Cory Collier

Melissa and I headed to Gainesville this weekend for some camping in Ginnie Springs. Ginnie Springs is a campground about a half our out of Gainesville. It’s a sizable camping ground situated to the south of the Sante Fe River and the springs surrounding it. Anyways, we were meeting Melissa’s sister, Megan and a bunch of their friends out there for a good ‘ol outdoor party.

We almost didn’t go. It took us about 2 hours to get to the area, where we quickly got lost. After about a half hour figuring out where we were supposed to go, we made another 15 minute trip to the campgrounds. When we got there, we were alarmed by a massive line to get into the campgrounds.

A local field was filling up with campers in a modern-day Woodstock type of outdoor free-for-all. A young staff member walked by claiming that nobody else would get inside. We waited anyways, and were rewarded with entry. The dilemma was taxing on us though. Melissa and I were quite grumpy when we finally got in.

Once we did get in, we made a bee-line through the open field mayhem. People stood in the middle of roads, while others (cops even) walked right in front of us. It was like being around a swarm of mindless zombies. When we finally were parked we quickly poured ourselves a well-deserved beverage.

Cell phone reception in Ginnie Springs is practically non-existent. So when we parked (and drank), we didn’t know how to find her sister and company. Me being me though, I figured “walk first, think later”. That worked out pretty well for us. Within 15 minutes, we’d found Megan and the gang. Mickey helped me get some of our stuff from our car that we’d left behind.

We tried to setup our tent once we got our stuff settled. This proved to be an issue. We borrowed the tent from Melissa’s parents for the trip. Nobody had used the tent in 15 years. It turns out, the tent was missing vital components. Enter Dan. A huge thanks goes out to Dan for having a big spare tent for us. Dan, I really owe you.

We hung out for while, before we all made the trip to the head of the springs. The standard procedure is to get to the head of the springs, where you float on a tube to the end of the park. So piled into a large pickup truck with a cartoon-like amount of tubes spilling over the sides of it.

The trip to the head of the river was like being on a roller-coaster ride. The roads at the campground aren’t paved. They’re also only big enough for 2 compact cars to be on at the same time. So, you can imagine what it was like to have multitudes of big trucks driving on it, over loaded with rafts and tubes and drunken people.

Once we got to the top, we made our way into the water. There were 10 of us, with rafts tied togher with cheap twine. One of the larger rafts held a cooler filled with beer. The water was pretty cold too. The whole trip down the river takes about two and a half hours.

After our trip, we made it back to our campsite. I went back to our car to get more of our stuff, which was a reasonable distance away with a barb wire fence, and a chicken wire fence in the way. Melissa helped me out with some stuff a little later in the evening.

We cooked bratwursts for dinner on a grill that Brian brought with him. Everyone had brought something to cook, so there was a sizable sampling of food to go around.

After dinner, the reality of our environment really started to dawn on me. We were surrounded by thousands of kids, probably no more than 21, camping in a place that had public restrooms nearby. Car after car blared gangster rap, which was hilarious given the surroundings. Folks used fog horns, and sirens in off road golf carts. Others lit off fireworks.

The friends we were with were getting super hammered. It was cool, but a little unnerving. The sheer volume of liquor that our friends were drinking was reason enough to be concerned. Add to that however, that we were camping, and the whole thing was a little terrifying. Don’t get me wrong: we had a good time. But the craziness of the event was amazing.

We fell asleep (I don’t know how, it was super loud outside) around midnight. Every so often we’d wake up to some crashing sound, or cluster of fireworks, or fog horn. Around 5am, we woke up to some of our buddies outside trying to get one of our friends to his tent.

The story goes: he was incredibly drunk, and they were helping him walk to his tent. He whipped out his pecker, and started peeing. He was inadvertently peeing on them. They let go of him. He stumbled into my tent. I put my foot up to prevent him from falling into me. He bounced off of my foot, and fell to the ground beside my tent.

Melissa and I heard a few things while that was going on. Quotes that we’ll remember forever. Things like:

• ” … dude, you pissin’ on my leg … “
• ” … shit, his dick is hangin’ out …”
• ” … yo, get his leg … “

So when we woke up the next morning, it was quite interesting to see the rest of the gang crawl out of their tents. One of the couples argued about the previous night’s insanity. Other folks rested late. Around noon, we all piled up in the truck again for another trip down the river.

It’s funny, the kind of things that go on there. We watched one girl take her pants off to pee in front of us, while another group of people threw water balloons at us. That’s pretty much normal at Ginnie Springs on a holiday weekend.

After our second time down the river, we packed up and left. It was a fun time, but exhausting. If any one wants to head out there, let me know. I’d love to go back.