Boy Scout Campout - Chewacla State Park

Haven't been on a scout campout in awhile, but I booked this one at Chewacla like 8 months ago, and have been looking forward to it.   It is one of my favorite locations due to the large scout field, really nice waterfall, and biking trails all over the place.   And it is one of the closer trips we go on which is also a plus.   We arrived Friday evening at the campsite around 8:30PM, which in troop 354 experience is early.   The boys quickly put up the dining flies, and the adults did not because of another great thing about this campsite...a large covered pavilion that is a part of the campsite.  I found a great flat spot to unpack and set up the tent, and after a small time at the pavilion talking with the other dads, went to my tent and fell asleep with no problems.   

The next morning the adults had bacon and eggs.   And Davis' leadership patrol had grits and sausage, and it was funny because they forgot that the grits were for their supper with shrimp.   Oh well, they would come up with something later.   Our day began with one of the newer scouts getting sick, and having to call him mom to come get him.   

I went off with the mountain biking crew, while another group went hiking.   One of the other adults crashed at about the 2nd turn, and was out for the rest of the day.   We are just too old for this.   We started our day at the trick area, that had some ramps and skinny boards to try out our balance.   I am not good at all riding bikes, but I tried the first ramp and made it, so I decided to try the second level ramp and turned two quickly when I landed and slide on my side for a little while scratching up my arm pretty good.   My buddy Shawn Rumsey made it look easy.   He is clearly my favorite person to talk to and hang out with on these trips, and I was glad he was here.  Davis hit the level 3 ramp twice getting some great air, so I told him to do it one more time, and I would get it on video.   And as luck would have it, he came off slightly twisted and wrecked very bad on his landing.   He was bleeding much worse than me.   

After getting bloodied at the trick spot, we rode over to some fast trails with big hills.   I almost wrecked bad just due to stupidity  stopping at the top of the hill.   Fortunately, I did not, and when I made it back to the stop, I decided that was enough for me.   We did one last trail towards the end, and Davis again tore up his bike, but after seeing him passed out in my lounge seat, I think he really just needed to rest.  While he was sleeping, I rode my bike down to the waterfall, and enjoyed bouncing around on the rocks trying not to get wet.   This is one of my favorite places, and I was going to be sad if I missed it.   

Then we had a great supper where Shawn made what was probably one of the best burgers I have ever eaten.   Davis got a bite and would tell you the same.   Then shortly after supper, the bottom dropped out.   And the thunder and lightning got intense.   Looking at our radars, we could see that these storms would be coming all night, so all the leaders got together and did a tent check finding 8 of the tents were soaked with water.   So we made the decision to pack up during a short 2 hour break in the rain, and go home that Saturday night.   Oh well, we did not miss anything other than a miserable night in a tent hoping that a tree would not fall on us.  Shawn and I did get the first Board of Review from a minivan completed for Cason Williams, while everyone was packing up.   

Funny stories for the night of camping.   On the first night, Davis completely lost his air pods in his tent, and after searching thru his whole tent was frustrated that he could not find them, as his phone said they were in his tent.   Then when he stood up, he felt something strange in his pants...somehow, I don't want to ask...they both ended up inside his pants.   And since Max Beneke told me his parents might not be home, I suggested he text his brother Will.   "I would be better off texting the dog than texting will"...hahaha.   And George sent us a picture of him doing inventory, so he could not be at the campout, I immediately put his picture into one of ours at the campout, but that sparked him being in a mayonnaise factory, then in Egypt, and all over the place.