Daniel's Summer Blog

Airport Day dawns bright and early. That is only in theory of course. I am up far before dawn, preparing to go down to breakfast which will be served at roughly 5:30 AM. They say it’s darkest before dawn. I know this to be true. When I exit my room, I find a small wet hand-written note saying that the members of luggage staff going down in the UHaul will not be departing until 7:00 AM. I look at the note, grimace and head down to breakfast, knowing that if I try to capitalize on this and go back to sleep I will probably not wake up until the next day. Breakfast consists of the usual biscuits and fake sausage coins which no one can stomach more than one of at this early hour. I take roll, discover everyone is present, then roll is taken again just to be sure and everyone but me gets on the bus.

The airport goes about as smoothly as usual, there is one flight from Ft. Lauderdale with 64 campers on it, each with 2 bags, which make for quite a hassle when you are trying to get them to ID their bags and then leave for the atrium. As usual, the cops did not even blink at the UHaul loitering by the airport (we got it cleared ahead of time) but the people working in the area of the baggage claim gave me grief about not having two perfect lines of bags on the floor, threatening me with fire marshals and then disappearing magically when I tell them I am working on it.

The bus ride home (two dozen counselors, no campers to get stuck in the bathroom this year) is interesting for about 10 minutes when we drive through a massive hailstorm which makes it sound like someone is pumping the bus full of lead. Penny-sized hail falls over much of the county, making for small white piles of ice that quickly melt when the sun comes out.

The first week of camp goes as planned, without any major disasters. Emphasis on major. We had our first night climb on Never-Never Land, on a Saturday night no less. Fun, but I found a frog in my helmet once I had gotten up on the first platform. After I ripped my helmet off (I thought it was a huge insect of the cockroach order) it jumped right out, and glad to be off my smelly head, then base-jumped 15 feet off the platform. You just can't make this stuff up.

I took a picture of the Odyssey, but of course forgot to put it on the computer, so use Google/your imagination until next time.