Knowing the camp was just an hour and a half or so drive away this year I looked forward to sleeping in and driving in the daylight. I am rewarded with a meager 60 minutes of additional shut eye as we are to be at the church parking lot at 5:00am. When Scoutmaster Haseldon informs me of the time I suppress a groan and casually state "with a plan to leave at about 5:30?" – his look of surprise and comment of "I think the plan is to leave as shortly after that as possible" are as indicative of his novice status as if he had written "rookie" on his forehead in red marker. I smile knowingly.
We arrive at the church at 5:03, slightly behind schedule and find that the majority of the scouts have arrived. However, a few scouts continue to straggle in, there is an inevitable missing form, the flag retrieval from the Bishop's office, trading of cell phone numbers and directions for the drivers and Class A uniforms that must be pulled from duffels. A number of first time scout camp mothers are dropping off their boys and I wonder whether mother or son is managing the better effort at putting on a brave face. We gather for prayer and take the required parting photo and then load into vehicles for the trip. Time of Departure 5:45. Brother Hamm just smiles.
We take up the safety position in the back of the 5 vehicle caravan with Doug Nicholls leading the way in his secret service black pickup, Scoutmaster is second, Bro. Fox third, MI Queen is just in front of us. Cast includes: Jacob Hamm, Taylor F, Austin B, Robert H in the GP patrol and the boys in the duct tape and blue flame patrols – Jerimiah N, Reuben P, Kolby M, Kyle A, Spencer S, Kevin F, Patrick H, Cameron F, Daniel B, Jacob H, Bryce T, and Nathanial C. The older boys coalesced to my van and we are not into Leesburg when they are dreaming of…. I have no idea, but I doubt it is merit badges. The trip progresses quite uneventfully as shown below:
rchased inside:Back on the road we progress smoothly until we get to Winchester. Somewhere a turn is missed and we get to explore some parts of Winchester which are clearly not on the chamber of commerce pamphlets. As a side note, I have been to camp guided by GPS enough times now to know that while they get us there, we oftentimes travel a road less taken. I guess that has made all the difference (apologies to Robert Frost).
About 7:20 we pull into the Camp Rock Enon ("CRE") parking lot. There is a small footbridge that crosses from the camp to the parking lot and before we are halfway to the bridge we are met by a staff member asking us if we are Troop 1106 and informing us that he is our cite guide. We are duly impressed at the level of service. We walk onto the parade grounds and we have lots of questions. Many of which are answered, but not with answers that are particularly clear and our heads are swimming with random thoughts of "two water pitchers before bug juice", "TO's go in early and get spoons" and "seconds by section." Where is my Harry Potter pensive when I need it!
In prior years we have attended LDS week and all the troops arrive on Monday morning, have swim check, set up camp, and classes start after lunch for everyone. We are not at an LDS week this time so we are coming to camp when everyone else arrived on Sunday and did swim check and set up camp. We are going to have to do all we need to do and get the boys to classes at 9:00am!
As we wait for Doug to go into Buffalo Lodge (the scoutmaster lodge – insert your favorite joke here) and find out where we are going, blasting on the intercom comes "(I've had) The Time of My Life" (and NOT the new David Cook version). The boys do not break into spontaneous dirty dancing moves (thankfully). We get our medical check which this year includes a new forehead touch-for-fever exam and related questions about the flu – a side effect of the swine flu pandemic I'm sure. We get our camp assignment and approval for Bro. Fox to drive his truck and gear up to the site.
We assemble for flag ceremony having no real idea what is going on. The camp lines up in two long lines, one on each side of the buttress between the dining hall and the buttresses most with their troop flag. It is quite impressive. Many of them have nice matching Class B's on. I am again reminded that we are not in LDS week anymore, Toto. The staff performs flag ceremony – including a bugle player and snare drum (looks like we won't impress them here with Bro Evans' mad horn skills – good thing we didn't bring him I guess, might not be good for his ego). Then each troop is asked to say something – it is typically "Troop 1106, all present and accounted for, sir" with salute etc. There are more colorful ones. Not skipping a beat, our SPL does some funky chicken run out towards the person taking the reports, gives his report and returns in the same manner. Given the pressure of the moment, quite well done I figure. We look a little like strange people, but that is bound to happen sooner or later anyway. We then have our first experience with the dining hall. All the troops gather at the steps to the dining hall. The program director then asks for a grace volunteer. He then takes off his hat and yells into the dinning hall "A Scout is Reverent!" and then turns and yells to us with his hat above his head "A Scout is Reverent!" "Grace" is then said. There is a grace written on a sign at the top of the doorway (see photo in day two report):
"Lord, bless the creatures of this land,
Bless the person that I am,
bless the others here I meet,
And bless this food that I'll now eat. Amen"
The grace troop then gets to enter. The other troops get to be admitted in an order based on a competition which is based on the whim of the program director. This morning is it yelling. Yelling loudest gets you in first (just for the record, during my time there we did not once have a "quietest troop in first" contest – I know, primary presidents are filing their grievances now...). While this is somewhat enforced, the troops are sent forward so quickly after one another that it is nearly a free for all. There are four doors and four serving areas. Our troop is assigned 3 tables at the back left. We are served eggs and sausage. There are also Cheerio bowls. Food quality is similar, in my culinary critical review, to heater stack at Goshen. Surprisingly they are using Styrofoam cups and plates.
During breakfast the call comes in that our camp is called "Hilltop" – hmm. Guess I would have preferred one called "not-very-far-along-a-flat-path-to-get-to-everything". The follow up report is that we are a few tents short of enough since we are sharing camp with another troop. Doug makes another trip over to Buffalo lodge. The other troop has 4 boys and 2 leaders and has taken up 7 tents. Hmm. That would explain it. After some cordial conversation they understand the predicament and gladly agree to combine so we have enough space. However, it is now pushing 9 and the boys have got to get to classes.
They make announcements at the end of breakfast about various goings on at camp. One is "the trading post will be open at 8:30 today only so those who didn't get vouchers for their classes can get them before going." We walk them to the post to get vouchers. Two of them don't have money since their money is in their packs. Doug floats them. Another is astounded to learn that rifle costs $5. Especially since a sizable portion of his funds for the week were spent at that aforementioned stop on "refreshments." Doug floats him a few dollar loan.
We give them directions as best we can at a camp where all we know about it is gathered from the maps we have which are not quite up to Magellan's standards. When we don't know we tell them to ask staff members and we promise to follow them to find out if it goes well.
We split up and I grab a thick stack of blue cards and head to the waterfront where we have two scouts in swimming and two in canoeing. We have not had swim checks so I want to be sure they get into class without getting drilled about it. Swim staff is helpful and they get their swim tests done and into class without missing anything. I fill out the blue cards for canoeing while they swim. The scouts come back and tell me I have to fill in, I'm not kidding, the full address of the candidate. Are you kidding me?! We have over 70 of these to do and you want addresses? You aren't going to mail them to them! Sheesh. Fortunately, the rest of the staff turn out to be sane reasonable less detail oriented. I then walk over to handicraft area. It is bustling. I get blue cards to the folks there doing woodcarving and basketry. I then head to rifle and archery. It turns out to be farther than I thought. In fact, it seems like a long way out there. This camp seems bigger than Marriott.
The rest of the morning passes with much of the same for the next two hours as kids search for locations and we try to keep up with the demand for blue cards. Despite some severe cramping in my writing hand, I'm able to complete the final blue cards using either my right (non-writing) hand or my left foot. If you get one of those blue cards, my apologies. I took no pictures during this rush as the cramping in my hands kept me from pushing the button on my camera. At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it. Next report – afternoon: " Is it Wednesday?"
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