First Camping Trip – Day Two

Here’s Day One.

It takes me forever to go to bed. I have a hard time normally getting to sleep anyway, but so many notes to self are swirling through my head, and I am thinking ahead about how we will handle breakfast in the morning. I finally drift off to sleep (I think) when the first Brownie comes to the flap. ::scratch scratch scratch:: Co-pilot Beth opens the tent flap, and the girl who ate all of the Fritos complains about her legs hurting. Co-pilot Beth tells her to rub them, and if that doesn’t help, she’ll give her some kids’ Tylenol to help (yes, we have the parental permission for this).

I think I drift back off to sleep, dreaming of zombies and Girl Scouts and breakfast cooking over a fire. I’m dreaming about zombies, because earlier in the day (or yesterday at this point), I went over the rules with the girls with one being no ghost stories. Or scary stories. Or stories about Big Foot, the Lochness Monster, or the Chupacabra. “What about zombies?” No zombies either. “Awwww.” Soon, I hear soft crying. Co-Pilot Beth is comforting a different Brownie. (Thankfully Co-Pilot Beth is the first one at the door of the tent. I kid, I kid.) Our Brownie is homesick. 🙁 So Co-Pilot Beth calms her down and gets her back to sleep in her tent.

I think we go back to sleep, but I am really not sure you can call it sleep. No zombies though.

::scratch scratch scratch::: I ask Co-Pilot Beth if she hears something. She says no. ::scratch scratch scratch::: I say that I think it’s a knock. Co-Pilot Beth pulls back the flap, and it’s the Fritos Brownie bandit back because her legs still hurt. We give her Tylenol, and I ask how much water she drank during the day. “A lot.” I am not sure how much “a lot” entails.

Note to self: Remind the girls to drink lots of water.

I ask the Fritos Bandit how many bags of Fritos she ate. She holds up two fingers. I say, “Come on… I saw you eat more than that.” She holds up four fingers. “Including dinner?” She might have held up more. I explain about salt and cramps and water, although at this point during the night I’m not sure how much of it really sank in.

I refuse to look at my watch during the night. I don’t want to know. WIN!

Again I drift back to sleep and slowly wake up to a symphony of birds. I could lay there all morning just listening to their songs. I look at my watch: 7:30am. Not bad! Co-Pilot Beth wakes up, and we hear some yelling and shouting way off in the distance. We guess that it’s a Palm Sunday service and people are yelling “Hosannah! Hosannah!” We begin packing up our stuff and rolling up our sleeping bags and rouse the girls. Co-Pilot Beth and I discuss our favorite Easter songs while we all pack. Mine are “He’s Alive” covered by Dolly Parton and “Up from the Grave He Arose” if you were wondering.

To save time, Co-Pilot Beth and I decide it would save time if the Hostess-Cook Patrol prepares breakfast in the kitchen and then we bring it up to the campfire site. Did I mention the spigots aren’t working up there? No one turned on the water to the spigots. It’s on in the Lodge though. Squirrel! I volunteer to oversee the Hostess-Cook Patrol while Co-Pilot Beth and her Daughter the Assistant Leader get the Firebug Patrol going with the charcoals. I wonder if Co-Pilot Beth knows that I volunteered for kitchen duty because the coffee machine is there. Probably so. It’s for the best for everyone though that I get my morning coffee. WIN!

The Fritos Bandit has a fever 🙁 , so we call her parents to come pick her up. She stays in my car and sleeps while her parents are on the way. I hate it when anything bad happens to our girls. I feel very protective of them like a mother hen gathering up her chicks. I get overwhelmed with them sometimes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

We prepare Oranges with Cinnamon Rolls and take them up to the fire ring. We cook them over the charcoals, and even though they aren’t completely done due to time limitations, the girls love them. WIN!

We all head back to the tents and gather up our backpacks and nature journals for our hike. I won’t mention the dead yellow-rumped warbler. 🙁  One girl pokes it with a stick. Something is not officially dead until it’s poked with a stick.

A while back, I email Tina the Trainer and ask her what wildflowers we’ll spot on the CME trails. She sends back a list, and we have them listed in our nature journals for a visual scavenger hunt. After a little bit of wandering, we find the main trail and discover many of the wildflowers. At the end of the hike, we see a water snake in the stream sunning itself on a log! What kind of snake is it? It’s not in my snake guide! I looked it up later, and I think it’s either a 3 banded water snake or a northern water snake.

We end the hike with a Scout’s Own ceremony on the flat rock next to the Lodge and our campsite. I ask each girl to name their favorite part of the camping trip and something they learned. Part of the reason I ask these questions are for the girls to reflect back on the weekend, and I also like to find out what they enjoyed and get their feedback. One girl (the one that poked the dead bird with a stick) says that her favorite part was that instead of going swimming or playing around the neighborhood with friends during spring break, she got to spend time with her Girl Scout troop and got to know new people.

This makes every ache, every lost hour of sleep, every hour of planning, and every worry about whether I have things right and if I’ve forgotten everything worth it. This is what Girl Scouts is all about.  WIN!

And note to self: Stop worrying so much and enjoy the ride.