Adventures at Rodney Scout Reservation

Welcome to Rodney!

Hey look a refrigerator!!

This has become the phrase of the week. Yesterday during the first scoutmaster talk I was constantly being interrupted (go figure) then one of them says hey look a refrigerator! I gave him a look and he said no really a fridge! Camp staff was delivering a fridge for our cabin. So now every time I start talking, if it takes too long for their liking I get "hey look a refrigerator" to stop me (I guess I am to long winded for them).

We have a fantastic site with a great view of the bay.

Head Honcho's Spot

Chesapeake bay

We have spotted a Bald Eagle several times so far.

Our guardian angle for the week. (not that it helped Zach)

The weather has been hot during the day but cooled off nicely at night, we get a nice breeze off the bay too.

Home for the week

The typical canvas platform tent is home for the week; complete with tarps on the floor (The kids' attempt to keep bugs out??).  Mosquito netting adorns many a cot.

Rodney is full of "bugs" and insects of all varieties.  Some beautiful, some not so much.

Of course there are many other creatures about.  Frankie heads off into the night in search of a broom and comes back instead with shovel and a surprise:

What summer camp would be complete without a fire?  How many matches did it take?

So far we have had to break into first aid kit twice. The first at 7am (Zach) the second Nick (both MY sons). The last was Brian thinking he was Paul Bunyon, trying to knock down a tree. After a trip to the hospital to check his shoulder he returned a little soar but OK!

 We have had some guys go to the wrong MB to start the day and one missed his second MB all together (still haven't figured that out yet!). We have had to change some MB courses too, several guys weren't aloud to take motor boating MB without a license! I thought one of the reasons they offer it was to earn their license!!

Quote of the day: Naveen to Zach after he fell off the bike. "Ok on a scale of 1 to Justin Bieber how much pain are you in"? Zach's response, "about a Jonas Brothers"

Day 2

Day 2 ended up being a good day. Nobody got hurt (thats a good thing) everybody got to where they are supposed to also. Our Eagle has returned again to perch in her/his tree. The weather was REALLY hot again but we survived.

woodcarving MB

                                             

Chow line

We had our first fire tonight! Still not sure why, it's still hot!  

Day 3

Day 3 started out normal. Eggs, bacon and French toast. The food here has been very good so far. Had subs & chips for lunch. Watched at the climbing tower for an hour or so today.

Paul is off to do the mile swim, with Michael & Cameron in his chase canoe. Paul is the little spec in the water behind the canoe. We were able to watch from our site and cheer him on. He finished about 10 minutes ahead of anybody else!!

Then it's camp wide games for the camp (if I can talk them into going). It's still pretty hot. Everyone is on track to earn their MB so far, and no bandages today so far!!

One that has struck me so far in camp which epitomizes the true meaning of Scouting. When Brian was returning from the hospital I asked for 2 volunteers to go meet them with a light so they could see coming back to camp. A couple of the guys suggested they all go to meet him and off they went to welcome him back. The same thing when Paul was doing his 1 mile swim. We all were cheering for him from the bluff and they ALL went to congratulate him when he got out of the water.

"The garage". The past 2 nights we have been storing the bikes in the trailer because of the weather report. Good thing the trailer is so big! So far no rain and plenty of heat, with a low of 79 tonight. We have a nice breeze going now, hope it lasts awhile.

Day 4

Well day 4 started out with heavy dew, real heavy dew in the form of about 1" of rain! We ate in the cabin for the first time this morning.

The video clip is not that good but you can here what we sat through waiting for the rain! The rain stopped about 20 minutes after program started so everyone got wet walking (I wouldn't let them ride in the rain). It is nice now and hopefully it will stay that way. We cook in site tonight and have ordered pizza as a late snack for the guys (also a fund raiser for the local crew).

Lunch quote " look they have Heinz mustard and Hunts ketchup! whats up with that"?

Hope to get more pics this afternoon.

Real men wear kilts! er Kayak skirts.

Kayaking and snorkeling classes.

Batten down the hatches! getting ready for another round of rain. We have to figure out how we are going to cook 50 hot dogs. "be prepared".

OK rain never did get real bad, we ended up boiling some dogs while waiting for the fire, then grilled some too. Turned out OK. Time to make shmores, then pizza (hey they decided on that schedule not me!)

Day 5

Day 5 saw a little rain first thing and our first stinker meal of the week. Lunch was good. they make good use of leftovers for the most part. We had BBQ chicken on sub rolls. Unfortunately it has been raining for the past 1-1/2 hours. Look like it will last the rest of the afternoon too.

some more pics from this morning.

Our Kayaker's (is that a word?) spent their lunch hour paddling to the State Park south of camp and had lunch then paddled back. About a 3 mile round trip.

Myself and 3 members of the Angry Beaver patrol spent about an hour and a half trying to get one of the Mom's that came to pick up a scout out of the mud. She took a wrong turn and got stuck while trying to turn around. We have had a lot of rain the past 2 days, about 1-1/2" total so everything is muddy.

Dinner at the Dining Hall tonight, going to have to force them in to their uniforms. Then closing campfire.

Pack up in the morning, closing ceremony at 8:45am so I hope to be out of here by 11am at the latest. it was a 2-1/4 hour trip down so hopefully the same going back. So if your picking up your son be at Stop & Shop at 1pm.

Dressed for the closing campfire

It's been a fantastic week. Everyone completed their Merit Badges (minus 1 partial) with a total of 23 different Merit Badges  and 3 other courses taken. A lot of miles walked and ridden. This is a very large camp!

One last thing, Alex sketched this Friday