These AHG camping weekends are somewhat of a blur, as there tends to be alot of moving pieces, and Magan and I are heavily involved with most of those pieces. This is our first campout at Rickwood since the very first AHG trip we ever went on about 3 years ago. Now Anabelle is an Explorer and camping on her own, and I think Magan did not stay with us on that first trip, but now she is a Pro.
We left later than expected, and something I never want to repeat. Because we started setting up on Friday evening late as others are also coming in, as the camp flag is being signed, and as the camp flag tripod needs to be erected. But it was a great first night, where the girls started their own informal campfire songs and skits that went well beyond the 9:30PM quiet time that I think was clearly presented, but some leaders...Magan...weren't listening either, and stayed up late chatting with them. The first night included Belle telling one of the scary stories she had written, and Ruby helping to lead some songs (Squishy Squishy Waffle...Popsico...). We pulled out some Bamboozled jelly beans for all to try out also creating one of the "yucky" faces from Ruby below.
The next morning began with our Geology merit badge, where Sharon had really planned an amazing plan for all the girls and for each squad. We learned about different rocks and how they combined together using some starbursts. We made some crystals (after they froze overnight). We performed a Perc Test on the soil. And we learned about different parts of soil.
Next we toured the cave, which is always surprising longer than I would ever expect given the distance above ground that we travel while on this tour. Rickwood Caverns State Park is located in Blount County near the town of Warrior. Its main attraction is a massive network of underground caverns that features intriguing geological formations, underground pools, and rare blind cave fish. The caves were "discovered" in the early 1950s by a troop of Boy Scouts and their leader, Eddie Rickles. And while Mr. Rickles has since passed, we did get to meet one of the original 7 boy scouts that helped form the walkways of the caves with dynamite. And while in the cave we saw two bats, and had one fly right past us. ARGHHH!
After the cave tour, we did some geocaching, then played on the playground for a little bit. I was able to show the kids how you do a flip over the bar at the top of the slide, as none of them were aware of the tricks of the old school playground equipment. But soon enough, those girls were jumping in, and after a scared and shakey start, even Ruby completed a flip and went down the slide. MawMaw came to see us for a little bit, and Magan told me that Ruby and Belle were telling their stories when they saw MawMaw, and shouted in excitement to run give her a hug.
We then started preparing 3 flags for the retirement ceremony. That evening after another tacos in a bag supper, we began our more formal campfire skits, where I got to participate in the Tenderheart/Explorer skit and ended up eating some really gross bubble gum under the imaginary bench. I sang a piece from the Wizard of Oz for the PiPa skit. Then all the adults had a fun skit where we all cried because we had no skit. I really love all these girls, and love that they let me (Mr. Scott) have fun with them. We even saw a skit where Hadassah was me, and Sarah Beth was Magan. They acted as us at the campout, with Hadassah just looking around confused gaining some laughs, but Sarah Beth doing a perfect impression of Mrs. Magan laying in her seat and falling asleep for the campout. Magan also missed all these skits as they disappeared to take their showers thru all of this. I know!
Afterwards we began the flag retirement ceremony where the PiPas read portions of the ceremony, then I helped give each of the girls a portion of the flag to place on the fire. We had three flags and ALOT of material to place of the fire, so I began by giving each girl two pieces, but then, I realized that there was a LONG line of girls, so I went down to one piece per girl...then during this solemn ceremony I started frantically counting the girls left and we had exactly enough for each girl to participate...I guess it helped that Anabelle was also at the shower with Magan and missing this...I know! But it was a really neat experience, as typically with the boy scouts, there is just a long silence, but with these girls, some quiet beautiful voices began to sing the Star Spangled Banner, and we all just joined in to finish this retirement portion.
The next morning I brought the leather working kits for the girls to make some keychains, then we had another great lesson by Rinoa Angell. And as each campout ends, we always finish with the paper plate awards. This is probably one of my favorite times, and one I always hope to make those girls smile and laugh. Ruby got the "Most Prepared" paper plate award, and Belle got the award for sleeping closest to the "Pit of Death", which was just that...a large pit near the back of our campsite. Magan and I both got plates, but I can't remember what they said, we were just happy to get plates as leaders. My favorite ones to hand out was for one of our oldest PiPas that actually was in more of a leader role this trip...Kylen got the "Quiet reflector of Life, and the mysteries that lie beneathi its surface while holding a random baby within a box shaped costume" award. And to Cheyenne who was "Most likely to be sneaking up behind you with a little bat", and actually was while I read her award.
Later at our Cracker Barrell breakfast, we ran into a Vietnam Veteran and the girls were able to present him with one of the grommets from the flag that was retired. As we said during the ceremony "The metal grommets which held the flag as it flew will not burn away in the fire. These will be found in the cold ashes tomorrow morning, cleaned, and then presented to veterans in our group because they, too, have come through the fire as they’ve served our country."
