A View from the Camp (Year 2)
As I prepared for my second year of camp as Scoutmaster, things were beginning to fall into place and I was looking forward to a relaxing week away from all the hectic activity at home and work. It started out very different from what I had planned, first off I had to put my truck in the shop on Friday and now I had no way to pull the trailer. It just so happened that Mr. Nadler had recently purchased a Suburban to replace his van and with a little persuading he agreed to pull the trailer for us. Since I was down to one vehicle and I had to take my youngest son to stay with Grandma for the week I was unable to meet with the rest of the troop on Sunday morning at the scout hut. Mr. Nadler graciously offered to step in and do the job of getting everyone packed up and on the road, however he did later explain to me that he was an assistant scoutmaster and not to ever let that happen again. After making my 210 mile journey to cover the 90 miles to camp we all arrived safely around 2:30 and the fun began. 16 scouts, 5 adults, 11 tents, medical check in and swimming test were all completed with time to spare before dinner at 6 PM that evening. We did have a few extra adults helping with the setup and I want to thank them for driving up and helping, however they must have been staying in another camp because I didn’t see them again until Wednesday, (I wonder if there tents leaked too). Before dinner we all met at the flag pole to retire the flags for the day and get more instructions on what to do if the sirens were sounded to alert us of fire or bad weather, they also informed us that with well over 200 campers we were the largest group of the summer. After filling up on spaghetti we had an hour or so to relax before attending the opening campfire, or so I thought, of course there was an adult leader meeting to attend and a Senior Patrol Leader meeting for our SPL, but at least most of us got to settle in to our new home for the week. Opening campfire was AWESOME as usual we were introduced to the camp staff and they showed us their enthusiasm with skits and songs. A couple of staff members got extra loud cheers this week, we are proud of both Brandon Hargrave and Zach Vavak for doing a great job and I hope to see more of our scouts on staff next year, keep up the hard work everyone. It took a while for everyone to wind down Sunday night, but we had them in their tents by 11 although a few flashlights were seen spotlighting raccoons (and waking up assistant scoutmasters) well into the night. You guys know that there were no raccoons in Shelia and Jamie’s tents at 2 in the morning but I’m sure they appreciated you checking just to keep them safe.
Day 2 Monday
Monday morning at 5 am I here the pitter patter of, not little feet, but raindrops falling on my tent. I decided to go ahead and get up to check out the camp and see what might need to be moved out of the rain. It was a good thing I did because the first thing I saw when I came out of my tent was Ethan Seats, or at least part of him. Half of his cot was sticking out the end of his tent with him on it, and half of his stuff was scattered about the tent. It’s a good thing Edra took our advice and packed his clothes in zip lock bags at least they will stay dry when he forgets to put them back in his footlocker. After picking up a few other things, I joined Mr.Nelson of troop 25 for our morning coffee. We have been sharing a campsite with his troop for several years now and who ever gets up first has to fix the coffee. Excluding the wet weather the rest of Monday went by fairly uneventful. Everyone made it to their merit badge classes with out too much trouble and the rain was fun for the first 8 hours or so. Tents were beginning to leak so we pulled out every tarp and ground cloth we had to try and stop the rain inside our tents. Did I say things were uneventful, I do recall one of my assistant scoutmasters slipping in the mud and taking a hard fall, Shelia we really didn’t laugh. The rain let up just long enough to have the OA BBQ Monday night, which is actually steak but they do grill it so I guess you can still call it a BBQ. The rain was here to stay and evenings planned activities had to be cancelled. The Staff of Camp Lewallen was not about to let a little rain dampen our spirits, and the alternate plan was a movie night complete with popcorn and candy in the dining hall. The double feature was Shrek II followed by Star Wars Episode IV (the one that started it all). I set in on the ending of Star Wars because I hadn’t seen it since I saw it several times in the theater many moons ago. Lights out, most scouts were dry for the night however Ross’s sleeping bag was damp on the inside so I loaned him one of my dry blankets to get through the night.
Day 3 Tuesday
Tuesday morning brought more of the same RAIN and by this time is was no longer any fun. As I made my way from tent to tent wishing everyone a good morning I found something odd, Ross Joslin and Stephen Craig’s tent was empty. But my years of scout training kept me calm and I yelled “has anyone seen Ross and Stephen” this got an immediate response from Matt Rainey letting me know they were safe and sound in his tent. Matt had a tent by himself for a couple of nights, since his dad was coming up later in the week, so Ross and Stephen thought he was lonely and gave him some company. I’m not sure who invited who but the story was their tent was leaking and Matt’s was dry, since it had been raining, I couldn’t dispute that story. The rain was keeping the temperature down and also dropping the temperature in the swimming pool. It was discussed at the leaders meeting that if the water temperature continued to drop the pool would have to be shut down. Luckily the rain would stop by late afternoon and as soon as that humidity came back the pool was saved. However things at the campsite were still pretty wet, so I put in a call to Mike Scallorns to relay a message to all the parents coming up on Wednesday to expect mud and bring some dry clothes for their scout. It seems that most of my scouts were way ahead of me and had already called home requesting dry things. As we were having dinner Tuesday night Gerald Collins showed up, he had brought a few dry things for Ben and Patrick and decided to spend the night. he set up a cot in our pavilion where he could stay nice and dry. Tuesday’s evening activities, Camp Wide Game Night, was slowed a bit by all the mud but since the rain had quit we still had an extra free swim and disco night at the trading post.
As I prepared for my second year of camp as Scoutmaster, things were beginning to fall into place and I was looking forward to a relaxing week away from all the hectic activity at home and work. It started out very different from what I had planned, first off I had to put my truck in the shop on Friday and now I had no way to pull the trailer. It just so happened that Mr. Nadler had recently purchased a Suburban to replace his van and with a little persuading he agreed to pull the trailer for us. Since I was down to one vehicle and I had to take my youngest son to stay with Grandma for the week I was unable to meet with the rest of the troop on Sunday morning at the scout hut. Mr. Nadler graciously offered to step in and do the job of getting everyone packed up and on the road, however he did later explain to me that he was an assistant scoutmaster and not to ever let that happen again. After making my 210 mile journey to cover the 90 miles to camp we all arrived safely around 2:30 and the fun began. 16 scouts, 5 adults, 11 tents, medical check in and swimming test were all completed with time to spare before dinner at 6 PM that evening. We did have a few extra adults helping with the setup and I want to thank them for driving up and helping, however they must have been staying in another camp because I didn’t see them again until Wednesday, (I wonder if there tents leaked too). Before dinner we all met at the flag pole to retire the flags for the day and get more instructions on what to do if the sirens were sounded to alert us of fire or bad weather, they also informed us that with well over 200 campers we were the largest group of the summer. After filling up on spaghetti we had an hour or so to relax before attending the opening campfire, or so I thought, of course there was an adult leader meeting to attend and a Senior Patrol Leader meeting for our SPL, but at least most of us got to settle in to our new home for the week. Opening campfire was AWESOME as usual we were introduced to the camp staff and they showed us their enthusiasm with skits and songs. A couple of staff members got extra loud cheers this week, we are proud of both Brandon Hargrave and Zach Vavak for doing a great job and I hope to see more of our scouts on staff next year, keep up the hard work everyone. It took a while for everyone to wind down Sunday night, but we had them in their tents by 11 although a few flashlights were seen spotlighting raccoons (and waking up assistant scoutmasters) well into the night. You guys know that there were no raccoons in Shelia and Jamie’s tents at 2 in the morning but I’m sure they appreciated you checking just to keep them safe.
Day 2 Monday
Monday morning at 5 am I here the pitter patter of, not little feet, but raindrops falling on my tent. I decided to go ahead and get up to check out the camp and see what might need to be moved out of the rain. It was a good thing I did because the first thing I saw when I came out of my tent was Ethan Seats, or at least part of him. Half of his cot was sticking out the end of his tent with him on it, and half of his stuff was scattered about the tent. It’s a good thing Edra took our advice and packed his clothes in zip lock bags at least they will stay dry when he forgets to put them back in his footlocker. After picking up a few other things, I joined Mr.Nelson of troop 25 for our morning coffee. We have been sharing a campsite with his troop for several years now and who ever gets up first has to fix the coffee. Excluding the wet weather the rest of Monday went by fairly uneventful. Everyone made it to their merit badge classes with out too much trouble and the rain was fun for the first 8 hours or so. Tents were beginning to leak so we pulled out every tarp and ground cloth we had to try and stop the rain inside our tents. Did I say things were uneventful, I do recall one of my assistant scoutmasters slipping in the mud and taking a hard fall, Shelia we really didn’t laugh. The rain let up just long enough to have the OA BBQ Monday night, which is actually steak but they do grill it so I guess you can still call it a BBQ. The rain was here to stay and evenings planned activities had to be cancelled. The Staff of Camp Lewallen was not about to let a little rain dampen our spirits, and the alternate plan was a movie night complete with popcorn and candy in the dining hall. The double feature was Shrek II followed by Star Wars Episode IV (the one that started it all). I set in on the ending of Star Wars because I hadn’t seen it since I saw it several times in the theater many moons ago. Lights out, most scouts were dry for the night however Ross’s sleeping bag was damp on the inside so I loaned him one of my dry blankets to get through the night.
Day 3 Tuesday
Tuesday morning brought more of the same RAIN and by this time is was no longer any fun. As I made my way from tent to tent wishing everyone a good morning I found something odd, Ross Joslin and Stephen Craig’s tent was empty. But my years of scout training kept me calm and I yelled “has anyone seen Ross and Stephen” this got an immediate response from Matt Rainey letting me know they were safe and sound in his tent. Matt had a tent by himself for a couple of nights, since his dad was coming up later in the week, so Ross and Stephen thought he was lonely and gave him some company. I’m not sure who invited who but the story was their tent was leaking and Matt’s was dry, since it had been raining, I couldn’t dispute that story. The rain was keeping the temperature down and also dropping the temperature in the swimming pool. It was discussed at the leaders meeting that if the water temperature continued to drop the pool would have to be shut down. Luckily the rain would stop by late afternoon and as soon as that humidity came back the pool was saved. However things at the campsite were still pretty wet, so I put in a call to Mike Scallorns to relay a message to all the parents coming up on Wednesday to expect mud and bring some dry clothes for their scout. It seems that most of my scouts were way ahead of me and had already called home requesting dry things. As we were having dinner Tuesday night Gerald Collins showed up, he had brought a few dry things for Ben and Patrick and decided to spend the night. he set up a cot in our pavilion where he could stay nice and dry. Tuesday’s evening activities, Camp Wide Game Night, was slowed a bit by all the mud but since the rain had quit we still had an extra free swim and disco night at the trading post.
Look for Part 2 later this week.
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