AP Encampment Day 4 - End of Droughts

Day 4 – The end of droughts

So this morning 300 of us headed to Ace Lake – on Blue ACE buses which were probably being used by school districts when I was in elementary school.  We were following a group of 300 which had gone ahead of us by an hour.  In case you can’t tell by the pictures there were a number of inflatables in the lake including “icebergs”, slides, etc.  There was also a lily pad run.  They had a water slide and a zip line into the water.  They also had a blob – one person sits on the end and the other jumps onto it and sends the other person high in the air.  We arrived and there were no lockers so all our stuff sat on a table.  We then went down to the dock to get a PDF snugly put on.  I was somewhat concerned that I might pass out from not being able to breathe when I went into the lake.

There were 600 scouts in there. The dichotomy between swimming at a BSA facility – with swim checks, buddy tags, buddy checks, etc. and the ACE lake was shocking really.  There were only two boats with a single lifeguard in each and one or two on the docks – seemed like the whistles never stopped as there were only supposed to be 4 on most of the items at one time and the scouts either can’t count so well or forgot….  After an hour or two the first buses left and then it wasn’t near as crowded and people who wanted to do things mostly got to do them.  It was fun.  I heard a number of comments about how it was one of the best things they had done this week.  Well done by the folks who came up with the idea and made it happen.   Thus ended the drought of fun and especially fun without any lines!

It worked out well for those advancement boys as well who had less people in camp as they were able to do some activities as well.

Of course, nothing goes without so hitch and the buses which were supposed to pick us up at 1 showed up at 2 but the boys watched the blob in action while we waited (and chanted “Big guy! Big Guy!” when a smaller person was at the front – hoping for a huge launch).  That afternoon the older boys mostly went paddle-boarding while some of us rock climbed.

That evening Bishop Lan drove up to talk with the boys.  As I have mentioned, there are a number of ways to get to the dining area.  If you come across the lower dam, there is what I call the “Joe versus the Volcano” trail.  If you have seen the movie you know I mean, if not, please don’t that will be over an hour of your life you can’t get back and I can’t recommend using it that way!  Anyway there are occasionally camp vehicles (we called them gators) that you see but not sure I ever saw a car on it and then we see Bishop driving his accord up the trail!  That was funny.  The drought of cars on the volcano trail ended as well…

The Bishop talked to us about keeping our lives properly centered like his Chinese yoyo.  That trials in life are going to come to everyone and that it is our response to those that can determine who we become.  Then he gave us ice cream – thus ended the drought of ice cream!

Just before the Bishop spoke the rain came.  We had both Bishop time and a camp devotional and   I for one didn’t want to have to walk back and forth twice that evening.  So we found a spot near the dining area we could meet.  There are lots of random large “party tents” (think wedding reception size) that they will be using at the jamboree soon.  So we picked one with tables to use.  As luck would have it, the truck to empty the port-a-potties next to the dining hall showed up part way through the Bishop’s discussion.  The wafting odors of the remnants of thousands of folks over the last 4 days was somewhat distracting.  The motor running and doing its thing wasn’t particularly conducive to our discussion either.  However, despite the issues, the boys listened and we felt the spirit.

Fortunately when the rain did come it was just a steady rain – not too heavy (i.e. all the tents stayed dry).  It helped keep down the dust and ended the rain drought we had since Monday.  Sometimes ending a drought isn’t such a good thing.

The speaker tonight was Mark Pendleton, a member of the YM General Board – he talked about when he was a deacon and a new kid moved into the ward and him ending up having to fight him and punching him hard winning and then being guided by the Holy Ghost to chase him down to apologize and how they became friends and united a dysfunctional quorum.

Always a little bitter sweet as we near the end…. But mostly sweet!