I would have written about the end of the camp experience earlier, but I spent Wednesday afternoon ferrying Thomas around to his swimming lessons and baseball game, and Thursday frantically getting caught up on work.

After wasting some time Thursday evening (I should have written then) it was obvious I was coming down with a massive cold.  I woke up on Friday morning just enough to whimper to Robin that I wasn’t going in to work that day, and slept until noon.  I managed to stay up for a few hours, then took a nap at around 4, woke up for dinner, went to bed early, and slept until Saturday morning.

All told, I think I was awake for 6 hours total on Friday.

The cold has backed off now, though, so I thought I’d sum up the Scout camp experience:  It was pretty fun!

It’s not that it wasn’t hard work; even though Tuesday was cancelled for massive thunderstorms, we still had to disassemble the pack’s awning in case it got blown away, and reassemble it Wednesday.  Also, they put us on an accelerated schedule for Wednesday and Thursday to make up for the sessions we missed on Tuesday, so we did six activities Wednesday rather than five.  I was physically exhausted by the time my stint was up on Wednesday.

But the kids had such a good time it was impossible not to enjoy the whole thing on their behalf.  We had been disappointed that camp was cancelled on Tuesday; my dad had come down to help out and we were supposed to have fishing and archery that day.  All the boys were looking forward to that.

We were afraid we’d miss out completely, but the altered Wednesday schedule included all the Tuesday activities, so we did get to participate after all.  A good number of our Cubs caught fish, which was exciting, and they did surprisingly well at the archery also!  One of our boys hit the center of the bullseye, which they claimed had not been done in 6 years of camp!

My dad was there for the whole day, and Robin dropped by for the fishing and archery, so it was definitely a family affair that day.  And luckily for me, it was the last day.  I was pretty tired out and the cold was starting to settle in, so I was pretty pleased to leave the final day to Bret and Jack.  I missed slingshots and BB guns, but I can handle that…

The only things remaining now are:

1. To make sure all the camp gear gets back to where it came from.  I’m convinced there’s more stuff in my car now than there was when we started, and the guy who owns the warehouse where the Pack keeps all this stuff is out of town for the week.
2. To get all the craft projects and patches from Thursday to the appropriate kids.
3. To get reimbursed for the inevitable registration snafu that I had to cover.
4. To recover from the half-dozen nasty bug bites I got on my neck due to failing to apply bug spray on Wednesday.

Tags: Camping, Scouting

I had the first of three fun-filled days at the Trails West Cub Scout Day Camp today.  I’m serving as “walking leader” and de facto camp coordinator for our Pack for the first three days of camp, and the other den leader will be doing Thursday, the final day.

After spending four hours in the hot sun yesterday setting up camp, we got to listen as howling winds and thunderstorms hit last night, leaving us all wondering if anything would remain of our campsite when we arrived this morning.  But we got all nine of our Cubs there, signed in, and past the opening ceremonies, and then arrived at our campsite to find…

…Everything intact!  We were lucky in that we were partway up a hill, protected from the worst of the wind.  Also, the other leaders and I added significant reinforcement to the awning we are using, which might have explained its stability.  Some of the campsites at the top of the hill were devastated; there were at least two elaborate shelters that had been reduced to bent scrap metal due to the heavy winds last night.

So we moved in, got settled, and then headed off to the first of five stations.  Or at least it would have been five stations if I’d read the schedule more closely and if the Boy Scout running the toad house/birdhouse craft project had known what he was doing.

Lunches were eaten, energy was depleted, and by the end of the day I think the boys had legitimately had a great (and exhausting) time!  Tomorrow will include fishing and archery — always favorites — and Wednesday will have slingshots and BB guns, so I think the boys still have plenty to look forward to.

More thunderstorms are expected the next couple of days, though, so the weather has yet another chance to ruin our experience.  Let’s hope it forbears.

Tags: Camping, Scouting