Back from Goshen (long)

Hi all,

My, things have been busy since I left for Goshen. Came back this
morning and found 250 new messages in my in-box, to the chagrin of my
internet provider, who told me to delete some pronto or I'd get put on a
disk quota. I forgot to go to "digest," or no mail for the several days
I was gone.

First, thanks a million for the lyrics to "Green Grow the Rushes O'er."
I sang this song a lot as a scout lo these 35 years ago, and it was
always one of my favorites. Thanks for the great memory flashbacks.
I've saved a set of the lyrics and will be sure and have my cub pack do
it this year.

Now--on to my main reason for posting. Goshen was great! This was the
last week of camp, and my cubs were in the overflow week, and thus at
Camp Marriott, usually a boy scout camp, instead of PMI or Ross, the
usual Webelos camps.

I like the overflow week better. More flexibility, for one thing--it's
sort of a hybrid between cub camp, where pretty much everything is
programmed, and scout camp, where the boys have more flexibility. Anyway,
it was a lot of fun, and the boys went from being a little homesick on
Monday and Tuesday to this morning, when one of them was actually heard
to say he was sorry it was over, and didn't want to go home. Music to my
ears, lemme tell you.

Also--bragging mode on--our pack was chosen as the "pack of the week" for
having the highest scores on the daily inspection for the week. We
received a leather streamer for our pack flag, and one actually goes on
the Marriott oar, the totem for the troop (pack) of the week each year.
We are also the first pack ever to get such an award at Marriott.
Anyway, I couldn't be prouder of the boys...they can't wait until our
first pack meeting in September, when they'll get to come forward to put
the streamer on the pack flag.

Several of us NCAC'ers have been talking about Goshen waterfront
conditions off and on all summer. Well, this was the last week of camp
for this summer, but for what it's worth, there is acquatics at
Marriott, but not at Ross or PMI. Ross goes down the lake to Olmstead,
and PMI either goes there or to Swinging Bridge, where they swim (wade,
actually) in the Maury river. There was a whole passle of kids there
Friday morning.

I am told that the lake may take as long as a year to fill, since the
local officials don't want to impede the flow of the Little Calfpasture;
therefore, the dam can't be completely closed as that would cut off the
Little Calfpasture.

One other thing--my four cubbies actually climbed not only to Viewing
Rock, but to Jump Rock as well, another 700 feet up and a mile and a half
further along. A total of six miles. They all agreed that the views
were awesome, though, and the camp staff was pretty impressed, as no
other cub pack that week had done it. I'll tell you one thing--the
cubs whined a whole lot less than my Lenhok'sin crew did on exactly the
same hike six weeks earlier!

Anyway, enough. The boys did great, Goshen is a wonderful camp, and the
staff is really fantastic. You folks from out of council looking for a
fine week at camp could do a whole lot worse than Goshen!

Later.

Pete Farnham
SM, Troop 113
Alexandria, VA
pfarnham@capaccess.org

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