We had done camp on 2nd December 2022. It is located in Pocahontas State Park.
Camp Location:
Name: Pocahontas Campground, Pocahontas State Park.
Distance: 30 miles from Henrico, Richmond (approx.)
Site type: Electric
Camp Team: Chetan, Karan, Keyur, Naman, Niraj, Ritesh, Suraj, Vamshi, Varun and me
Experience:
On our last match of the last tournament for the 2022 season, after losing the match we have decided to do a team get together and came up with camping plan. So seems like we started celebrating after our losses, but do not remember having get together when we won the tournaments. So we finalized to go for camping and to do at a near by place Pocahontas and many seem interested. We have booked two campsites and took the count of people coming in one month in advance. This was a first time winter camping for most of us. So everyone made sure to bring necessary gear (comforters, jackets, sleeping bags). Niraj, who is an expert in finding deals or reducing expenses to buy homes, came up with a Walmart link to find a cheaper effective sleeping bag. As S11 has history of people following others to buy things, soon Naman and Keyur also got the similar big yellow sleeping bags. Just a week before the camping date, we came up with list of things we need to bring. We were total 10 members. Chetan said Sachin, who always needs push from Chetan to confirm, is also coming. Naman who is very particular about each and every detail initiated a call on Wednesday (30th November) to take notes of who goes in which car, what to order for food and drinks, what to play, what to prepare at campsite. As usual when discussion was about food, Sachin jumped in came up with brilliant plan about whom to give the order and how to get it. Then when we were about to wrap-up the call, Sachin said his brilliant plan wont work out. We came up with alternate plan. Naman, like a regular project meeting assignment was writing the MOM of meeting and reading each line carefully multiple lines to make sure everything is covered and sent it to the group. He missed the date for the camping though ;). Being cold, we made plan to bring heaters, extension cords. Finally we have decided to meet at Wegmans at 3:30 pm on the camping day.
I went to the campsite around 1:30 to set some clues for treasure hunt and reached back around 3:20 pm. Niraj and Karan already reached the Wegman's parking. Chetan came to pick me up and that is when I realized Wegman's means Wawa gas station (at least for Chetan). So we went to Wawa gas station and by the time we reached Naman and Suraj, Niraj and Karan were already there. Oh forgot to mention, While I was at campsite, spoke to Sachin, who always has some last minute issues, said he would come late and asked us to carry on with the plan. Vamshi, who never spoke much after saying yes for camping, informed Naman he would would come after 4pm. Ritesh, Keyur and Varun joined us at the gas station after 10 minutes. We had the car passes already(checked in when I went earlier on the day. Around 4:30 pm we reached (all the 4 cars) the campsite. It was not a very cold weather that day and we still had sunlight. Started pitching up the tents(Chetan, Ritesh and mine). Chetan's and mine we pitched on campsite 81. Ritesh bhai on campsite 80. Chetan's and mine we pitched up in 5 - 10 mins. While Ritesh, Keyur, Naman still trying to pitch Ritesh's tent. Then we all except Niraj and Chetan started helping to pitch up Ritesh's new tent. Everyone was using their engineering mind to come up with their own ideas or interpretations of the user manual. We tried various combinations of the poles that were given to setup none of them were working. We were looking for our construction expert Varun to help us, but being the supervisor/manager he wanted us to pitch the tent then he would inspect. Finally with some luck we figured out and pitched up at least the basic structure of the tent and now struggling to fit the tent cover on the top. Then comes Niraj bhai who by that time had setup all the chairs at the other campsite, arranged the drinks and kept ready. Niraj is expert in making things work somehow, and he fitted the cover on one side and then we were able to do it on other side and finally tent was pitched up. Even though it was not the way we planned but it was great to see everyone trying their best to help each other to get the tent standing on the ground. Hope next season we all try our best in every match to win the tournaments.
The sense of satisfaction once we pitched up the tent was amazing. By the time we are done with the tent, Chetan who is our hardworking sincere boy has setup all the lights, audio speaker, put all the bedding in the tents, brought out all the items necessary for food and drinks. Naman who was worrying from the beginning about the cold was happy to see Suraj, who has brought all the items as we have planned, though very silent, has got a great heater. He setup the heater at the vegetarian tent (Ritesh's). It was round 5:30 everyone gathered at the non vegetarian campsite and slowly settling in for a wonderful evening at the base. Ritesh and Niraj were eager to start the drinks, we were waiting for Sachin and Vamshi who were supposed to start at 4:00 pm. Then we came to know Sachin is not coming, which was not surprising and Vamshi is coming and will reach in 15 minutes. Later on we came to know it was 15 minutes after 6:00 Vamshi would be reaching. After directions from Suraj, Naman, Chetan finally Vamshi arrived. We got the firewood and started campfire and started adjusting the chairs so that everyone gets the warmth of the fire. Boys started to have drink already and Ritesh has brought excellent Gobi Manchurian for veg starters. Niraj has brought boiled eggs and Naman opened non veg starters. Vamshi arrived by the time we are done with our starters. Ritesh bhai ("BOSS, Unbelievable") has taken the lead to engage the group in conversations and started with topic that every one should speak about the crush since childhood. We had interesting conversations especially from Karan and Chetan. Then we had many great conversations. While many of us are sitting, relaxing, enjoying the conversations, Niraj and Chetan were unstable, something bothering them and kept on trying to adjust the firewood on the campfire. Ritesh who was also watching them finally couldn't stop but to ask "Problem Kya hein?" . Niraj who was sitting on other side of the campfire, was not getting the heat and wanted 360 heat for which he decided to burn whatever it takes. He kept on adding firewood until he was satisfied. He did a great job and we had an excellent camp fire.
Vamshi was the only bachelor in the group, so naturally most of boys were interested in his future plans and marriage. Boys were curious about his bride selection, so far his luck and if using any apps to search and even they came up with their friend's success stories through these apps. Keyur ("basically, what I am trying to say is") has given his expert advice on to go for love or arranged marriage. Since we sat for quite sometime, we decided to play(or rather people obliged as they felt me took effort in setting it up) treasure hunt. Initially boys were struggling to get to the next level clues but once they got the hang of it (not sure if it is the game or the drink) they were very quick in finding the rest of the clues. Every one played great and nice participation. Winners are Team B (Chetan, Varun, Vamshi) and next Team A(Keyur, Naman, Karan) and then came Team C(Ritesh, Niraj, Suraj). Since I did not participate, I hope others enjoyed the hunt. This called for another round of drinks and everyone again gathered at the camp fire. Soon we were deep in conversations and obviously Elon Musk is one of it. Naman ("but again, you know") was very concerned about current team strength and was giving his ideas how to come back strong next year. It was around 8:15 pm we started to have food. Ritesh has brought Pav Bhaji with Bhaji in an instapot to keep it hot. The non-veg was made warm at the campfire. While having dinner, Ritesh bhai started the topic of ghosts and some of the boys felt uncomfortable. Ritesh bhai shared couple of excellent ghost stories from his personal experiences and these topics lead to many conversations with Naman and Varun discussing how Varun would advise his clients if he believes there can be ghost(or negative energy) in the buildings. Karan bhai, who we came to know was a great sport person, singer and crush for many girls during his school and college, was not comfortable with the discussions and changed the topic to favourite song. So everyone started to sing old 70s and 80 songs of Kishore Kumar. Suraj and Vamshi were silent, but were enjoying the lyrics while checking weather app on the phone.
It was around 11:15 pm, our Chetan, the sincere guy, started removing the trash, keeping the place clean. Then everyone chimed in and soon we all decided to go to sleep. Vegetarian tent - Ritesh, Keyur, Varun. Chetan's - Chetan, Naman, Niraj. Mine - Karan, Suraj, Vamshi and me. Naman who as usual worries made sure everyone has the necessary bedding to keep themselves warm. Actually we thought of playing cards, but with the effects of drinking some of the boys just settled with talking (for them it is) for others laughing at higher decibels. Around 1:30 am or so every one retired to their respective tents. We could hear the noises in the jungle along with human snores. It started raining from around 3:00 am. Around 6 am Niraj and me got up and taken bath as well. The restrooms were very clean and the water in the shower was very hot. By the time we were back Chetan was already outside and it was just drizzling. We decided to prepare soup as Others were still sleeping we don't have all the necessary gear for preparing tea. Niraj, Chetan, Suraj and me were the first batch to have the soup. Then Keyur, Karan, Ritesh everyone started coming in. It stopped raining but there was prediction that it will rain soon again. Niraj bhai started preparing tea. Boys were eagerly waiting to have it but Niraj took his own time to make sure everything was right and great. Finally everyone had their chance of having this wonderful tea. Meanwhile I was trying to prepare veg omelette, as obsessed with preparing something at campsite, but it turned out to be a disaster. We then decided to pack the tents and if have time before the rain comes will prepare Maggi (to please Naman who joined late to the tea party). Everyone started helping each other in packing the tents and soon we cleaned the area. This is one great thing about the team. At least apart from on the ground, every one be like part of one family and help each other out. After packing, we decided to go on a trail as the weather still seemed great and we had a great lake view. It started raining heavily and we went back to cars and started our way home. Around 10:20 am reached home. We had a great time and was a memorable experience. Hoping to keep this trend going on to get together once in a year. All is Well.
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We woke up around 6:30am and then got ready. We had our breakfast around 8:30am. Then started to wild life refuge around 8:56am. Actually based on our plan we have to start around half an hour before because we booked tickets for tram tour at 10:00am. If we miss the tour time then we have to wait one hour so we were worried about that. Climate was very good on that day , little chill wind was also there but overall we had good weather. We crossed the big bridge on the river. It was nice scenic view on the bridge. We saw boats on the river. Seems like few people are also doing kayaking and fishing. This refuge park was very far from the town and its located on small mountain. Around 10:01am we reached the refuge park. Immediately we entered the park and asked them about the tour they said that they were about to start if we go fast we can catch them. So we went quickly over there and we caught the tram tour on time. They started tour around 10:06am. They have so many lions, lioness, tigers and white tigers. In the tour we saw one Lion first. There was only one male lion and few female lions. The lion was sleeping. Not just in the refuge but we saw lions in some other zoo parks as well sleeping all the time. Actually a lion sleeps 18-20 hours per day. So we did not expect more than this, at least we saw little near than before. 
