The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow!

Dear Parents & Friends,

A sunny afternoon made everyone’s day here at camp.  It rained this morning during breakfast and then just stopped before lunch.   By 10:30 the temps began to rise and so did the activity level.  We had a wonderful breakfast with eggs, ham, grapes, pineapple, OJ and cereal.  Tonight’s dinner was meatloaf, mashed potatoes and salad with cornbread and green beans.  Mealtimes are great at camp because we really do sit at the table and converse.  Everyone at our table chips in and campers at the table do their share as well.  There’s lot of please and thank you’s and in a room with 350 people one needs to keep things orderly and tidy as best we can.  There’s hardly a meal goes by that someone doesn’t turn over a drink or drop their silverware.  And that’s an all for one moment when everyone tosses their napkin into the spilled liquid and the spiller retrieves a towel or more napkins.  No one fusses or cries over spilled milk we just clean it up, continue our conversation and keep eating.

I hope you are enjoying the photos each day as it hopefully provides a glimpse of our day here at camp.

Mountainside chose their activities tonight and Thurs. they leave on those adventures.  I was just talking with Katie, their Head Counselor about the rivers they will run.  We’ll have a practice lake section again tomorrow or the next day with them to solidify their flatwater skills and then off to the river on Thurs.  Mountainside climbers will climb one day at Looking Glass, one day at Cedar Rock and maybe one day at Cove Creek.  Bikers will spend their adventure on the more than 100 miles of trails at Dupont State Park and Pioneers will travel for an overnight up into the Shining Rock Wilderness Area near the Blue Ridge Parkway, where elevations reach over 6000’.  We had to switch Riverside’s schedule this week because of weather, so they are paddling this week and will climb next week.  Today they ran the Green River which flows out of Cedar Mountain just above camp.  Everyone did a great job and I think some pictures will be up tomorrow with shots of their river trip from today.   There’s never a dull moment at camp and tonight at campfire we had international day.  Several countries were celebrated tonight including England, Poland, Brazil, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia.  We have staff from every one of those countries and more.  There were skits, songs and dancing.  Leo from Brazil always leads us in one of the children’s dances they perform at Mardi Gras.  It’s a camp favorite and we do it every year.

We have quite a few musicians at camp this session, some of whom performed at our Sunday Service.  Hopefully some will repeat or perform anew at our Friendship Campfire on Thurs. night.  But, whoa and slow down because that’s the last night of the session and we’re having way too good a time to think about the end.  Stay tuned for more between now and then.