Tomorrow is . . . .

TRIP DAY!!! One of my more fun duties is making special announcements in the dining hall, like birthdays, etc.  Which, by the way, we celebrate in style with a yellow cake and chocolate/almond icing (that is to die for) in the shape of a pine tree.  The whole dining hall sings out loud twice, led by our famous birthday monkeys, carried by our slightly less famous head counselors.  You also get a fun Alpine gift, this year a camo flashlight with Alpine on it.  It’s good to have a birthday while you’re at Alpine.

Anyway, today I took the mic and announced that tomorrow morning bright and early chartered buses would be rolling into camp for Trip Day!  The dining hall exploded with cheers and screams.  It’s a highlight of the term.  Tonight after dinner each age group gathered in a designated spot to go over their particular trip, what to bring, etc.  This post will be a bit short because there is much to do.  We’ll be gone all day, getting back pretty late tomorrow night so I’ll look forward to giving you a complete rundown on Friday.

Now campers are out enjoying a night game with their age group before an early bedtime in the next few minutes.  Reveille tomorrow morning is at 6:30, breakfast at 7 before we load those buses.  Nurses will be offering dramamine at breakfast for any boys that get motion sick on a bus.  And of course all the emergency meds like inhalers will be packed and available. I’ll also mention that these trips are included in your tuition for camp so everything is paid for in advance by Alpine. They won’t need any spending money for anything.  Counselors will have some extra money for any unexpected expenses.

Almost every group will take a sack lunch chicken sandwich and chips and then enjoy either pizza or fast food burger for dinner.  Out of camp that’s not a big deal.  But when you haven’t been in the “real world” in sometime they become real big deals!

Two quick stories.  At lunch a Hunter came up to our table to tell us about his special dessert.  He and his cabin, with counselors had picked some blackberries around camp during some cabin free time.  Having harvested these treats there was only one thing to do.  Take them to Mrs. Gail.  So today at lunch Mrs. Gail made their table a special blackberry cobbler.  She and her mom have been doing this for years for boys who pick blackberries or blueberries.  I guess we were farm to table way before it was cool!

This hunter also wanted us to know that in a few weeks there would be enough blackberries ripe to feed the entire camp for 3 whole days!  He was very excited about his discovery. By the way, lunch was a favorite today.  Chicken fingers with Shazam sauce, butter beans, mashed potatoes, and homemade silver dollar biscuits.

At dinner a Warrior proudly told me that he “hit it in the trash can” at golf.  To make it fun and “campy” we put some metal trash cans out on our driving range at various distances.  They make for great targets.  And it’s very gratifying to hear the ping upon hitting it - which is really hard I’ll say.  I asked him if he’d played golf before and he said no.  He was so pumped to be learning and must be making good progress.

Part of “growing in stature”, one of our goals from Luke 2, is gaining confidence as you grow by learning new skills.  We hope you’ll see that when the boys come home.

Thanks for reading and good night,

Glenn