I woke up to bad weather today, but thankfully the storms moved out of the way and it turned out to be a really good day.
Phil, Todd, and I drove up to Taylor Christian Camp today. We’re having our Spring Retreat out there in May. Phil had never been out there before and wanted to check the place out.
We ate at the Colonial House in Scottsville for lunch. Unfortunately they had discontinued their all you can eat buffet, so we paid for each item individually. Mine came to $5.11….chicken leg, mac and cheese, and banana pudding. And Sunkist. Can never forget the Sunkist. I think its in cohoots with RC or something.
Anyways we made it out to camp. There were a couple of workmen out there putting the last of the $86,000 improvements to it. (Did I hear that right? That dollar figure seems a bit high). The basement part of the dining cabin has been completely redone. Still waiting to get them to put in the doors. Otherwise it is looking really good. The outside of the dining cabin was sandblasted or something. Made it look brand new. Excellent.
I also found out there’s gonna be a bigger and better waterslide at the top of the hill by the boys’ cabins. It’s gonna be permanent in nature. Should be ready by summer camp. I’m already looking forward to it.
There were still remnants of the old red stained cabins in the girls’ part. So they still haven’t replaced all of them yet. After 10 years they’re still around.
We did walk down to the creek. It was good we had walked or Phil’s car might have gotten stuck in the mud. Quite a muddy walk. I tried to stay in the non-muddy grassy knoll area. But it was no use with the thornbushes.
Anyways down at the creek Todd suddenly got the crazy notion to go swimming just to test out the water. Phil got the same crazy idea. Call it peer pressure.
It was later on when I noticed the big giant tree which held the rope had fell down (the tree, not the rope). So that’s a big bummer. Phil and Todd were there to offer comfort…send sympathy cards and all that. Anyways I’m sorta kinda wondering if I should make note of the problem, buy some extra strong rope from the Home Depot and put it up there. The only thing is that I’m not good at climbing trees and tying ropes. Plus I’d feel really bad if the rope broke and some kid was seriously injured by it. We’re looking into contengency plans. I really want that rope back.
All the while Phil kept copious notes on the small Kmart film receipt I had given to him. How many bunks per cabin…. How many showers…. How many times it took to flush the toliets…. Where to find plungers…. Stuff like that. Then there’s some graffiti left by David Fleming in cabin 6….etc. Plus I saw a bunch of pecular graffiti in one of the girls cabins. Friends, if you are going to vandalize church camp stuff, be sure to leave out what church you’re from on the written graffiti. My admiration for a certain church dropped significantly after seeing that. I feel like anonymously emailing pictures of it to people who’d care.
Anyways it was a good trip except for one little accident afterwards. But that’s just water under the bridge and we’re just not going to talk about that on here.
So the trip brings back great memories. It was sorta interesting to see Todd’s reaction to all of this. This was his first time back since his camp days of June 1995 when he was 12 or something. Todd said that going into the big girls cabin must have been the highlight of his trip. Could it be? Did he really think about girls way back in ’95? From being cleanest cabin judge for the camp, I had already been to all of the cabins before. So none of it was exactly earth shattering to me.
Then again the camp seemed a bit empty without everyone there. Maybe that’s what makes camp. The rest is just empty environments.
But the visit made me remember how good camp can be. So many souls have been touched. So many songs have been sung. So many pranks which were pulled. So many new friendships made. So many old friendships rekindled. Through that camp my circle of friends has grown so much. I know people from all over that area. And still keep in contact with many of them.