Camping

Well, clearly I survived. We had an experienced camper pitch our tent with us, so we stayed warm and dry. Which is important, because when you lie awake all night, you want to make sure you aren't miserable in any other way.

It wasn't too bad. It rained during the day, then cleared for the evening activities. It started raining again some time in the middle of the night, but I couldn't say when or for how long. Our tent had more water on it this morning than any other in our group, so maybe it just rained on us.

I bunked with Daniel - he loved it. He didn't sleep well either, but better than me. We had to make one middle-of-the-night trip to the john, but otherwise, he didn't have any problems. Ben slept in tents with his patrol group. They cooked their own food, which was highly entertaining to watch. Daniel and I ate sandwiches and pretzels and other low-maintenance items.

There was a program Saturday night that included some Native American dancing. One guy performed and they mentioned that it was his first time ever dancing on stage in front of a big group. Sadly, some yokel in the vicinity of the fair grounds decided to host his own fireworks display right in the middle of this guy's performance. Imagine a bunch of young boys given the choice between watching some guy dancing or watching fireworks. You guessed it - I felt bad for the dancer. But then some guy did what they call a "hoop dance" which held everyone's attention - really, really amazing stuff.

Following the Native Americans, we had a local group of re-enacters come tell us about kicking the British's butts on King's Mountain. They demonstrated a gun ceremony that ended with them firing off their muscats and rifles and whatnot - there were six guys and the last guy misfired - it sounded something like this: "KABLAM! KABLAM! KABLAM! KABLAM! KABLAM! poof."

We got up early this morning and watched the troop clean up the camp site and pack for home. Parents were not allowed to help. It was surreal.

Home again now. We're all showered and clean now.

Good times.