Scout Camp
I am back home now from Scout Camp, and we had a pretty good time up there (for the most part). Of course, before you go to Camp you have to go to the store and buy a bunch of treats to make it more bearable. I got all of that on Saturday and then did my packing up on Sunday. I fill a good part of the SUV up by the time I get my battery and CPAP machine. Then there is the sleeping bag, cot, chair and nice mattress pad. If I have to go to camp, I am going to get as comfortable as possible.
Monday morning came early. I got up early enough to go fill the SUV up, and then headed to the church. We were to meet at 7:00. We ended up leaving around 7:30 in the morning. The camp we were going to was Camp Tomahawk which is at an elevation of about 9000 feet. We went through Evanston Wyoming to get there.
Arriving at camp, we were told that there would be no fires (unless it is a propane fire) and that nobody could have any kind of food or treats in their tents because of the bears that are around. We drilled this into the boys and thought they understood, but evidently they didn't quite get it. Camp didn't take very long to set up. We had eight boys in two tents and then there was Glen and I in a tent and Ken Wood in another tent. Glen and I used my tent. I made sure to spray it with some waterproofing stuff just to make sure it would be OK. Our troop paid the extra $70 so the meals would be taken care of up there at Tomahawk. For the most part, the meals were pretty good.
There were a couple of classes that the boys went to starting with Monday afternoon. Ken, Glen and I just hung around camp and kind of lazed the day away. It was nice up there. After we had dinner, we messed around at camp and then at around 8:30 we went up to the main flag for a flag ceremony and then to the fire bowl for a campfire program put on by the staff. It was pretty good, but those seats got awful hard after awhile.
I put a memory foam pad on my cot, and this made my cot the most comfortable I had ever had it be. I slept pretty well all week for being at camp.
Tuesday morning, we got up, had breakfast and then went to the flag ceremony. After flag ceremony we do our troop yell and the boys that were up there were kind of soft. They didn't belt out their yell. The troop that is determined to be the best gets the spirit stick to decorate. At the end of the week, this spirit stick is given to the best overall troop. Well, we didn't win it.
Along with announcements, they reminded us about the bears and to keep food out of tents and this time we were told that some random checks could be done by the forest service and if any food was found in a tent that is grounds for that troop to go home. When we got back to camp, the boys went to their tents and pulled out all kinds of food. I was a bit upset at this, and we talked to them about it and told about the boy a couple of fathers days ago that was taken out of his tent. One of the boys told me that this didn't make any sense because how do bears know how to unzip your tent. I held back my laugh at this point and we told them that bears would make their own zipper. It was an awful funny comment though.
Tuesday after lunch (and we had KP duty) there was the Jim Thorpe relay. Our boys participated in it but didn't do all that well. But, they did it, and they finished it.
Tuesday evening they had what was called Vision Quest, which was also called the Honor Trail. We had our boys go on this. It was done at night in the dark and we went from point to point to learn different things from the Scout Law which says:
During the night of Tuesday we had a storm go through the area. There was a lot of wind and some rain. The tent survived it all quite well, and no water came in the tent. However, we had a quick shade put up outside the tent and it was thrown and one of the legs bent and was unfixable. We were able to stand it back up but we will have to see if we can get a new leg for that one for future use. It is a new canopy that the ward had bought, so we felt a little bit bad about it. Not much use in fretting over it now. By the time we woke up Wednesday morning everything was dry like it had not rained at all the previous night. The wind was strong though and we were surprised that there was no other damage done to anything.
Our troop yell for Wednesday was:
Salmonella, Ecoli, Staffs the best,
Troop 1212 is better than the rest.
Once again, this wasn't yelled out at all, so no spirit stick.
Glen had brought up some scrap leather as well as some leather working tools, and all week long he made knife sheaths for each of the boys that they stamped themselves and they were molded to their knives specifically. He learned by doing it and did a great job with making those.
Wednesday evening we went on the Bear Eye hike. This was where some reflectors were put around camp and you took your flashlight with you and got the reflection back and it would tell you what direction to go in. The final destination was the shower, but some smart Alec took the last reflector so boys were looking for a reflector and instead saw flashes of skin of the men in the showers (which weren't too happy about the whole thing). We went back to camp and had a bunch of camp stories for the rest of the evening.
Thursday morning, I wasn't feeling the best. When I burped it was that nasty taste of one who is coming down as sick. I wasn't feeling terrible either though so I stayed silent about it. By noon, I was starting to feel a bit worse, and I stayed away from people so they wouldn't catch anything. After lunch, I started to feel terrible with my stomach churning, and I developed diarrhea in the early afternoon. I finally told Glen and Ken about it and told them that for me this type of thing doesn't usually last too long. I thought I would be over it by Friday. They were wondering if I needed to go home. I had to run to the Kybo (I learned the KYBO stands for Keep Your Bowels Open) every few minutes to expel stuff. I skipped dinner and skipped out on most of the evening activities. I heard a troop yell being created by the scouts in the evening for the next day but wasn't able to be out there with them. I was feeling like death warmed over. I was quite out of it. The troop yell was based on "Who let the Dogs out", but they changed it to Scouts, staff and Troop 1212. That's all I really know about it.
By the way, our troop yell for Thursday morning was one I made up.
It was:
Give me a T -- T
Give me an R -- R
Give me an O -- O
Give me another O -- O
Give me a P -- (silence)
Who's got the P?
Troop 1212! (while bent over as if we have to go).
This didn't win the spirit stick either, but the boys did a lot better.
By Friday morning, I was feeling better. I didn't have to go to the restroom so often, but I still had diarrhea. I was able to eat breakfast and Glen and Ken decided I must be better because my sarcastic sense of humor was back as sharp as ever (it was dulled a bit the previous night).
Friday morning the boys had their merit badges to take care of. Friday afternoon was a time for the boys to play. They had a second Jim Thorpe relay (we still didn't do great but did improve) and then we went to swamp wars. All of the boys (except Dallin) participated in this. Dallin didn't participate because he didn't get his swimmer or beginner tag. That was a lot of fun for the boys. We then had the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we chose too. Brother Bean came up and brought up Tom (Glens son). Ken went home at this time. There was a closing campfire tonight (the campfires were all propane fires) with the boys doing various skits. We got back to camp kind of late, and Tom had had too much caffeine during the day so he was quite talkative. We finally had to tell him to be quiet so the camp could sleep.
Saturday morning we packed up camp and then we left. Glen stayed up there so he could get his son over to camp Travis where his son was going to spend the next week. Glen told me he had difficulty getting home because the clip on the trailer that clips to the ball broke and he had to drive slowly to Evanston, and then only got it done a little better so he had to stay flat and went up toward Ogden in order to get home. I'm glad we didn't have that happen to us. All the boys got home safely and we did too. We are grateful there were no accidents.
I washed the car and then we went out to Bountiful where my wife had let our kids stay the night. Not much else happened with this.
Sunday, I helped my wife with her handicapped class. We had both Jenny and Allie. Things went well there and then Sister Gustavos came in to help out when she was done with responsibilities in Relief Society.
Today, I had to go into work. There were enough problems that happened during the day that I was busy all day just fixing those. I even found some that nobody else really knew about. I also started to call around seeing who might have a dog for us to pick up. There are quite a few shelters in the Salt Lake Valley. I came up with a few places to look and tried to get another person to call about a Shih Tzu that she is fostering. I never heard from her. My wife went to West Jordan's shelter and I went to the Salt Lake County main shelter. My wife saw a couple of dogs that she was interested in, and then I called her to the SL County shelter to look at a black Maltese (I guess Maltese are usually white). I thought she was real cute, and enjoyed playing with her, and so did my family when they came. There were two other dogs that my wife wasn't really that interested in (actually I only showed her one of them and she seemed scared). Now we have to wait until Wednesday morning in case an owner shows up for this Maltese, but we are first in line to be able to get her. Is it OK to pray that her owners don't show up? Well, we are really hoping we can't be the adoptive parents of this new dog. Tomorrows going to be a long day waiting for a phone call that we hope is not going to happen.
That's the week!
Monday morning came early. I got up early enough to go fill the SUV up, and then headed to the church. We were to meet at 7:00. We ended up leaving around 7:30 in the morning. The camp we were going to was Camp Tomahawk which is at an elevation of about 9000 feet. We went through Evanston Wyoming to get there.
Arriving at camp, we were told that there would be no fires (unless it is a propane fire) and that nobody could have any kind of food or treats in their tents because of the bears that are around. We drilled this into the boys and thought they understood, but evidently they didn't quite get it. Camp didn't take very long to set up. We had eight boys in two tents and then there was Glen and I in a tent and Ken Wood in another tent. Glen and I used my tent. I made sure to spray it with some waterproofing stuff just to make sure it would be OK. Our troop paid the extra $70 so the meals would be taken care of up there at Tomahawk. For the most part, the meals were pretty good.
There were a couple of classes that the boys went to starting with Monday afternoon. Ken, Glen and I just hung around camp and kind of lazed the day away. It was nice up there. After we had dinner, we messed around at camp and then at around 8:30 we went up to the main flag for a flag ceremony and then to the fire bowl for a campfire program put on by the staff. It was pretty good, but those seats got awful hard after awhile.
I put a memory foam pad on my cot, and this made my cot the most comfortable I had ever had it be. I slept pretty well all week for being at camp.
Tuesday morning, we got up, had breakfast and then went to the flag ceremony. After flag ceremony we do our troop yell and the boys that were up there were kind of soft. They didn't belt out their yell. The troop that is determined to be the best gets the spirit stick to decorate. At the end of the week, this spirit stick is given to the best overall troop. Well, we didn't win it.
Along with announcements, they reminded us about the bears and to keep food out of tents and this time we were told that some random checks could be done by the forest service and if any food was found in a tent that is grounds for that troop to go home. When we got back to camp, the boys went to their tents and pulled out all kinds of food. I was a bit upset at this, and we talked to them about it and told about the boy a couple of fathers days ago that was taken out of his tent. One of the boys told me that this didn't make any sense because how do bears know how to unzip your tent. I held back my laugh at this point and we told them that bears would make their own zipper. It was an awful funny comment though.
Tuesday after lunch (and we had KP duty) there was the Jim Thorpe relay. Our boys participated in it but didn't do all that well. But, they did it, and they finished it.
Tuesday evening they had what was called Vision Quest, which was also called the Honor Trail. We had our boys go on this. It was done at night in the dark and we went from point to point to learn different things from the Scout Law which says:
- A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.
During the night of Tuesday we had a storm go through the area. There was a lot of wind and some rain. The tent survived it all quite well, and no water came in the tent. However, we had a quick shade put up outside the tent and it was thrown and one of the legs bent and was unfixable. We were able to stand it back up but we will have to see if we can get a new leg for that one for future use. It is a new canopy that the ward had bought, so we felt a little bit bad about it. Not much use in fretting over it now. By the time we woke up Wednesday morning everything was dry like it had not rained at all the previous night. The wind was strong though and we were surprised that there was no other damage done to anything.
Our troop yell for Wednesday was:
Salmonella, Ecoli, Staffs the best,
Troop 1212 is better than the rest.
Once again, this wasn't yelled out at all, so no spirit stick.
Glen had brought up some scrap leather as well as some leather working tools, and all week long he made knife sheaths for each of the boys that they stamped themselves and they were molded to their knives specifically. He learned by doing it and did a great job with making those.
Wednesday evening we went on the Bear Eye hike. This was where some reflectors were put around camp and you took your flashlight with you and got the reflection back and it would tell you what direction to go in. The final destination was the shower, but some smart Alec took the last reflector so boys were looking for a reflector and instead saw flashes of skin of the men in the showers (which weren't too happy about the whole thing). We went back to camp and had a bunch of camp stories for the rest of the evening.
Thursday morning, I wasn't feeling the best. When I burped it was that nasty taste of one who is coming down as sick. I wasn't feeling terrible either though so I stayed silent about it. By noon, I was starting to feel a bit worse, and I stayed away from people so they wouldn't catch anything. After lunch, I started to feel terrible with my stomach churning, and I developed diarrhea in the early afternoon. I finally told Glen and Ken about it and told them that for me this type of thing doesn't usually last too long. I thought I would be over it by Friday. They were wondering if I needed to go home. I had to run to the Kybo (I learned the KYBO stands for Keep Your Bowels Open) every few minutes to expel stuff. I skipped dinner and skipped out on most of the evening activities. I heard a troop yell being created by the scouts in the evening for the next day but wasn't able to be out there with them. I was feeling like death warmed over. I was quite out of it. The troop yell was based on "Who let the Dogs out", but they changed it to Scouts, staff and Troop 1212. That's all I really know about it.
By the way, our troop yell for Thursday morning was one I made up.
It was:
Give me a T -- T
Give me an R -- R
Give me an O -- O
Give me another O -- O
Give me a P -- (silence)
Who's got the P?
Troop 1212! (while bent over as if we have to go).
This didn't win the spirit stick either, but the boys did a lot better.
By Friday morning, I was feeling better. I didn't have to go to the restroom so often, but I still had diarrhea. I was able to eat breakfast and Glen and Ken decided I must be better because my sarcastic sense of humor was back as sharp as ever (it was dulled a bit the previous night).
Friday morning the boys had their merit badges to take care of. Friday afternoon was a time for the boys to play. They had a second Jim Thorpe relay (we still didn't do great but did improve) and then we went to swamp wars. All of the boys (except Dallin) participated in this. Dallin didn't participate because he didn't get his swimmer or beginner tag. That was a lot of fun for the boys. We then had the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we chose too. Brother Bean came up and brought up Tom (Glens son). Ken went home at this time. There was a closing campfire tonight (the campfires were all propane fires) with the boys doing various skits. We got back to camp kind of late, and Tom had had too much caffeine during the day so he was quite talkative. We finally had to tell him to be quiet so the camp could sleep.
Saturday morning we packed up camp and then we left. Glen stayed up there so he could get his son over to camp Travis where his son was going to spend the next week. Glen told me he had difficulty getting home because the clip on the trailer that clips to the ball broke and he had to drive slowly to Evanston, and then only got it done a little better so he had to stay flat and went up toward Ogden in order to get home. I'm glad we didn't have that happen to us. All the boys got home safely and we did too. We are grateful there were no accidents.
I washed the car and then we went out to Bountiful where my wife had let our kids stay the night. Not much else happened with this.
Sunday, I helped my wife with her handicapped class. We had both Jenny and Allie. Things went well there and then Sister Gustavos came in to help out when she was done with responsibilities in Relief Society.
Today, I had to go into work. There were enough problems that happened during the day that I was busy all day just fixing those. I even found some that nobody else really knew about. I also started to call around seeing who might have a dog for us to pick up. There are quite a few shelters in the Salt Lake Valley. I came up with a few places to look and tried to get another person to call about a Shih Tzu that she is fostering. I never heard from her. My wife went to West Jordan's shelter and I went to the Salt Lake County main shelter. My wife saw a couple of dogs that she was interested in, and then I called her to the SL County shelter to look at a black Maltese (I guess Maltese are usually white). I thought she was real cute, and enjoyed playing with her, and so did my family when they came. There were two other dogs that my wife wasn't really that interested in (actually I only showed her one of them and she seemed scared). Now we have to wait until Wednesday morning in case an owner shows up for this Maltese, but we are first in line to be able to get her. Is it OK to pray that her owners don't show up? Well, we are really hoping we can't be the adoptive parents of this new dog. Tomorrows going to be a long day waiting for a phone call that we hope is not going to happen.
That's the week!
posted by Craig's Blog at 10:55 PM
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