“Good morning Vietnam!” blared through the speakers as the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 were awakened Sunday morning. As Robin Williams continued to do his “radio show” the Scouts quietly crawled out of their sleeping bags and began packing their gear for the trip home. Our weekend at Camp Stearns was nearly at an end.
Four of the troop’s seven members participated in the activity. Three of them left town Friday evening and the fourth joined them Saturday afternoon. It was a laid back, fun winter outing. We rented one of the heated buildings at camp but we still had fun activities outdoors.
It was already dark when we arrived at Camp Stearns Friday evening. The boys kept busy playing Risk and watching the 1970’s movie, The Posieden Adventure. (Yes, we do bring a television and dvd player with us on our winter outing.)
We worked on advancement Saturday morning after a breakfast of bacon and french toast. In the afternoon we played nine holes of disc golf while wearing snowshoes. It was a very warm February day, probably in the upper 30’s. I thought it was funny that we were walking through mud and water puddles while carrying snowshoes in our arms on the way to the golf course.
Most of us had never worn snowshoes. It took us a few moments to get them strapped onto our boots. We discovered that we still sank a few inches into the snow. A couple of the boys made a comment that they did not think the snowshoes helped very much. When a shoe came off the boot of one of the boys they discovered that the snowshoes helped out quite a bit.
On the way back to the building we noticed that the broomball field had no ice, but plenty of mud, so the boys decided to watch a another movie, The Mummy. This was followed by a religious service and supper.
In the evening we dressed in warm layers and walked to Camp Stearns’ well lit sledding hill. It is a large hill which provides great sledding. Unfortunately, walking back up the hill can wear out a person after several trips. The boys had fun sledding for nearly ninety minutes before they declared it was time to play another game of Risk.
That brings us back to Sunday morning. The boys barely said a word as they packed their gear. This group of 14 to 16 year olds have already been on plenty of weekend outings. They knew the routine. Within a short amount of time things were packed and we were sitting down to breakfast. We were on the way home before 9:00.
Don’t you just love it when the Scouts work well together and get things done without having to say anything to them?
