Ten Guys, a Dune Buggy, and a Garden Hose

Ten of us, a dune buggy we rebuilt ourselves, and a garden hose for a shower. It's still the best trip I've ever taken.

Spring break, community college. A friend named Mike and I put together a group of ten to go to San Felipe, Mexico. Someone's grandpa had a rustic house on the beach. We rebuilt an old dune buggy from parts. We built our own volleyball net. We waterskied in the ocean behind a jeep instead of a boat, because that's what we had. Showers were a hose outside. I genuinely don't remember what we ate.

I've been on nicer trips since. Better hotels, real budgets, professional planners. None of them come close to how much I remember, or how close that group got in five days.

I think about that every time I plan a team offsite now. The instinct is always to remove friction: better venue, smoother agenda, less improvising. But the friction is usually what people actually bond over. Nobody tells stories later about the flawless keynote. They tell stories about the thing that broke and how everyone fixed it together.

I still don't know how to build that on purpose. I just know spending more money usually kills it instead.

What's the roughest, least-planned experience your team still talks about years later?