Kungaloosh Adventurers,
Well certainly the place to be last weekend was at the celebration of all things Adventurers Club, ConGaloosh 2011! Friday started with meeting up at the Holiday Inn on 535 for updating everyones tales of adventures and an Adventurers second favorite pastime, Adult Beverages!
If anyone wonders if Disney is watching these boards, let Friday nights events be the confirmation. Our intrepid group set a course for Merriweathers Island for a group picture on the hallowed steps of our beloved Adventurers Club. We were greeted by the Pleasure Island Maps Guest Relations cast member with a hearty, Kungaloosh and welcome to Pleasure Island!. As we approached the Club we saw 4 Disney Managers and 5 security guards (one of whom was heard saying "7:30...they're right on time") standing directly across from the Club. Thankfully, they seemed to just be there to make sure things didnt get out of hand, for the picture was taken, a Club Salute was given and we continued onward towards Raglan Road singing The Adventurers Club All Purpose Theme Song without incident!
We spent some time in the Irish Pub singing old Club standards such as The Beer Song, Those Were The Days, etc. Then we headed for the cars and journeyed onward to The Swan for some Karaoke at Kimonos.
After a couple of songs and sushi, our Emcee for the weekend, Robert Croskery, called up our fellows dressed as Hathaway and Samantha to lead the restaurant in a recitation of the Club Creed. Then once again we were on the road and on to Dixie Landings (or Port Orleans Riverside, your pick) to visit Yahoo Bob in the River Roost Lounge. We sang along to such Adventurers Club favorites as Thats Amore and When the Saints Go Marching In, and posed with Bob for the last group shot of the night.
Then all good Adventurers, returned to their cots to physically and mentally prepare themselves for the next days quest!
All that ConGaloosh.org told us of Ian Quest 2011 was Come and test your wits and adventuring skills against the perils of Adventureland! Will you emerge victorious? Little did we know that our good friend Right Guard Ian sent a message to Col. Wayne P. McSwagger, requesting a special Adventureland Challenge for us. The Challenge was a daily occurrence in Adventureland between 1995 2000, but surfaced once again in 2009 for the Jungle Cruise Skippers Reunion. Col. McSwagger had stolen the Mystic Golden Idol of Adventureland. He who controls the Idol, controls Adventureland and the only way McSwagger would give up the Idol was if someone could beat him in a game of his choosing. Usually the Col. Would bring along a fallen Skipper who had become his Lackey, but for us he brought along his partner in crime, Baroness Eugenia Nefertiti Von Swoon
to help give out special maps of Adventureland and to keep us somewhat on track.
On the back of the map was a clue that lead us to gift shops in Adventureland, and in the shops we received yet more clues.
After all 8 clues were collected, we fliped over all of them to find one last clue written in an ancient Forbidden text,
Translation: For those of you who are reckless, brave and loyal,
the Balderdash Cup may be the prize for your toil.
To end this Idol tale that could help you compete,
look all 'round the port where Jungle Rivers meet.
but thankfully McSwagger provided us with his personal, Swagger Stone for translation.
We then ran to the hiding place to search through bushes and other various scenery. When the Idol was recovered we were all horrified to find that no one had followed all the clues to the letter, for we were also supposed to tell McSwagger where Otis T. Wren had placed an X on a map and what the times of the tide were for the day (according to Dreamy Kaimi). So, in the end McSwagger won the game, but everyone loved the thrill of the hunt. Also, the Colonel has vowed to play again next year and we will all be ready to carefully read his instructions!
(For more information on the Adventureland Challenge please watch this video of the 2009 Skipper Reunions game,
http://newmexicast.com/nm0034)
Then at 6 P.M. we gathered back at the Holiday Inn's "Discovery Room" for the main event.
Robert started us off with bringing up this years President of the ConGaloosh Society, Bernard Deschanes and Hathaway Browne (a.k.a. Right Guard Ian)
to start us off with a New Member Induction Ceremony, while our own personal Fingers provided accompaniment.
Then, from the back of the room stumbled in Fletcher Hodges long, lost Irish Brother, Lecher OHodges to sing us his rendition of The Thing.
It was then time for the Costume contest, presided over by Adventurers Club Permanent Members, Green and Simple
who voted the Best in Show to Emil Bleehall and Bessie the Heifer!
Then it was onto the Balderdash Cup competition, where we heard tales of attempts to liberate
Scooter the Peacock from D Street to fixing airplanes with rubber bands. But this years winner was Liesl Schindler, with an oddly familiar tale of finding the lost continent of Atlantis while flying relief supplies to the victims of a cataclysmic earthquake in Krakatau, with well placed jabs from Prof. Otis T. Wren (a.k.a. Right Guard Ian).
The night continued with a performance of the Sheik of Araby from Green and Simple, more songs and tales and visits from Adventurers Club Permanent Member, Lancelot and the well known door host Kirk as well as another Emil Bleehall (a.k.a. Right Guard Ian).
Then we wrapped up yet another weekend of adventure with one last rendition of The Adventurers Club All Purpose Theme Song.
At the end of the day, the Adventurers Club is far from dead. It is alive and well in all of us, and we must continue to let Disney know that they will not hear the end of their egregious error of closing the greatest example of immersive entertainment that has ever existed, until they reopen it. Please Adventurers, continue writing letters and emails and one day we will all be able to enjoy a night of Adventure back inside of our beloved Club on the top of Hill St.
P.S. I had to include a picture of the back of Right Guards Emil sash. When asked how he put this one together he said, Well, in the spirit of the old Bleehall tradition, my Mom made it!
Some days you eat the mouse.
Some days the mouse eats you.
But never give into the mouse without a fight!
KUNGALOOSH!
