Bash 2003 Reports Page 2

Len R starts off the weekend reports:

Hey Hey Hey! They are starting to come out of the roadwork. On Tuesday afternoon, Barry Richardson and his daughter Lindsey, of North Carolina, came to meet with me at my office. We chatted about their trip and how they were cruising around looking at the gyms, Baywalk, and Fort Desoto. They were going to go there and see the location and tour the area some more. Really nice of them to come in and set a spell.

Today I met with Tim and Colleen Dooley of Paulding, Ohio. They drove in and first thing this morning they went to Lifestyles gym to workout. We got together at 6 pm and had dinner at the DISH Restaurant at Baywalk. They had a good meal, I know because they went back for seconds.

We are going to meet with Barry tomorrow and try to get in an afternoon workout. My chiro told me to use machines only and stay off my back. He also told me to take a six pack of beer with me and after the workout put the beer in my waistband to cool down the muscles, then as the beer gets warm drink them and I won't feel any pain in a short while.

I'll find out tomorrow afternoon, I guess, to see if it worked...

Really good to see them finally. More on the weekend later (it hasn't arrived yet), and more from others when they arrive! Dave and Laree (Laree) should be in tomorrow too! SO, bring it on! No No NO, not the rain, it rained all day today, give em a break huh?

A few days later… Len writes:

In the past, I used to write each day’s activities to let everyone that could not make it know what was happening. This year I leave that to the newbies to express themselves and their experiences.

I do want to thank my new friends, and those that I have cherished for four years now, for coming to St Petersburg and sharing their time and memories with me. It might have rained most of the week prior to the picnic, however the Saturday turned out to be GRRRRREAT!!!

Thanks to Harvey's 4th Street Grill who set up in the light rain and had someone mess up their grill. They fixed the problem by cookin over CHARCOAL. To Florida Ice Cream and Sorbet who brought out their sorbet in multi-colors, with no fat and great tastes. Right every one!

To the folks at Fort Desoto State Park for all of their efforts in making this year's event another eventful BASH. The guard and his help in getting the electricity working for Rockin' Ken's show. Elvis ain't dead, he resides in Rockin' Ken and thanks for all of his efforts in bringing all of that equipment for the seminar and his show. What a voice, Elvis! To the Heritage for their hospitality. The Vinoy for taking care of Dave and Laree in style. To the Hilton for having the Miss America Pageant Contestants there while we ate brunch, Whew, so far away and yet the air was full of beauty. Laree, Jean, Aimee, Colleen, Dorothy, Maggie, and yes the contestants too...

Also to:

Dave and Laree - the BASH Miesters
Tom Incledon of Arizona - the Dr
Antcliff, Aaron -- Florida - A southern Gentleman, OK a Huge Southern Gentleman
Baldridge, Lon and Lisa -- South Dakota - Mr BIG and his sweet young wife
Baron, John and Dorothy -- Illinois - Mr inventor and his bag of ????
Coletta, Dan and Aimee -- Ohio - The sweetest couple on St Pete Beach
Dooley, Tim and Colleen -- Ohio - another stroll to the PIER and rooftops
Distler, Maggie -- Ohio - the quietest, yet informational lady
Frazee, Bill -- Illinois - Mr traveler
Gilholm, Alec & Berta --Florida
Kalinsky, Rockin Ken and Jean -- Florida - can't say a thing here about Mr and Mrs Entertainment
Kirk, Charlene (Autumn) and daughter Carissa Chancey -- Florida - Great Mom and sweet Carissa
Neylon, Bill -- Florida - Mr Funny pages, BTW he is looking for a job in humor, has been for a long time
Nielsen, Henrik -- Denmark - Mr Empire State Building, nicest guy you'll ever meet next to Dave
Pavitt, Corey - Alaska - MR ALASKA, alias: Son of Steve Reeves
Peel, Bill and Michele -- Florida
Richardson, Barry, Lindsey, and Cami -- North Carolina
Rivera, Hugo, Lena and son Chad - Florida - Mr Fawntasiquea
Rottmayer, Lauri, David, Geoff and Stacey -- Florida, now Oklahoma! - A really great family
Seguin, Richard -- Quebec, Canada - Mr Quiet, yet BALD like me
Young, Payton and Ashley Dixon -- Tennessee - Another Mr Big and his sweetie pie
Urbanksi, Ed and Barbara -- Wisconsin - A truely Great Couple, down to earth
Gene - Mr Olympics - 52 times in a row, and friend Larry

In addition, same to all of the guests and IOLer's that I met at the picnic and unfortunately do not recall your name at this time.

For those that didn't make again this year, get to Manhattans's BASH '04. Even though it rained a lot here, It Did Not Rain on Saturday, only sprinkled .

The IRON GODS Love Us!! Len Romano

The Lon and Lisa report:

Lisa and I have seen a lot of this country in 10 days. We live in Rapid City South Dakota, we drove to St Petersburg to the Bash. We made a stop in Yankton, South Dakota, to see Lisa's parents. We made another stop in St Louis to see her brother and family. We made a stop to see her uncle in Cusseta, Ga. We spent two days there to see the Infamous Civil War prisoner of war camp where 13,000 men died. We then moved on to Patrick AFB in Florida. We spent a couple of days there and I got 2 workouts in there. We also saw the Epcott Center. We spent most of a day there. Lisa loved it and we must have walked several miles trying to find me food to eat.

We proceeded to St. Petersburg and were trying to find the hotel. We went round and round and even with the hotel people on the cell phone we could not find it. And as fate would have it we turned up an alley and saw Dave and Laree. Well I yelled to them, “Help I am lost!” After several handshakes and greetings, Laree pointed right to it. I kept thinking, isn't that something she isn’t even a resident here but she could direct us better then the hotel people. Well, we got in to the hotel and started to wonder how far the gym was from the hotel. This was about 2 pm. Lisa and I wanted to get a feel for the distance via the street numbers. It didn’t take long to see that it was a ways off. We went back and Lisa went down to the lobby, she came back and said that there were a lot of bodybuilder types. So we dashed out and just got there in time for John Baron to tell us to follow them.

When we got to the gym, I met Rockin Ken and promptly screwed up his name. Sorry, Rockin. I knew your name but was a little excited. I walked in and saw Len and shook his hand. He mentioned to me how much he thought I had grown. I thought he was crazy at first but everyone mentioned that. I didn’t think I had made any improvements. I saw Bill Frazee, Ed Urbanski, John Baron, and met Big Dan Coletta, Corey and Bill, and Laree. It was great to see Len again.

While I was talking to people Laree asked me to squeeze some hand grips and they were not the usual gripers. But I managed to squeeze it. Well, I got checked in and started to work out I was surveying the place for the gear I needed. Corey asked me what I was working and I don’t think I was training the same bodypart as he. I was working my triceps, and a local guy I thought was pretty big, said that this gym was not as good as the World Gym. (I was wearing a World Gym workout shirt.) I saw a lot of IOLers working out and Tim Dooley offered to spot me while I was doing close grip benches. I was doing wrist curls and noticed a flash I saw Laree taking pictures and I think she got me doing wrist curls of 185 lbs.

I ran into Dave and he thought the women were rather aggressive; I think he lost a bench he was using to a couple of girls. He asked me if his face was mean looking enough to scare them off the bench. I said that I don’t think he could ever be mean enough to really scare anyone. I finished my workout and saw Dave demo the top squat. I even tried it and loved it and will order it.

We left and met up with everyone at the sandwich shop. I don’t think that they were prepared for the bunch of us and they asked us to wait for our food out side. I talked with Tim and he and I have the OCC Tee shirts. I wore mine earlier. We were talking about a Monster house episode with a makeover of their house to be a bodybuilder house. Rockin was a little upset that he couldn’t be indoors where it was cooler and we all were glad to sit outside.

I talked with Dan and his lovely wife, Aimee, and Tim and his lovely wife, Colleen. I sat with Len and Henrik also. I asked Henrik a lot of questions about his workout and gym in Denmark. Len is a kick. I laugh my head off with him. I respect him a lot. I also traded a lot of ideas with the people present. We talked and ate and time slipped by and the Hulk movie was the topic and we got our tickets for a late run of the movie. We all sat in the same row and Len and Rockin were a trip.

Next Morning

We met again down at the little cafe at the hotel. Tim and Colleen, Cajun John and his wife, Bill and I think there was another couple there. John was sharing his vast knowledge. I also shared some of what I knew.

Tim and Colleen were gracious to give us a ride to the Bash and Bill and Len and John were behind us and of course we got lost a bit and that was fun. While at the bash I was asked to record it on my video recorder. I was lent a tripod by Rockin and I was excited by that. I also recorded an audio of it and boy was I glad I did. I ran out of video tape so I had a mini disk also copying. The talk speaks for itself. I was disappointed in that Rockin was asked to halt his act.

Click here for Lon's seminar download page

The feed was outstanding. The food was good and nutritious. The weather behaved also. It was great.

Tim and I explored a civil war fort near the bash site. It was a great time. Lisa was bit by a lot of sand fleas so she didn’t enjoy that.

The next thing we did is we got together with Rockin to find a place to eat a dinner. It was funny as Tim told Rockin that they don’t have orime rib in Florida, We finally decided thru a lot of fast research that Julian’s next door to our hotel was the best and closest to everything.

Now I will try to set this evening up as I remember it. I went into the building to see if they could handle all of us 9. Well they said that they could, and I walked out. We were waiting for Dan and Aimee and all at once a waiter came outside and said our table is ready. So we went in and I noticed that no one was in jeans. All was in formal dinner attire. Here we are in shorts and jeans and an OCC motorcycle tee. Well we were seated and Len was in a strategic seat to view the candy. The waiter introduced himself as Dennis. And before he could say anything else Colleen said Mennis. He didn’t smile after that. We were having a great time Len and Rockin were in great form. The food was great. Rockin said it was the best prime rib he ever ate. Len wanted some cheese cake and I prodded him a lot. Jeanie ordered some ice cream and we all were supposed to sample it so I did. The portions were awesome and the waiters warned us of that. Well when the checque came Rockin said that it was a car payment. He asked the waiter how many free drink cards it would take to pay off the meal as we were printing them as we went. Then Len asked if he could match coupons to get a deal. I asked everyone, “Who wants to do dishes and vacuum?” and then Len asked if they would take a Denny’s card . We were all laughing so hard. It was so great. They all went out somewhere and Lisa and I want to the hotel.

We went to the brunch in the rain and we didn’t know the Hilton was the site of the Miss America. We enjoyed the company of Laree and all the people we went to the prior eve’s dinner, and others.

I was sad to leave I didn’t want to show it but It feels almost like leaving a close family or close friends if you will. I am glad that we did leave when we did as it was really pouring.

Thanks Dave and Laree. Thanks Len, Dan, Aimee, Tim, Colleen, Rockin and Jeanie, and Henrik, Bill, Corey and all the others I haven’t mentioned. This was a great time and great memories. I hope I can attend the New York. Regards Lon

From Autumn we hear:

I went to the bash; I was scared to death and definitely had my heart in my stomach. When I got to the bash only a few people were there, Len was one of the first ones to introduce himself to me. Wasn't long before Dave and Laree showed up and Barry and Cami and then more and more IOLers.

I stayed at the bash for 7 hours had an incredible time; actually I had the time of my life. Dave and Laree are fantastic they both spent some time talking to me and Carissa and I got some pictures of me and Dave and Dave and Laree. These two are the nicest people I could have ever have hoped to meet.

Met Barry and Cami and spent a lot of time talking to them and their daughter; they are really great people. Met Ken and his wife Jean she has a great sense of humor. Hugo Rivera and his wife and son, Roy Taylor and his wife, Henrik, Lon, Corey Pavitt, Tom Incledon, Maggie Distler and the list goes on. These are only a few that I remember off the top of my head. Really great people made me feel like family and set my fears at ease.

I had a great time and even my daughter Carissa had a great time -- she was pleased with the friendliness of Dave and Laree and the IOL group.

Food was great even though the caterers had a hard time with the impending rain, plenty of great food for everyone.

I want to thank everyone for your encouragement in persuading me to go to the bash. If I hadn't have gone I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.

Yes, you get together and talk and eat (the food was great; my daughter tells me that the steaks were great). But there was still plenty of food for this vegetarian to eat. At this bash Tom Incledon and Dave did a question and answer session, any and all questions answered. The questions and answer session was quite productive, Dave and Tom answered question pertaining to training, super setting, ZMA, weight loss, weight gain, how to use creatine and whether you should use creatine, Dave's old training vs. his training of present and if it has changed any, Tom's strongmen feats, etc.

I had the time of my life. I was scared to go especially since it was the first time I was to meet Dave and Laree and my fellow IOLers, but we immediately bonded like long lost family and I was made to feel at home with the Drapers and my fellow IOLers. The bash was for three days; I didn't get to go to the events Friday but everyone had a great time they said working out at the gym. Saturday we had the picnic and question and answer session and then Sunday everyone was to get together for brunch before heading home or to enjoy a vacation. I think that if you go to the Bash in New York that you would not be sorry that you would really enjoy it. Hope that you can make it to the next bash. Love & Happiness, Autumn~

Wicked Willie writes:

Thanks for sponsoring this event, Dave and Laree. It exceeded my expectations. To be able to actually converse with one of my heroes was a big kick for me. Couple this with the friendly, easy going atmosphere and accessibility...you have a winning event. No crass commercialism, just good times with new friends.

Thanks again, guys. Wicked Willie, aka Bill Peel

Bill Neyon notes:

Just want to thank everyone at the Bash. Meeting Dave, Laree, and so many who I felt like I knew already was great! The workout was fun, the seminar very informative, the food delicious, but the friendliness and camaraderie outstanding! Bill Neylon

Cajin’s coming to NY:

Dorothy and John are back home safe and tired. We had a heck of a good time. We met a lot of folks we didn't at bash 2. Everyone are great people, and treated us oldtimers great. I spent a lot of time sitting around and talking about training and the lifters I used to know. Going to fly to next one, though. Too much driving. Cajinjohn

Click here for the next Bash 03 report