Ausflug/Outing (6/2/1983)

Thursday, June 2, 1983

Instead of going to work at 8:00, Marsha C and I walked downtown. I went to the post office, then the bank to pay my dental bill of 273 CHF/$136. Then we went to Migros to buy the goods for our cookout lunch. We packed for the annual CP Station Ausflug/outing or excursion and met the others at 9:30. We had to wait for the CP Station contingent. Kirby drove with Jan, Marsha, Brigitte, and me. Jeanette drove Erika and Ruth. Sonia drove Sylviane, Vreni, and Evelyne. We drove up into the Jura, through Sonceboz and Tavannes. It looked like a beautiful, but the higher we climbed, you could see the mountains were capped with clouds. After Tavannes we turned off on a cobblestoned road before driving on a narrow asphalt road that crossed over cow-catchers and wound up the mountainside. We stopped at a large building near a restaurant and a farmhouse to park. We walked along a dirt road crossing fields, carrying our sacks. Went through a grove of aspen-like trees, over a wet field, and along a ridge overlooking a town.

Jan walking through a grove

View north of Tavannes

We passed a radio tower, went through a couple turnstiles to pass into and out of a cow pasture, and arrived at a chalet called Bellevue.

Bellevue refuge

As the clouds lifted, we did indeed have a beautiful view down the valet towards Saint-Imier, and we could see patches of snow on Chasseral. We unloaded all our things, then were sent on a treasure hunt. We were given what seemed to be nonsense verses in Bärndutsch and French, from which we were to figure out where the treasure was hidden. Several people took off, while Jan, Marsha, and I tried translating the verses. The verses in the two languages did not really match, so we were really confused.

Clue in Bärndutsch

Clue in French

Kirby finally told us the key, which was to take the first word of the first sentence, the second word of the second sentence, and so on. The resulting phrase told us the treasure was under one of the pine trees. I went to the other different groups to give them a hint, since it was unfair that we were told the key. Jan went to the largest pine and grubbed around with no luck. Everyone else looked under every other pine tree in the immediate area. Finally we went back to Kirby to give us another clue. He said Jan was originally at the correct tree. It was supposedly under grass under a rock. Jan had overturned every rock, but didn’t remember any sitting on grass, just that they were sitting on dirt with bugs and worms! Pretty soon everyone was digging under that pine tree, pulling at grass, digging under rocks, etc. for a nature preserve, we were getting pretty destructive.

Treasure Hunt

Again we went to Kirby who came down to the tree and looked around. All the rocks had been displaced several times! Finally he pulled at a section of grass and a big chuck rolled up. The hole was filled with gold-foiled covered chocolate coins and coffee or chocolate flavored jetons/tokens. We each got a coin and a jeton/token for the hospital, then buried the rest of the treasure for the next group to come. There weren’t enough coffee jetons, so I didn’t get one.

View towards St Imier

Marsha at the fire

Kirby had started a fire, and we cooked wurst, and ate it with bread, chips, and cherries. I brought my own drink, but there were beverages available for sale. We each had to pay 2 CHF/$1 for use of the chalet. Most people brought their own beverages, from soft drinks to wine, and coffee in pre-prepared cups (just add water). Later there were postcards and sticker to buy. Marsha had brought marshmallows, but the fire died out before we could toast them.

Next were the games and we picked colors to be divided into teams. It was Jan & Kirby, Brigitte, Vreni and Evelyne vs. me, Sylviane, Sonia Jeanette, and Erika. Marsha and Ruth sat out. The first race was for two people to carry a bucket of water hanging on a pole with one person facing forward and the other backwards. You had to run down the steps, stand on a box, go over a hurdle, over chairs, over an overturned tub, stand on a brick, and return through the same obstacles. Because of the odd number of people, I ended up going twice.

Kirby & Brigitte and Tamiko in relay race

Jeanette and Tamiko manage an obstacle

Then the Lego race. Each person had a pair of those giant Lego-like blocks, and had to move forward, always having a foot on one of the blocks, so that with each step you had to lift the back foot, reach down to pick up the block and place it forward to take your next step. Jeanette sat out this race, so I had to go twice again. Our team got way behind, and then the other team’s last person, Evelyne, kept sliding off her blocks and seemed to give up. I was the last on my team to go, and before I started, Kirby came up and grabbed one of my blocks. Sylviane ran to get my block back, and somehow got gouged. She was bleeding fiercely, as happens with facial wounds (near the outer corner of her eye). Jan went to tend to her, and the race seemed ruined. Kirby told me to go ahead and finish, but I made sure he gave our team a point, to make it a tie. Now Kirby wanted a tie-breaking race, so this time we hopped in sacks with a hat on our heads. I pulled us ahead, and Sonia went twice.

Sonia and Tamiko, Evelyn and Jan

Erika went for the sixth and final leg before they started their fifth. So we won handily. The losing team then wanted another game for a chance at a tie. We had to blow up a balloon, run to tie it onto the hurdle, and after all the balloons were up, we had to pop them. Jeanette started first, and she laughed so much, she had trouble blowing up her balloon. Then instead of tying the balloon on the hurdle, she just wrapped string around it, and it ended up flying off. She had to blow up another balloon. By this time the other team had two balloons on the hurdle and we never caught up to them. So the two teams were tied. Kirby went off to take care of the finances, while the rest of us cleaned up. My job was to fill a bucket with water and flush the latrine!

Bellevue refuge

We thought we had some free time, but Kirby wanted another tie-breaker, This time Marsha and Ruth held the ends of a rope, while the participant was blindfolded and had to run backwards along the rope, avoiding two chairs set up as obstacles. I started off and just ran wide to miss the chairs and ended up ramming into poor Marsha at the other end. On my way back, I ran into Jan who was coaching blindfolded Kirby. Our second team member took off as Kirby was still carefully negotiating his way around the chairs. We won despite Kirby trying to block and tackle our last person.

The losing team did not like being a game behind, and insisted on another race. A three-legged race, and I had to go twice even though I ran too fast and messed up my partner’s rhythm. We lost, so the teams were tied once again! Of course, we needed a tie-breaker, so decided to add up the number of consecutive jumps of each person on the team. Our team got 137. The other team started and Kirby started them off strong. They had 127 with one more person to go. The last person jumping kept veering to one side and finally caught her head in the rope at 136. They decided it was not her fault she got her head caught, and she was allowed to go again! She got past 138 and so they won. They were not satisfied with being a game ahead and being the winners of the day, and asked us to do another race. We figured if we tied them, they would want another tie-breaker, and we’d only keep going and going! We let them be the winners! The winning team got “gold” medals and roses. There were a couple extra roses that Kirby gave to those on the losing team who guessed closest to the number he was thinking of. Everyone else got mums. I did “win” a rose.

The sky was blue with big fluffy white clouds, and on occasion it sprinkled rain. Now we saw a cloudbank come up the valley and we had a sudden downpour. We went inside the kitchen of the chalet to play Uno. After one game won by Vre, the sun was out. We played one more game, again won by Vre. It was now time to leave at 16:00. I got to carry the trash back to the restaurant. (Who was assigning these chores?!)

No one wanted to have dinner at the restaurant at 16:30, even though it would be paid for by Fr Dr Bangerter. But we all had ice creams (except Jan who had a cheese schnittli/melted cheese on toast) and drinks. We left at 18:00 and Kirby got gas, determining we each had to pay 2 CHF/$1 each. Brigitte was dropped off at the train station, and Marsha and I were driven to the Personalhaus/staff residence.