Barely Grilling

This years event will be pulled pork. Part of the Barely Grilling Cook-off Series
You can find the details and entry form at www.barelygrilling.org/events.html
The event is this weekend. Turn in is Saturday at 1:00pm. Register early. Full RV sites with water and electricity is very limited. There is plenty of space for dry and tent camping. If you are in the Dallas / FT Worth area come on out.

I pretty much grew up in “nowhere” Texas. There was a creek a mile or two from my house and my friends and I would always ride our bikes down to the “swimming hole” as we called it. Almost every day. In the 70′s kids around here were allowed to take off on their bikes. As long as we were home by dark, nothing was ever said about it. Anyway… No matter how dry the creek was the hole was always full of clear cool water. There were 3 springs that ran in to the hole and the flow was just enough to keep it full. I guess I started at about 9 or 10 years old. Sometimes there would be as many as 10 or 12 kids there on any given day. Boys and girls. Skinny Dippin’ was given. Nobody ever thought about. Just shuck those clothes and jump in.

There was a tall black dirt bank on one side and a 15 foot or so rock ledge on the other. We would get the dirt all nice and muddy and it would make a great slide and then we could climb up the ledge and jump off. It was too shallow for diving. Then the big puberty “monster” showed up and ruined it all. After that it just got to weird. Some of us would still go out from time to time through High School but we wore cutoffs.

My only other skinny dipping experience as a teen was after hauling hay and corn one very hot summer day. I was itching from hair to toenails. I couldn't get those clothes off fast enough and get in that old stock tank. There was some other workers there and did the same thing. After the itching stopped it dawned on me that I wasn't alone and it got very uncomfortable so I got dressed and left. Just the under shorts though… I wasn't about to put those itchy clothes on again. That was a weird feeling… Driving 10 miles home in under shorts.

Now days, some 40 years later, I’m nude whenever possible and I go to the resorts when time and finances allow.

But oh how I long for the young days of innocence.

Thursday 9/20

With excitement building I hitched up the camper and starting making my way to Decatur, Texas for our first event at the Wildwood Naturist Resort. It is roughly a 3 hour drive and I thought I would never get there. The weather was perfect with sunny skies and the temperature around 72 degrees at 8:00am. The trip was uneventful other than a little bit of traffic backed up in Ft Worth but that is really nothing new. I was planning to stop by Wally World (Wal-Mart) in Decatur to pick up a few groceries and was somewhat surprised that there was virtually no way to get in the parking lot with a travel trailer. It seems that every Wal-Mart I have ever seen always has a RV or two in the parking lot. Not this one. No problem. I went out to the resort and checked in, dropped the camper off then went back to town for supplies.

I arrived back at my campsite with enough provisions for my 4 day stay. I was more than ready to get comfortable. I had even considered stripping at the front gate but decided against it since there was a slight chance I could been seen from the public road and it would be just my luck that a trooper would be drive by at that exact moment. A few more minutes wasn't going to kill me. I get the provisions put away and get my camp all set up. It really feels good to feel the warm sun and breeze all over my body. It seems all the residents were busy getting the place all fixed up. Everyone was mowing and cleaning up. It would appear that all the members was on board with this event and was anticipating a large turnout. I'm kind of envious. How great it would be to do yard work in the nude. I head up to the Club House to go over the judging rules and guidelines with the Wildwood staff. Everything is perfect. Both pools and the hot tub looked great and very inviting. There were a few folks lounging around the pool. I was tempted to join them but business first. After a brief but productive meeting, I went back to my camp for a quick lunch and to prepare all the turn in containers. Now its play time.

I went back up to the Club House and found a nice spot to soak up some sun. Shortly I began to nod off for a nice little nap. It is amazing how relaxed one can get even with people wondering about. All the people who frown on social nudity have no idea what they are missing. I took a quick dip in the Solar Heated Pool then took a nice brisk walk on the 5K trail. I visited with a few members that I had met on previous visits then headed back to my camper to grill steak and veggies for dinner. Spent a little time after dark lounging around in the warm night air and off to bed. End of day 1.

Friday 9/21

I woke up just a little after day break. What a restful night! After a quick breakfast sandwich, I put on my walking shoes and headed for the trail again. It was a little cool in the shaded parts of the trail but very nice. This time I was looking around for wildlife. I see lots of Deer and Turkey tracks but no animals. Part of the trail goes through the tent camping area and I notice some more visitors have arrived. I stopped for a brief chat. It turns out that they are members here and have come for the weekend. Again I have a bit of envy for the folks that live nearby and come here whenever they want. Continuing my walk I begin to think of how I can swing buying enough secluded property closer to home and starting my own resort. Well that won't happen anytime soon. Maybe by the time I reach retirement age.

When I get back to my camper, I noticed another competitor has arrived. As it turns out he is a member here too. He tells me that one of his friends cooks the local competition circuits and is coming out. He has never been around social nudity. It got me to thinking about my first time. It will be interesting to see how he takes to it.

I'm expecting a friend to stop by later for lunch so it is about time I fired up the smoker. Lunch today will be smoked country ribs and pinto beans. For the purposes of this writing I'll call my friend V. He is the reason I decided to try social nudity. We met on a nudist forum several years ago and he convinced me to give it a try. V also happens to be a member here too. It has been a while since I had seen him so it will be great to catch up. I had been in the camper a little while getting the ribs ready to cook. When I came back outside to put them on the smoker I noticed 2 more competitors arriving. One of the teams just happened to be the fellow that has never been to a place like this before. Well he and his wife get out of truck and they are already nude. I guess they stripped up at the office. I have to say, they took it much quicker than I did the first time. They seemed perfectly at ease. I waited until they were finished setting up their camp before I went over to introduce myself. It turns out he has cooked many of the same competitions that I competed in but we have never actually met. I thought he looked familiar but wasn't sure. It is kind of hard to tell when there are no clothes involved.

V shows up and we have lunch. After chatting for a bit we all head up to the Club House. Someone yells VOLLEYBALL. It would seem Water volleyball is very popular here. The teams are chosen and let the games begin. We play a number of games. The teams were pretty evenly matched so there was no run a ways. All and all, it was a great afternoon. After dinner the evening was filled with impromptu gatherings around various campsites for visiting and beer consumption. I go back to the camper a little early for bed. 3am will be here quick. End of Day 2

Saturday 9/22

5am??? Whoops I over slept. Well, as it turns out its really not that big of a problem. I got the fire started and then did some final touches on the seasoning for my Brisket. I put the brisket on then had some breakfast. Checked in on my neighboring competitors. Everyone seemed to be up and at em. I did a little housekeeping on the camper then did another 5K stroll. Still no animal sightings. Oh well I guess the animals at a naturists resort are shy. A quick shower and then off to the cooks meeting.

I tried to conduct the cooks meeting in the same manner as any other sanctioned event. It was fairly quick and to the point. Everyone understood the instructions and off they go. At this point I have about 3 hours to kill so I decide to take a soak in the hot tub. Then I hear that word VOLLEYBALL! Here we go again. I bailed on them after a few games. I had stuff to tend to. Really important stuff..I checked the pit, brisket looked like it was resting comfortably, then I took a short nap!!. At 11am I took the brisket off the fire to let it rest awhile. At 12:45 it was cut in to seven uniform slices and lovingly placed in the turn in container and the off to be judged. I hung around outside the judging area in case there were any questions or concerns during the judging process. Meanwhile volleyball was still going in full force. By this time there were 10 players on each team. The pool was quite full.

With the judging process done, there was nothing else to do with the cook-off until the winners are announced at the dinner later that evening. I went back to my camper and cleaned up everything and put it away. Then it was back to the club house for some sun bathing. Forgot one important thing. Was it my ice chest? Nope. My towel? Nope. Sunglasses? Nope. Ball cap? No. You can probably see where Im going with this Yep.. SUNSCREEN. My chest and back were toast. Fortunately that was all. Thank goodness my wife left some Aloe Vera gel in the camper. I donated all my left over brisket to the potluck dinner. There was enough food in there to feed a small army. Just before we began eating, the winners of the cook-off were announced. Congratulations goes out to Nekkid R Us BBQ on their 1st place win. I managed to pull off a 2nd place and our newcomers got 3rd place. After everyone was finished eating, the room was cleared out and cleaned up while the band came in to set up. They were pretty good. Playing a wide range of rock, pop and country, old and new. If you ever hear about the band Sandusky playing in your area it is well worth a look see. I spent a few hours there listening and dancing then it was off to bed. End of day 3

Sunday 9/23

I slept in a little today. I hit the floor around 8:30am very sore and stiff. I have probably walked more in the last 3 days than I have in the last 2 weeks. I had a bite of breakfast and wondered around outside to see if anyone was stirring. No one was around. I guess everyone was still sleeping it off. I put on my walking shoes and made one more trip on the walking trail. It was pretty tough getting started but at about the 1K mark my muscles loosened up and I was moving better. By the time I got back to the camper people were starting to move around a bit. I had several of the competitors tell me that I did a great job running the cook-off. That everything was very professional. Everyone seemed to have a very good time and I was happy with the results. We had two newcomers and that was the motivation for this series. To get people who would have never thought of going to a naturist resort to give it a try. We did that. It was only 2 but it is a start. After 78 hours of nudity, I did not want to get dressed again. I was happy to hear the Cowboys had a home game and traffic in Ft Worth was backed up. It gave me an excuse to delay my departure for another hour or so. One more dip in the pool and a soak in the hot tub. No volleyball today. I was afraid if I got that started I wouldnt leave until night fall. The real world awaits.. I said goodbye to everyone and started making my way back to my truck and camper. I really did not want to get dressed. I even considered driving home nude. If I didnt have a big city to go through, I might have done it or if it was dark. However I did wait until I was at the front gate to slip on a pair of shorts.

For more information about our cook-off series visit www.barelygrilling.org