Paintball in a cave? Yes, please!

Shooting people in the
face to 10 years!

With Mkeeks taking up the mantle in my absence for the team at Big Money/Cheap Guns Tournament, I opted to go to Bob White's 10th Annual Caveball event, the following weekend to help make up for the gap. This was a big day of open play, almost like a 2+ day party for those that are in with the right people. (We knew no such people to party with, so a standard road trip it is!)

Day One: The Drive

Let's ROLL!

As mentioned, oppositely by Mkeeks, she was not available to go to this event. Dunlager, Dude, and I made arrangements to pack up my new Honda Element and make the trek to Kansas City, MO. The drive from Milwaukee to Kansas City was about 9 hours, including pee, fuel, and food. Speaking of food, we found an amazing buffet, called Toot-Toot Restaraunt and Lounge. It was just inside the MO boarder by 80-ish miles. Well worth it to start for some authentic local foods! It was a good way to stretch and get some real food in our guts since leaving MKE many, many hours ago.

After making it to the hotel, it was a hard night of driving and we were ready to be done for the day. Get fresh for an unknown experience in a dank cave, tomorrow!

Day Two: Caveball

But first, coffee...
#notsponsored

The day started out a tad weird. I snuck out to get coffee before the team wanted to get to the field for the 9am call time. I used Maps and found the closest Starbucks. It was only 3 miles away... For a 15 minute drive??? Ok, I had the time to spare. Got in the E and drove for 15 minutes to find out it wasn't there.

WTactualF?

Carbs!

Dunlager sends me a txt saying they are in the hotel lobby and wanna get breakfast. No big. Was gonna head back without a brew, but with my tail between my legs. While I fancy myself a high level foodie, Dunlager kept bringing the hits! After I got back, he said he wanted to try this place called Big Biscuit.

The South? Biscuits? I'm on board!

We all get rolling and as we are on the approach to said Big Biscuit, there... On the opposite side of the road... STARBUCKS, HOOOOOOO!

Being carboloaded and (not so) freshly caffeinated, we finally make it to the field. The place was a buzz. Players were rolling in and out of the main entrance, nuzzled around a rockface. As we parked and grabbed all our gear, then made it around... It hit.

We have arrived!

It was 10AM when we rolled in. After walking in a long cavern entrance, we knew that this was the place to be. Registration was quick and smooth. The staff and proshop people were amazing and on top of everything, amidst all the chaos! Even though they are there for open play as well as the Bob White group, AND private games, they kept everything running smoothly. Enough staff to ref all the games and everyone was still safe. Kudos to all the staff that helped everyone stay organized! 👍

Up Top, Creeps!

After about 6 games, we noticed that the herd was thinning out in the caves. At first we thought people were getting tired and packed up for the day or maybe went out to get some fabled KC BBQ and come back?

All the maps located in the
footprint of the caves

NOPE!

Apparently, we didn't notice that the steep death ramp we saw on the way in was actually an access drive to get to the top-side fields! So not only is there a footprint of land that we thought was designated only for the cave game areas (which there are a TON!)

As we made our way to the top of the Death Ramp, it was apparent where everyone else ended up. All the top-side maps.

Many of which included:

QCB Style featuring Buses, Cars, and Downed Aircraft
Castle Siege that had tiny bunkers facing a huge fort
Hyperball with cement barricades

Side Note:

Weeks before making this trip, I infiltrated the Kansas City Players group on MCarterBrown to see who was going and if anyone wanted to meet up while we were down there. The only person that said much of anything was OpusX.

Oh I'll be there. Hawaiian shirt, olive kilt, stock class gauntlets and way to many markers and other kit. It's going to rule!

In turn, I told him...

Couple of us coming from Milwaukee. Going to be a great road trip! See you there!
(I'll be the guy with knitted HPA tank covers lol!)

That should work with making some connections, right?

INDEED!

While we met in the caves, I would have never known to go up if it weren't for OpusX, Nobbie333, and Myrkul. They took off, we played a couple more rounds below and get to know the pro shop manager. (In turn, I got a personalized tour by him through all the other areas that we never got to play or are closed to the public! #CantTakeMeAnywhere)

CASTLE SIEGE!!!!

So we made it up top and finally got the real introductions out of the way with all the MCB'ers and our road trip crew. First things, first... It was bonkers that we were outside in February in the mid to high 60s! It was glorious outside! A gentle breeze flowing. Nothing to cause heavy inaccuracies when leading your shots. Seriously quite the opposite side of the coin when we left MKE in the low teens.

Dunlager making a move off the break

Herd mentality kept almost all of us on the Castle Siege field. It was worth it. So many people to play with, so many faces to rock! With the 2 sides of play, it really kept the action fresh for everyone.

Then the science...

*Fully redacted for a separate post*

Time to hit the ol dusty trail

Dude, Dunlager, ChoSanJuan,
OpusX, and Nobbie333

After 9 hours of games, the 3 of us decided to finally pack it up and get some food in us. (Other than what we started the day with and some chips & sodas...) We had some great times, got many eliminations, showed off some arts & crafts times, made some new friends, also decided that this was the tipping point where I was going to join the modern day Paintballers and buy a Space gun.

It was a good day.

As the sun began to set, it was a good time to commemorate this trip with a shot of how everyone is greeted in the parking lot.

Leaving it how we came...

Even though we had left for food, we still had the option to come back and play till 10p. I decided to say yes (till I said no...), it sounded like Dunlager and Dude were calling it quits. I had some custom parts I needed to test for Spyders and felt like it was a good time to do it. It wasn't. After eating eleventeen pounds of BBQ, I went back to the hotel to clean up a bit and realized that I lost motivation. The beta testing will have to wait.

Day Three: A whole bunch of nuttin...

Nothing really huge to post about Day 3, so it's not going to get a giant fancified section of its own. Just a long drive home.

Next big outing will be with the whole team in one place. My hopes are for Michigan Monster Game 2020!

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