Sunday, July 10, 2005

We drove in at about 12:00. After setting up the mosquito nets, we took a picture in front of the dining hall and took a swim test. After that we played around until dinner. Nick had bought some poker chips so we played poker. At dinner, Alex played the bugle at the flag retirement. Because of his bugling, we ate dinner first. Dinner was hot dogs and hamburgers with cookies, chips, and watermelon. After dinner, we headed back to camp for a bit before going to the flag pole for assembly. In the rock, paper, scissors championship, Andy got us into the semi-finals, so we were pretty quick in getting to the ampitheater. The staff put on a pretty good show, and then we went to bed.

Monday

After lying in bed and listening to the sprints for a while (Mile Run class) we got up and dressed, sun-screened, bug-sprayed, and sulfer-powdered. After lounging for a few minutes, we trooped off to the flag ceremony. Thanks to Alex's bugling again, we ate pretty early. Back at camp, we did a police line and then set off for merit badges. After a good three hours of merit badges, we had a fire drill and then assumbly. Lunch came after the assembly, and then we had two more hours of merit badges.

When that was finished, the time was about 3:30. We went back to the camp site for a bit and then went and did fingerprinting merit badge. We were scheduled to swim that day, but it got cancelled due to rain. After that, it was about time for dinner and those who had cooking merit badge went off and ate dinner there.  The people who had cooking merit badge waited for two hours in the rain but they probably still ate better than the other Scouts.

After dinner we played cards in the activity shelter a bit because of the rain and then we went to bed.

Tuesday

After we woke up, we assembled and went to the flag raising ceremony. Breakfast came after the assembly, which was after the flag ceremony. Those people that were in cooking class went to the area for their class and ate there. After getting back from breakfast, we did a police line to look for trash and cleaned out the latrines and activity shelter. We had a few minutes before merit badges, so we mostly went to the trading post, wich was right next to our campsite.  Then we had three hours of merit badge classes.

After our three classes, it was time for lunch. Cooking students (cookers) went to the cooking  area and ate there, while the rest of the troop marched off tho the flagpole for assembly and lunch, and then it was off to merit badges again.

We did some troop activities after the last two merit badge classes. First we went to the archery range and shot a few rounds. Then we hiked down to the docks and canoed around a bit. After that, we went back up to the campsite to play cards and such, and those who wanted to go and do the troop games went and shot rifles,drew flags, and competed in the knot competition.

Next we had dinner. After dinner, we had about an hour of cards before we went hiking on the cat-eye trail. Near the end, we got lost a bit, but we found our way out after a few minutes of searching. When we got back to the campsite, we had pizza, and then went to bed.

Wednesday

Once again, we woke up bright and early. We had antoher groggy march to the flagpole for flag raising and assembly. Another weird song, and we were screaming our lungs out for a place in the line for breakfast. It was passable, so we gulped it down. After cleaning up the campsite, we set off for merit badges.

The first three hours come and gone, we headed up to the flagpole an lunch. Cookers set off for lunch. With lunch down the hatch, we had two more merit badges.

After merit badges,  we had a hike, then went to the climbing tower. Since it was thundering, the tower was closed for a while. So some of us grabbed the mountain bikes next door and went for a ride, while others climbed. Then it was dinnertime.
After dinner, we finally had a swim, then went to bed.

Thursday

We were woken up by Reveille. I hope Alex plays better at the flag ceremony.
He did. We yelled and screamed to get the attention of the counselors, but then a passing troop told us to get into smallest to tallest order, and that got us in. Breakfast was horrible eggs, bacon, grits, and biscuits. After that we cleaned up the campsite and headed off to merit badges.

After the first three hours of merit badges, we marched off to the assembly for lunch. Some of us had cooking merit badge, so we escaped off to the Scout Crafts area. Lunch in the dining hall was chicken fingers and french fries, and some said it was the best meal they served. The Cooking lunch was beef stew. The gravy started out as "pudding," but more water made the whole thing taste good.

We had a little time before merit badges, so we played cards for a bit. Then we had two more hours of merit badges. After the merit badges, we had a communicty service project, and a swim. However, it was thundering and lightning, so we didn't swim. We just stayed in the activity shelter, playing cards and eating candy before and after dinner. Eventually, the rain stopped, and made for cooler sleeping.

Friday

After waking up and listening to others being roused, I decided to get up. There was a little time between then and breakfast, and that was usually rub-your-eyes time. We assembled, trying to figure out who was missing and how to get them, and went to assembly. We were late (again), so we stood at attention on the way to the flagpole. One of the counselors joined us in chanting our troop number, and we got in in surprisingly fast.

After breakfast, we had a little gap of time, in which we formed a police line, cleaned the latrines, and cleanded the activity shelter. Jake commented on the stench of urine in one tent in particular, and lectured us on how to relieve ourselves at 1:00 AM. Then it was off to merit badges.

Because the cooking class had already eaten enough meals, everyone went to assembly, then lunch. During lunch, Adam and Stephen tried to do a run-on, and almost got in trouble for running in the dining hall.

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