Are We There Yet ??
It never ceases to amaze me how bad traffic is leaving Chicago on a Friday. No matter the time of year, it always seems like even if we get an early start, we spend at least 1 hour in traffic. Well, at least the boys get a chance to eat and we don’t have to stop
….NOT…Although this time we did make it all the way to Belvedere. Parents, you should all be proud of your son’s bladder control (is there a merit badge for that? If so, I would like my son to earn that one for the next road trip!!)
Nice thing about camping at this time of year, we don’t have to keep the campsite illuminated with our car headlights. Tents were up before dark this time. Drawback – Friday night, sugary snacks, none of the boy’s wanted to go to sleep before 11. Note to parents, in addition to sending them with a snack dinner, a strong bladder, consider relieving your volunteer leaders by making your son take a long hike the day of the trip….
Waking up the next morning we found a bunch of scouts raring to go – some as early as 530 am because of a ring tone alarm from their phone!!! (no electronics boys!!!)
For any of you parents who have never been to White Pines before, the neat thing about getting to our camp site is that you have to cross a creek in your car. Unfortunately, the creeks were so high that we had to use the back entrance
Here you can get a good look at the creek. Which was right behind our campsite – below:
Luckily we were the only ones in the whole Youth Campsite area.
Nice little foot bridge – not sure who made it…..?????? hehehehe
Our plans for a hike were almost quashed as well because of the high water levels. The trail we wanted to take crossed the river 3 times without a bridge, but we found another one to traverse.
On this hike we were fortunate to have come upon a spot in the park where they had planted a multitude of trees and lo and behold, the boys who needed to identify the 10 native plants for rank advancement got it done!
Later in the day we drove to Dixon Illinois to see Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home.
This seems to be a regular trip for the troop. I had never been there, and it was really neat to see it.
Ok I got to meet him. We had a nice chat!
The boys had to settle for a statue!!
Believe it or not, the former Prez was a little smart alec as a teen and we even arrested once for a comment he made to a policeman.
As always, on most of our camp outs, the food is awesome and overflowing (From the looks of the boys below, they act like this is the last supper!!)
Later that night……….What would a campout be without fire?
What gives? Where’s the fire???
Here we go. Lets roast some hot dogs!!!
Don’t mess with my hot dog!!
Yum!!!!!
“Can I have another???”
Well, another thing that most of our camp outs seem to NEVER do with out is a storm! And true to form we got a good one. Not to long after the picture above, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees, the sky darkened, and we high tailed it to the cars right behind us. Normally we would just ask the boys to stay in their tents, however there were reports that 60 mph gusts were on the way. All we ended up with was LOTS a rain, a few scared scouts and some concerned parents calling various cell phones. (note AT&T doesn’t seem to work there)
The worst part of it all was that the rain lasted just long enough to put out most of our fires – we had 2. We were able to re-light one of the fires, but the charcoal was a tough nut to crack.
One for the peach cobbler – perfection.
We did come up with an interesting way to stoke a fire though (thanks Matt S.) – the fan you use to blow up your air mattress. Sounds like cheating, but guess what, we were PREPARED – and now dry!
Well after a day like that, it wasn’t too hard to get them to sleep by 9:30 – thank God!! And they needed all the rest they could get for Sunday. Horseback riding is always a big hit.
Get along little doggies
We have lots more pictures if you wish to see them, email me and I will share them with you from my web album
We leave for Napowan July 12th. I’m sure we all cant wait!!!
