. The team stayed at the Hilton Embassy Suites sponsored by some alumni from the University of Memphis Pi Kapp Chapter. THESE WERE AMAZING SUITES; probably nice than most peoples apartments and having my own queen size bed was just the icing on a very big tasty cake.

Our dinner, which was sponsored by the same guys was at a Barbeque restaurant called “Corky’s.” Now I have been to Arthur Bryant’s in MO which is supposed to be one of the best but it didn’t hold a candle to the food here. That evening me and a couple guys went to Beele Street in downtown Memphis which is supposed to be a must if you’re 21+ to visit (I wasn’t going to argue about it). We got these drinks called “Divers” which where basically an $18 gallon of beer, wine, liquor and grenadine which you might think would taste bad but was actually awesome.

Saturday started early for us because we had a nine AM friendship visit out at a park in town. We were going to one of Tennessee’s only three fully handicap accessible play units which were put together by the Ryan’s Hope group. Their organization came out with us and we set up little booths near the playground and did stuff like face-painting and storytelling for the kids. The rest of our evening was spent with the Memphis Alum’s who took us the Club section of a Memphis Red Birds minor league game. Apparently this team has the nicest minor league stadium in the country (I would believe it because it’s damn near MLB sized stadium but in downtown Memphis – the feeder team for the St. Louis Cardinals).

Sunday was a long trip to Birmingham Alabama with a lunch stop at Dreamland BBQ at UAB Birmingham. The meal was sponsored by the Pi Kapps there and they too claimed that they had the best BBQ in all the land (in the end I thought Corky’s won but anything would do in the Seattle area). Our final destination for the weekend was at Camp ASCCA which is in Jackson’s Gap (2hrs from Birmingham).

This camp is something special to Push America and BAM because our teams have been going to this camp sense BAM began in 2003 and all the way back to ’92 at Push Camps. What’s really cool is to walk around and the directors will say, everything made of would here has been made by a Pi Kapp and everything at camp ASCCA is made of wood. Thus you’ll see tons of logos and emblems everywhere all over the camp where past groups have been and worked.

One of our projects for this week is building a 30’x15’ open air shed for all the camp golf carts next to the camp office. This should go fairly quickly because nothing really needs to be to perfect (we’re not building a chapel). Many of the guys are repainting some things and repairing old facilities but I’ll keep you updated as time goes one.