Saturdays at ACE are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. Particularly this time of year. The energy that comes with the beginning of the season is contagious.As staff members, we get to see all of the new products in the store. We get to reunite with other staff that have been gone for the winter. And we get to see what changes Ernie and Jerry have in store for the upcoming season.
I was there doing some work this Saturday and walked into the Reservations Office. Immediately, Dopplar Doolin was there, excited for the day. I call her Dopplar because she is always abreast of weather changes minute by minute. No joke! So Dopplar is excited because Terry Borden is on property.
Terry is a 14-year ACE veteran from Detroit who visits us at least twice a year. His first trip is usually the Double Lower New River. Rafting the Lower New River in the spring has a built-in guarantee of great water levels – especially after the winter we have had. This trip specifically is that section of river twice in one day. Then he returns in the fall for our most extreme trip, the Upper Gauley.
I had never met Terry before but I am confident in saying a day on the river with him would be a blast. And since he has been coming here for 14 years, Terry is very specific about the guide he wants. Specifically, Alisa Hudgel. Terry and Alisa seem to have a mutual admiration society. They both enjoy the other’s sense of fun and adventure. And giving each other a hard time.
That same day, there was another group doing that same trip that I viewed as a dramatic study in contrasts. Her name was Shana Baker from Black Lick, Ohio. She and some of her friends were having their first ACE girls weekend. This event, they assured me, will become a tradition. They were so excited to get to it. I saw them again as they prepared to leave. I assured them that the wetsuits they were wearing are necessary and no one looks good in one.
It struck me that every guest here is treated like family. Terry was getting the same treatment as Shana and that made me happy to work at ACE. As corny as it sounds, staff and guests alike become one big dysfunctional family while at our ACE village. And I, for one, am glad to be a black sheep of that family.
