the big adventure
Tomorrow we step off on the big adventure. We’ve been planning, arranging, and discussing this for over two years. We have a budget of $215,790 not including proceeds from the sales of patches, t-shirts, hats, bookpacks, etc. We have three fifty-plus passenger motor coaches. We have motel rooms in Knoxville, Kentucky and Washington, D.C. for six nights. We have 107 boys between the ages of 13 and 17, with a real steep frequency curve sloping down, away from the younger boys. We have three young men between 18 and 21 and nine adults. There are 119 of us.
We have shipped 62 tents, 135 cots (always need a couple extras), 12 patrol cook boxes, 15 eight-foot tables, 15 dining flys, 300 pounds of tent pegs, well over 600 pieces of aluminum tent poles, 24 two-burner propane stoves, 120 five gallon buckets (to sit on) assorted tools and other camping paraphernalia. Enough equipment to fill a box nine feet wide, ten feet high, and 15 feet long, packed tight.
We’ll spend two days on the road, tour D.C. and environs for three days, camp for nine nights, and spend another two days on the road before we get home. 39,881 other intrepid souls will embark on a similar journey and be our neighbors while camping. Some of the kids we’re taking don’t live in town that large.
That’s the Plan. Execution will follow the plan until events force us to develop and implement Plan B. We don’t know what Plan B is right now, and won’t know what it is until “events” dictate. Before we get back there may well be a Plan C, D, E, etc. One year we did this and got into Plan B before we were 150 miles out of town. After all, it’s the progression through the various machinations of hastily tacked together versions of the Plan that makes life exciting.
So, that’s all for a while. Upon our return and my hopefully successful effort at getting some rest and massaging my mush of a brain back into useful condition I’ll fill you in on the events to come.
We have shipped 62 tents, 135 cots (always need a couple extras), 12 patrol cook boxes, 15 eight-foot tables, 15 dining flys, 300 pounds of tent pegs, well over 600 pieces of aluminum tent poles, 24 two-burner propane stoves, 120 five gallon buckets (to sit on) assorted tools and other camping paraphernalia. Enough equipment to fill a box nine feet wide, ten feet high, and 15 feet long, packed tight.
We’ll spend two days on the road, tour D.C. and environs for three days, camp for nine nights, and spend another two days on the road before we get home. 39,881 other intrepid souls will embark on a similar journey and be our neighbors while camping. Some of the kids we’re taking don’t live in town that large.
That’s the Plan. Execution will follow the plan until events force us to develop and implement Plan B. We don’t know what Plan B is right now, and won’t know what it is until “events” dictate. Before we get back there may well be a Plan C, D, E, etc. One year we did this and got into Plan B before we were 150 miles out of town. After all, it’s the progression through the various machinations of hastily tacked together versions of the Plan that makes life exciting.
So, that’s all for a while. Upon our return and my hopefully successful effort at getting some rest and massaging my mush of a brain back into useful condition I’ll fill you in on the events to come.
posted by steve | 10:40 AM
2 Comments:
I always loved the moment when plan B had to be activated - the fun began!!
This is the first time someone has described their "vacation" and I haven't been slightly jealous. I thought you've been gone this whole time with Mowgli at Nancy's, but alas you were just preparing for wagons-ho to the East. Good luck. We'll be right here when you get back. Sorry we can't come along. I hear my mother calling me for dinner.
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