We got started at 7:00 a.m..
Loaded up a van and took off for our destination place, which was an
hour and a half drive away. Well on the
drive, a new fire was lit! I was sitting
in the middle back of this three row van, surrounded by the remaining cast members. I was immediately struck with the fact that
these five are all I have to beat to win and looking at each one, I know I can
beat them and feel incredibly confident now!
It made me pumped and I’m super focused now!
We got to our destination around 9:00, which was a RV park/campground
outside of a city called Fredrikstad.
Shortly after that we were given our intro by Henriette. This episode is going will focus on how Norwegians
vacation. (Although, we’ve learned that
most Norwegians seem to be rolling in cash and would quickly opt to go to
Spain, the U.S. or Greece, rather than go camping. With that, I’m quickly gaining an impression
that those that go camping here, may be coming from the “financially-
challenged” homes of Norway.) Then, we were given our teams along with a color-matching track suit! They call them “grill dresses”, which apparently used to be what the Norwegians that opt to go camping would wear. I looked like a gym teacher! The teams would be myself, C.J., and Amy on Blue and Alf, Jessica, and Johnathan on Red. The challenge would be pretty simple, but have several steps. Each team would have to park a large RV trailer within a really tight lined area, unhitch the trailer, put down some braces to stabilize the trailer, then set up a fence, grill and picnic table, all of which was stored in the RV. Our team would go first.
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| The remaining six cast members, shortly after arriving at the Bevo campgrounds. |
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| Our teams after getting our grill dresses! |
challenged” homes of Norway.) Then, we were given our teams along with a color-matching track suit! They call them “grill dresses”, which apparently used to be what the Norwegians that opt to go camping would wear. I looked like a gym teacher! The teams would be myself, C.J., and Amy on Blue and Alf, Jessica, and Johnathan on Red. The challenge would be pretty simple, but have several steps. Each team would have to park a large RV trailer within a really tight lined area, unhitch the trailer, put down some braces to stabilize the trailer, then set up a fence, grill and picnic table, all of which was stored in the RV. Our team would go first.
I, being the only one that has driven a trailer, would drive
for our team. C.J. and Amy were in
charge of directing me to the spot.
Henriette gave us the go and off we went. My plan was to drive around this large rock,
so I could set up the trailer better for backing up. Problem was that the trailer was much bigger
than I realized. About 3 seconds into
the race I drove the trailer into that rock!
Oops! Good thing is that I
noticed it was about to happen at the last second, so I was able to slow down
enough that I only slightly damaged the trailer. I immediately backed up, got straightened out
and pulled up to our camping area. Over
the next several minutes, I tried time and time again to park this thing in
this small space. It was the most
frustrating thing! Finally, we got it in
and could go to our next stage, unhitching it.
That went pretty quick, but the wheel it was supposed to stand on fell
out, so we had to fix that. Then, we
stabilized the back of the trailer and could move to get everything else set
up. The rest of the stuff went up pretty
quickly, but not without problems. C.J.,
who was in charge of setting up the fence, was really struggling, so I had to
help him there. Also, I ended up
temporarily breaking our grill and my chair, but we would get them fixed. When we were all done, we were pretty upset,
because it felt like it took us forever!
Most of it was on me too, for not getting the trailer parked right
away….oh, and hitting a boulder!
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| A shot of the Bevo campgrounds and the trailers we had to park. |
We did some short interviews and then went and hid while the
Red Team went, so we wouldn’t know how they did. Knowing that Alf basically drives trailers
for a living, I was pretty worried.
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| C.J. getting interviewed after our first competition. |
After Red Team was finished, we gathered for the results. One team did it in over 15 minutes, which we
thought could have been us, but the Red Team looked pretty upset. Sure enough, Henriette said congrats to the
Blue Team! Apparently, we destroyed
them! Not only did they struggle on
everything but Alf apparently really struggled with parking the trailer! I was even asked in a later interview how it
felt knowing that I kicked Alf’s butt in parking! What a relief! We would get an advantage in tomorrow’s team
competition!
We followed up the results with a quick interview, but then
got busy on our next step which was to go around the trailer park inviting everyone
to a party. We quickly realized that a
large majority of these camp-ground attendees don’t speak English, which was
very different than most of the people we’ve met here. Very different. Either way, for some reason, they all
understood “party” and we ended up having about 50 or 60 people show up! Over the next couple of hours, we supplied
them with food and beer and tried to communicate the best we could. It was definitely difficult at times, but we
still had a lot of fun! A bunch of them
even invited us to their trailers for after parties, which most of us would
later take a part of. More on that to
come.
Eventually, all of the cast had to hide, since the locals
weren’t leaving and they had now eaten all of our food, without leaving us any. After a little bit in hiding, they started to
leave and the crew pulled out some hidden food that we ate for dinner. After dinner, more interviews.
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| A look at our party that night! It was tough to get it started, but once we had everything up and rolling, it was a blast! |
After interviews and dinner, Alf, C.J. and I decided we
should go check out an after-party. We
went to trailer 116 and found five guys who were very welcoming and even shared
their beer with us. We spent
the next couple of hours there and then C.J. and I went to head to bed, while Alf stayed back to have some more drinks. He was in his element! However, on our way back to our camper, we found another camper with 60 to 70 year olds in it drinking. Of course, we had to invite ourselves in and spend another hour drinking and hanging out. It was pretty funny, especially with this 60 year old lady hitting on me and another 70-year old guy pretending to sleep, but kept peeking at us! However, we knew we had a competition tomorrow, so we didn’t want to stay out all night. We said our goodbyes and headed back to our trailers, which would be our home for the next two nights, and head to bed.
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| My girlfriend for the night! |
the next couple of hours there and then C.J. and I went to head to bed, while Alf stayed back to have some more drinks. He was in his element! However, on our way back to our camper, we found another camper with 60 to 70 year olds in it drinking. Of course, we had to invite ourselves in and spend another hour drinking and hanging out. It was pretty funny, especially with this 60 year old lady hitting on me and another 70-year old guy pretending to sleep, but kept peeking at us! However, we knew we had a competition tomorrow, so we didn’t want to stay out all night. We said our goodbyes and headed back to our trailers, which would be our home for the next two nights, and head to bed.
A great day!
Day 47 Over!
(Expand the "Blog Archive" to the right to find additional entries.)
A lovely option for a snack that I
found at the gas station!
C.J. contemplating life!
Johnathan, checking the water at our campgrounds.
Johnathan getting his interview on. Notice how
Eli has to get lowe, so that Johnathan will have
to look right next to the camera for the answers.
Poor tall Norwegians!
Jessica getting interviewed.
Jessica and Alf after the first team competition.
Not looking too happy with their performance!
Stian, one of our sound guys, checking
out our campsite.
Johnathan, showing off all of
his cinged hair!
Alf and C.J. getting the campsite
set up for our party that night!
Myself and one of the locals at our party!
C.J. and Alf hanging with the locals!
I was missing my two German Shepherds at home,
so I snapped this photo of a local one.
C.J. at the after-after party!
Myself and our two hosts of the after-after party.
C.J. teaching some locals on how to
do "The C.J." camera pose.
Went for a midnight walk before bed and found a
red and blue boat. I was sure that they had to be
for our second team competition! I was wrong.
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