The Chronicles of Corey: Scout Camp

Recently I was fortunate enough to accompany my old scout troop to scout camp. By "fortunate enough" I mean that I still don't have a job and I had nothing else to do for those three days, so what they hay, right? In all seriousness, it was a blast. It is sad to see the degeneration in the youth of America right before your eyes. It has been 10 years since I turned 18 and, thus, put an end to my own scouting career. Yes, 10 years is a long time, but when I was in scouts we acted in a much different manner than my current successors. For instance, my first scout camp included an small organization that was founded the week of scout camp and seemed to have disbanded during the car trip home. This organization was called "The Billy Club." Well, you can guess what the requirements for entering this club were. You had to make your very own billy club and give it a unique name. My club was dubbed "El Billy." It would take time to relate to you all the mischievous deeds brought about with said clubs by said Club, but suffice it to say that the tent posts of many other troops seemed to have mysteriously broken right in two during the night. Long story short, our leaders had pretty much no idea where we were until it was time for a meal. The kids that I was out with this past week however...it was like pulling teeth to get these kids to do anything. I was technically one of the "leaders" but I was actually recommeding that they play with fire. When I was a scout we had an eight foot high bonfire every night. These kids sat around and watched me play with the fire. I actually said to them, "You all have knives. Surely you can think of SOMETHING to do!" Wink, Wink. But, no. We brought a football. It took me ten minutes to get these kids to come play catch with me, and when we got over to the field none of them would run to catch the effin' ball! We ended up playing 500. I must have thrown that stupid ball 30 times, and it was caught a total of 3 times. I wanted to vomit.

Anyway, having vented on the delapidated state of the future of our country...here are some of the high points of the trip.

We went to Giant City State Park in Carbondale, IL. I was pleasantly surprised at what we found there. Lots of cool rock formations and some pretty decent (albeit short and novice) hiking trails. We also went to Garden of the Gods in Shawnee National Forest just outside of Marion, IL. That place was just amazing (See Pics). If you've ever seen The Last of the Mohicans (good movie, though nothing like the book) Garden of the Gods is like the cliffs in the closing fights scenes. Amazing. Even more amazing is that it is in Illinois. On the last full day we were going to take the boys to do some easy climbing, but when we got to the cliffs there were these two guys that had all their repelling equipment set up. They were waiting for another youth group to come and offered to teach us in the mean time. It was awesome. The cliffs were maybe 60 feet high and all the boys (who had the guts, or who were not content with repelling vicariously through their World of Warcraft avitars) got to do it. I did it as well, and I am still nursing the big infected cut which resulted from a disadvantageous encounter between my leg and the rock face. It was awesome.

All in all, a good trip. And I look forward to hopefully helping these boys gain an appreciation for the wonderous Earth we have been given. Enjoy the photos.