Letter From Camp

 

Dear Mom,

Scoutmaster Ted told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and got worried.

We are okay.  Only one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away.  Luckily, none of us got caught in the flood or drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Adam when it happened.

Oh, please call Adam's mother and tell her he is okay too.  He can't write because of the cast.  I got to ride in one of the search and rescue Jeeps.  It was really great.  We never would have found Adam in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning.

Scoutmaster Ted yelled at Adam for going on a hike alone without telling anyone.  Adam said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him.  Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas will blow up?  The wet wood didn't burn, but one of the tents did and also some of our clothes.  Matt is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Ted gets the bus fixed.  It wasn't his fault about the crash.  The brakes seemed to work okay when we left.  Scoutmaster Ted said that with a bus that old, you have to expect something to break down.  He says that's probably why he can't get insurance.  We think it's a super bus.  He doesn't care if we get it dirty, and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the bumpers.  He has to spend a lot of time working on the bus so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

It gets pretty hot with 45 people in a bus made for 24.  He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the policeman stopped and talked to us.  Scoutmaster Ted is a neat guy.  Don't worry, he is a good driver.  In fact, he is teaching Horace how to drive on the mountain roads where there aren't any cops.  All we ever see up there are huge logging trucks.  We saw where one went over the edge, but we could barely see it at the bottom.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out to the rapids.  Scoutmaster Ted wouldn't let me because I can't swim, and Adam was afraid he would sink because of his cast.  It's concrete because we didn't have any plaster.  So he let us take the canoe out.  It was a lot of fun.  You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood.  Scoutmaster Ted isn't crabby like some scoutmasters.  He didn't even get mad about the life jackets we probably should have put on.  But they may have also disappeard in the flood.

Guess what?  We have all passed our first aid merit badges.  When Andrew dived into the lake and cut his arm, we all got to see how a tourniquet works.  Steve and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Ted said it was probably just from the left-over chicken.  He said they got sick that way with food they ate in prison.  I'm so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster.  He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time.  By the way, what is a pedal-file?

I have to go now. We are going to town to mail our letters and buy some more beer for Scoutmaster Ted and ammo for target practice.  Don't worry about anything.  We are fine, all the water from the flood has gone down some now, and tonight it's my turn to sleep in the Scoutmaster's tent.

See you Saturday.  Or maybe Sunday.