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Night 1- September 23-Arrival
The drive to the camporee was long. So long, in fact, that I think it did something to the drivers. Half of the parents first turned in at the Weblos entrance. We all got to the right get eventually, but had to spend some time to park and find each other in front of registration. After herding ourselves together into a clump, we tried to march to our campsite in some order. We regrouped next to the trailer (Where’s Joey, OH MY GOD WHERE’S JOEY?) and distributed tents. Some of us had nightmares before going to sleep. The tents set up, we embraced the task of setting up camp. Cook boxes (oof) go here, tables here, propane tanks (WATCH IT!) next to cook boxes, and shelter above everything. That done, we sent off groups to the porta-potties and went to bed.
Morning 1- September 24-Assembly and Conservation Project
The sun rose, but we were busy as bees. If we rose with the sun, we’d be late. Getting everybody up was a challenge. Then we had to cook breakfast, clean breakfast, and assemble in an hour (Class A’s everyone!) Marching to assembly, I was struck by how well the path resembled fresh dung… We stood in a line, listening to a Council Leader drone on and on, welcoming us, mentioning people, directing our daily activities, mentioning people, talking about this evening, mentioning people ( I see a pattern here), and generally telling us how to go about our day. Somehow, our schedule was different from the announced one, so we decided to go with our schedule.
We trooped back to the campsite to remove Class A’s and put on Class B’s, and get our land-reshaping tools. After putting on our Camelbacks, we hiked to the place where we registered, and listened to blah, blah, blah, blah for about an hour. Then, following the herd (Mooooo…) we trudged down a hot, dusty road that seemed to go on and on. Jake constantly stopped us to regroup into patrol lines, hoping we’d stay in order (yeah, right). This happened at least seven times. We eventually got to a certain point where the entire herd stopped (Moowha?). After a bit, an ambulance came down the road and picked up somebody. Turns out some poor, dumb fool wasn’t drinking water (Was that one of the things they talked about?)
Anyway, for some reason we decided to head back. Jake finally got the sense to put the slowest people up front, but the lines still fragmented into a slump. When we got back to the district campsite (Hey! I recognize this place!), we refilled our water bottles and had lunch.
Afternoon 1- September 24-Lunch and the Midway
Lunch was quick (HURRY! We only have an hour!), then we set off to the assembly field. There were all sorts of pavilions, tents, lean-tos-- shelters to keep out the sun. We were all given little cards to fill out by going to booths, but eight of us were assigned duties to a particular booth. After about two hours, some of us got bored and went back to camp, where we busied ourselves in lounging in the shade, thinking up “You Know You’re in a Bad Boy Scout Troop When…”, and listening to Jake’s plan for world domination. When the others came back, it was time to make dinner, so we quit talking and started cooking (those listening to Jake had a hard time tearing themselves away.)
Night 2- September 24 -Dinner and the Evening Show
Dinner was long (it required multiple Dutch ovens for the Dingoes), but we got it down and put our class A’s on for another assembly. After the assembly, the evening show started, and there was Native American dancing, a magician, a band, and FREE ICE CREAM! The magician was good. He had four scoutmasters try to support each other while sitting on nothing, and escaped from a regulation police straightjacket and chains. The Native Americans did the Hoop Dance, the War Dance, and the Colorful War Dance. The FREE ICE CREAM! was good, and there was plenty for seconds, thirds, fourths… After we had (lots) of ice cream, we headed back to the stage and listened to a band. They were so loud, you couldn’t listen to anything else, even Jake. Then they had an okay fireworks display. After that, we went to bed.
Morning 2- September 25-Breakfast and Leaving
We got up (again, before the sun), and had quick breakfast. Some of the Scouts owed Jake breakfast for his snacks, so he mainly mooched. Then, we got into class A’s and tried to pack up what we could before assembly. This assembly was longer than usual, because the Council gave out awards, thanked the landowners- Dr. and Mrs. Bersharrd- and said farewell. We trooped back to the campsite and packed up. This took most of the morning, but we got it done. After a police line (or two) we said farewells, and left.