I managed to survive a camping trip with my Son and his Boy Scout troop. You simply cannot imagine the stuff I heard? Or can you? A group of young boys and teens.....lots of flatulence. Well I tried to write down things from the trip. But it was so cold...it wasn't even funny.
Road Trip to Galena with Pack 119. Was interesting road trip up. I was third in a convey of 6 vehicles. We left the Quad Cities approx. around 7pm. We were debating the whole trip due to the line of huge thunderstorms that had previously went thru the QC area about an hour before we were scheduled to leave. There were tornadoes, and other fun weather stuff involved. Well no matter what the trip was on. We left and arrived up here at the Mississippi Palisades Park, to our camping area which by the way was clear in the back of the park, in a remote private area on a turn about. How cool is that? Well, we got here and the boys had to get their tents from the trailer and get their tents set up. Two boys to a tent and those two had to set up their tents. They had previously worked on their tents at the school for practice cause our Webelos had never done it before. So they did a good job, and even did it in the dark.
After that they got their camping gear and put it in the tents then it was Cracker Barrel time. Let m tell you it was my first time ever for one of these events and it was a blast. They had Smores!!!! The boys were still full of energy at 10:30 but it was time for bed. It took awhile for all of them to finally make it asleep. Cause morning sure comes early. I was up at 6am..wishing for more sleep. We got up, all the boys slowly made it up. The pack assigns each boy a job. There were two food preparers cutting up green peppers. I was able to help this morning with our breakfast, I was the official Egg Cracker. Oh yay! My first time eating Eggs in a Bag. OMG, so delish. You have to try it.
Then off to Galena for the Grant Pilgrimage. It was a scavenger hunt of sorts. Then lunch, then the parage thru the entire town of Galena. I have so many pictures of the entire town, SO NOT FUN walking everywhere but it’s a scout tradition no matter where you go. So I am sitting here, thinking about the most delicious dessert I have ever had. It was a apple cobbler, Boy Scout way at that. Its late Saturday night at about 9:36pm. Cracker barrel is in twenty minutes. I am going to go bathroom one last time cause it’s a half mile down the road, and I don’t want to go in the middle of the night.
Well I made it down to the restroom and guess what was sitting in there waiting for me? The most scariest black spider ever. So I went and came back, walked over to the garage area to see if they needed any help. Of course no, they always have the boys doing the work. It pretty much helps them along in their lives of learning to depend on themselves. All the boys had to wash their own dish and utensil.
Anyhow, I went ahead to my sleeping area...yep my Van. And my Son joined me. He was begging to go to sleep. Here it was 930ish and he was begging me. I told him, go to your tent and go to bed. Sure enough. He went, he said he don't remember anything after getting into his tent. Then Sunday came too fast. We got up, I helped the boys with their pancake making. Some of the boys have never done it so I got to help them, taught them how to measure the mix and water. They thought it was pretty cool. After breakfast which consisted of pancakes, bacon and sausage, milk and OJ. We got our dishes washed and it was time to pack up the tents and head home. It took awhile cause the boys were NOT wanting to leave. So we finally managed to get on the road back home, during which we lost one of our vehicles. And I couldn't leave a man down. We had that issue when we first arrived, we lost one of our guys and I felt awful. When I passed him he gave me the look of death. So I went back and found him, and off we went again. We made it home, and honestly. I was beat. I got home. Brought my stuff in, sat down and woke up around 530ish...I think...lol. I hate to say it, I am still frozen to the inner core of my body. I spent the majority of the day trying to get warm. My legs are still sore from the 21 mile walk on Saturday. I surprised myself in doing all this walking, I watched all these boys keep going and going. By the time we were done at 3:30pm on Saturday. I was beat. My feet hurt, and that's all that hurt. I could barely move on Sunday. Felt like I had a crazy night of ...um...can't say.
I am sorry this post has taken so long to get posted. It seems, I haven't been warm enough to sit on the computer to do anything at all.
