Incredible news! The weather rock was good to us yesterday and we got 99% of the way through the day without any rain. (A small sprinkle at 11:00pm reminded us that we were still at Bert Adams). The clear day allowed the scouts to get out a bit more and explore the camp and reinforced the need for sunscreen and hydration. (What? Hydration! What? HYDRATION!) We’re quickly going through the 160 Gatorade mix-in packets that we have at the campsite which means the boys are actually drinking water (and replacing electrolytes).
Lunch yesterday was chicken sandwiches, chips, and cookies. The boys all know to come back to the campsite now for lunch and there was a lot of negotiation around how to split up the cookies in an equitable fashion. It was great to see them realize the issue up front (there was no way to split the cookies evenly) and work out a solution.
After lunch, back on the bikes and over to afternoon classes. Many of the boys have different classes for yesterday and today in the afternoon – for example, Hudson and Walter were in First Aid on Monday and Tuesday, and Small Boat Sailing yesterday and today. No afternoon classes on Friday, since it’s campwide games, where there are competitions set up across the camp (riflery, archery, fire building, chess, nature, code breaking, you name it…)
Dinner last night was lasagna, garlic bread, broccoli, and BROWNIES! (The salad bar was also out but they were more focused on seconds on lasagna than the salad bar). Jabir Donaldson and Ben Luedloff (our District Executive and Director, respectively) joined us at our dinner table and took selfies with the boys.
After dinner, almost everyone took advantage of the warm weather and clear skies and headed to the water obstacle course. Since a picture is worth 1,000 words, I’ve attached a video and a few photos of the fantastic chaos of happy campers at the waterfront. Please ask your son about this. It’s definitely been a highlight of the week. Here’s the link to the video:
Once seventh period was over, the troop split up and attended two different evening programs. The Order of the Arrow (Scouting Honor Society) members went to their rededication ceremony and the rest of the troop went to the flag retirement ceremony. At the flag retirement ceremony, each of the boys had the opportunity to reverently retire a flag in the bonfire.
The OA rededication ceremony was followed by an ice cream social cracker barrel, while back at Grant (our campsite), we did a make your own ice cream cracker barrel. The boys had a great time making their own ice cream with either Ziploc bags filled with half and half, sugar, vanilla, and mixins (M&Ms, etc.), or using some cool ice cream making balls. They were able to learn a bit about the importance of salt to accelerate the freezing process – bonus! The light sprinkle mentioned in the first paragraph was the signal to go to bed, so we doused the lantern and the camp was silent within minutes.
Reveille came early – perhaps too early – today, since we were on call for morning flags today. We’re starting to get into the groove here, and last night the boys put together the playlist of the music that they would like to be awaked to. Much discussion about whether lyrics are scout-appropriate (prompted by the boys, not the leaders) ensued, and they ended up with their playlist (see attached photo for their choices).
Morning flags meant that our honor guard (Anderson, Gavin, Hudson, and Josh) was responsible for raising the American and Bert Adams flags. They also got the opportunity to march in with the staff and, most importantly, be first in line for breakfast! Apologies for the vertical video here:
Breakfast today was sausage, biscuits, and gravy. The biscuits are always a big hit, but there was an element of mystery about what exactly was in the gravy. Some of the boys thought it was sausage, but since there were sausage patties on the side, others thought it was just lumpy. You can ask your son which side of the debate he fell on.
After breakfast, the boys were off to class and the mentors (Lissa, myself, and our newest member, Alan Strange) went to our daily Scoutmaster’s meeting. Overall, things are going well in camp and the boys are having a great time. The weather rock predicts a high of 85, a low of 75, and a 50% chance of rain today. But the boys are old hands at handling rain by now… (Please note: you will probably need to launder their clothes multiple times).
Finally, if you are interested in joining us for dinner and the closing campfire tomorrow night, please let me know so the kitchen can prepare a meal for you. I only ask that if you do attend dinner and the campfire, please do not take your son home on Friday night. We all need to pitch in together as a troop and help clean the campsite together on Saturday morning so the next group of campers can enjoy our campsite starting on Sunday.