First Camping Trip – Day One

So after finally gathering up the courage and waiting for my girls to get old enough, we took our 2nd year Brownies (and one junior) on a “dress rehearsal” camping trip this past weekend to Camp Mary Elizabeth.  I call it a dress rehearsal, because not only was it most of the girls’ first time camping, it was also my first time planning one.  I’ve been on many a camping trip in my life, but I never planned one before.  I took Sleep Out training three years ago and a refresher course at last year’s Mountain Magic, so I was pretty excited and nervous at the same time.  But if things just absolutely fall apart, we have CME’s lodge as a backup.

During last year’s refresher course, I asked “So what happens if you forget something?”  Tina the Trainer said, “Then you just improvise and figure it out.  That’s what you do with camping and Girl Scouts.”  This really made me feel better, and I said it to myself quite a bit while planning this trip.

That said, my husband helped pack our cars, and the one major Big Blue Box with the vast majority of the camping stuff is left at home.  Fortunately, Camp Mary Elizabeth is only about 35 minutes from our house, so my husband is able to bring it to us.  Again I use the term “dress rehearsal.”  😉

Note to self:  Put the Big Blue Box on the packing checklist.

Then the zipper on my tent breaks.  Again.  It broke on the last personal camping trip and I thought I had fixed it.  Luckily we borrowed a family’s 4 person tent, so the leaders’ tent has enough room for me.

Note to self:  Buy a name brand tent for my birthday.

I also borrowed our church’s parachute, and we play a couple of games with it to get the jitters out after we set up our tents and got our stuff stored away.  While they are playing, I take some deep breaths and wait for the Big Blue Box to be delivered, and I move my stuff to the Leader Tent.  Parachute – WIN!

Before dinner, we make planispheres.  I’ll make a separate post about them if you would like to find out more information about it.

Then we get the fire and charcoal going for dinner.  I had planned quite a bit of time because I had no idea how long it would really take for us to prep the meals and how long it would take the girls to figure out what the heck we were doing.  When it’s the first time for everybody, you have to be patient.  At least that’s what I tell myself.

Note to self:  Don’t buy a can opener from the dollar store.

We make Tacos in a Bag and Dump Cake in my new dutch oven (w00t!), and they were both big hits with the girls, and they actually tasted good. WIN!  BTW, I’m not sure DUMP Cake is really the best name for food, but I digress.

Note to self:  For the girls’ packing list, be specific about what you want them to put in their drawstring backpack, and go on and tell them to put their bandana, mess kit/dunk bag/utensils/cup in there too.

We clean up and move into campfire mode.  Everybody’s full from the tacos and dump cake, but we make s’mores anyway.  And lightning bugs show up!  YAY!  (This early?  Do they show up this early in the year?  Yet again, I digress.  Have I told you I have ADHD?)  I teach them the song Fried Ham, which was one of my favorites when I was a Girl Scout.  It’s one of those that can go on and on and on and on.  We get up to the eighth or ninth verse, and I end it mercifully.  But I take note that I could have gone on and on and on and on but I see the girls are starting to get antsy.  Thankfully, I do not bust out any of the politically incorrect verses that we sang over thirty years ago and didn’t know they were politically incorrect.

Then I do Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow with them.  Most of them do it, but some of them start to fade near the end.  I teach them my Girl Scout version set to the tune of Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow.  I explain it is the WORLD PREMIERE OF… whatever this is titled.  We decide to call it A Girl Scout Version of Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow.  The girls love it.  I have dreams that this will take off and Girl Scouts all over the United States will sing A Girl Scout Version of Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow for many years to come.  Maybe even the Sleep In Trainers will pass it along.  WIN.

BTW, if you do a image search for “Camp Mary Elizabeth” on Bing images, a lot of images of gravestones with the name Mary Elizabeth show up.

So after these three songs, the girls are fading fast.  I’m just getting warmed up.  We decide to teach them On My Honor, but after hearing just murmuring, we sing the chorus through two times and end it.

We begin to put the fire out.  I am paranoid about fires and think back to Sleep Out Training when I became too enthusiastic and build the fire up waaaay too high.  Tina the Trainer made me stay up until 11:30pm until it was completely out.  I am afraid that she will show up out of nowhere to chide us if the ashes are not cold to the touch.  Or maybe Smokey the Bear will show up.  Or maybe Smokey the Beat AND Tina the Trainer appear.  Actually that would be kind of neat.  Dang.  I just remembered that I was going to teach the Smokey the Bear song to them.  Oh well.

Note to self:  Teach the Smokey the Bear song to the girls next time.

But we still have to clean up!  Forget the whole Three Tubs Dip thing – we’ll just haul it all down to the Lodge kitchen.  It is at this point that I notice one of the girls has gone back and wolfed down about four or five packages of Fritos from dinner.

Note to self:  Hide the leftover Fritos bags from everybody after dinner next time.

Now the girls are awake again and running around the main room of the lodge.  There are dead hornets on the floor.  I’m not sure where they came from, but anyway.  I need to tell the council about this.  So Co-Pilot Beth (the other leader) and I are discussing how we will gather them together so that they can begin getting ready for bed.  I notice a turtle shell.  It’s pretty neat.  Thankfully Co-Pilot Beth does not have ADHD.  If you want to see the turtle shell, it is sitting on top of the piano.  I think the aforementioned girl has eaten another bag of Fritos.

We start herding them into the bathroom for brushing teeth, and we say that if you want to use your planisphere to follow Mrs. Amy, otherwise, you can go on and get into your pajamas and go to bed.  Most of them come with me, and the aforementioned girl is eating more Fritos.  Not really, but you get the picture.  CME has way too many trees to see the stars, plus there’s a lot of light pollution since we’re really in the middle of Spartanburg.  I point out the moon and tell them about the lunar eclipse on Tuesday/Wednesday morning, and I point out Mars.  We find the Big Dipper.  I look down at my watch and it’s 11:15pm.  HOLY CRAP.

Note to self:  Look at your watch more often.

Everybody gets into their tents, but I have to clean my dutch oven.  I go back to the kitchen and pull out my Sleep Out Training Notebook to read through how to clean it.  I notice that it states that you can line it with foil for easy cleanup.

Note to self:  Line the dutch oven with foil for easy cleanup next time.

I go back to our tent and Co-Pilot Beth shows me Bon Qui Qui at King Burger.  This wakes me back up.  Rude!  Perhaps I should say, “Don’t interrupt!  Rude!” anytime one of the girls tries to interrupt me when I am explaining something tomorrow.

In the morning, I plan to make coffee in the kitchen instead of over the fire, since we’re just using charcoal for cooking breakfast.  BUT HOLY CRAP.  I LEFT THE COFFEE AT THE CAMPFIRE AREA.  I WILL NOT BE DENIED MY MORNING CUP OF COFFEE, BY GOD.  So I get in the car and drive up to get my coffee and back.  Crisis averted.

Around midnight, I do my bedtime routine stuff and put on my pajamas and get back to the tent about 12:30am.  There are girls STILL TALKING.  What the heck?  We were told at Sleep Out that if you wear them out, they will go to sleep pretty quickly.  LIES!

Note to self:  Have the girls run around the entire camp two or three times during the day to wear them out.

I shush them and say I don’t want to hear another word, just like my troop leader did way back when and I thought that she was just a stick in the mud.

At this point it’s technically day two, so I will continue it in another post.  Plus, my carpal tunnel is acting up.