Gills Go Camping - Well, Sorta

Today Caroline, Grant, Sam, and I joined Gary and Jack at Scout Camp north of Alton. It was the most beautiful fall day. Unbelieveable for November it seemed, with gorgeous sunshine and temperatures in the high 60's. Perfect except we could have done without the pesty Asian lady beetles. You all are familiar with their pinchy bites and stinkiness. But that was the only imperfect part of the day and that was pretty minor.

The Boy Scouts left Glen Carbon last night and set up their camp. They built this rope bridge they called the monkey bridge this morning before the family members came. The bottom rope looks familiar? Well, it should. It was a section from Joe's giantic spool of rope! Thanks, Joe. You provided us with loads of fun.

They call it a monkey bridge, huh? Wonder why?

The monkeys had big fun on it throughout the afternoon. And yes, I did it, too. Once. It wasn't that bad but the taller you are, the trickier it is. It is a darn shame I wasn't hanging around with my camera when Matt Vance, Gary's former boss and still friend, made his trip across. Picture a tall, tall guy of 6'5 cruising across when something goes terribly wrong, I suppose like his center of gravity shifting, and then what was described as him falling without hitting the ground because both feet were suspended, hung up in the ropes.

I had just walked away not even five minutes before. Why is life like that? Come on, I have a blog to fill! And you know I like to go with the humor stuff.

And then there's this biggest monkey of all. Can't you just see the enjoyment across his face? This was a side rope off another couple of trees.

Here's Gary giving Sam some monkey tips. Like he needs them.

And then along came Jack. He spent so much of the day tromping all through the woods. I was amazed just how deep the leaves were.

There were huge sinkholes in these woods that the kids called "the pits." You all already know I am no good with numbers and, boy, I wish I were so I could tell you how deep they were. I am ok with house dimensions, though, and will say they were as deep as a two-story house. And that's to what you think is the bottom. Let me just say Sam was making more than one person around us nervous.

Did I already mention what a perfect weather day it was?

See Sam's stick. Finally he gave up on carrying around the 6-feet branches and traded for a manageable stick. Thank goodness. Even so, it kept on causing problems like blocking Caroline and my picture-taking.

Next try.

When is this hair ever gonna grow out? Ms. Shorty McShort. Photo by Caroline.

This is Gary's tent set-up. Yes, you see a Marine Corps flag and US flag. He fashioned this shade thing from the rainfly of my old dome tent. It was ok, if you were Sam's height.



Here's Jack with his scout tent. There are two boys to a tent and they are set up in rows, all alike. They have numbers on them, otherwise, I don't know how anyone would know whose is whose.

For supper, the scouts dressed in their uniforms and we walked to the camp's lodge for a super nice meal. A Thanksgiving feast complete with pies. Peach, blueberry, pumpkin, cherry. Maybe more! I should have taken a picture of that spread. So impressive! The boys worked at setting up for the meal and decorating, but it was some of the moms that were the ones cooking all day. That meal was so good.

Here's part of the bunch after the feast. This is about 7:00 p.m. after a full, busy day and moods and energy levels are crashing.

But what a fun day! No one wanted to leave. All three kids were begging to stay all night with Jack and Gary, but we really hadn't planned for it so they had to come back home.

But I think we might just make an attempt soon to go camping as a family. I just want to put in my order for the exact same weather, minus those lady bugs.