Youth that showed interest were Amanda, Jennifer, James W., James S., Nate, and Dustin. Adults that showed interest were Bob, Kent, and myself.
We made plans to meet at my house on Friday, 1/10 between 4:15 and 4:30 to leave Melbourne by 5:00 for a 2 hour drive. Nate was not able to join us due to a work conflict. Everyone else was late - including myself! :-) Kent had volunteered to drive but a busted freeze plug on Thursday caused a need for a quick change of plans. We decided to take both our truck and our van in order to get everyone there.
We headed out of town around 5:30. It was an uneventful trip up 95 to 44 to 42. We arrived at camp around 7:15. Amanda and James S have been here before and they directed us to the mess hall where we signed in and got camping information. The youth were supposed to be back by 8:00 for their first session. We were told that snacks would be served after the youth session around 9:30. The Venture groups were to use campsites 14, 15, and 16 so we ventured out and found them. We decided on site 16 and found that we were sharing it with another crew.
La-No-Chee has 2 man tents with cots already essembled on the sites. Our site had about 18 tents, a pavilion, a bathroom with showers, and a scout master's hut - complete with matress bunks and electricity. The Venture Crew leader from the other group claimed the hut and setup his space heater - wuss!
We quickly unloaded our gear and then headed back to the mess hall for the youth session. It looked like there were about 10 Crew represented. Their first session had to do with defining each Crew's mission statement. Our group came up with a good one. We'll be printing it in our new book of By-Laws. I don't have the exact wording with me, so I'm not even going to try to write it up here. But basically it has to do with building safe and ecologically consious divers by diving at least once a month under the direct supervision of dive professionals - and to have FUN!
9:30 and no snacks. Oh well. We headed back to camp and unpacked our gear. Bobby and Kent made a roaring fire while the kids played cards at the pavilion. Order of the Arrow was having their Ordeal weekend (initiation) and there were lots of folks milling around the woods. Unfortunately, some of these kids thought it was funny to scare the begeebers out of other campers by jumping out at them and chasing them as they walked the trails. Not funny!
We got to bed late - 2:30 AM - and got up early - 6:30 AM. yawn....
We headed to the mess hall for breakfast. Powdered eggs made with waaaaaaay too much water, a strip of overly cooked bacon, grits, and a biscuit. I ate the biscuit. Everything else was, in my opionon, unedible. I'm not a coffee drinker, but Bobby said that it, too, was not palletable. I think he used the term, warm muddy water.
Kent, Bobby, and I attended the Venturing Leaders Essentials training. Ron Gagne was the organizer of the event and was a bit taken back when he entered the room at 8:15 to inform us all that the guy who was supposed to do our training had backed out due to illness. Ron quickly found a replacement and by 9:00 we were back on track. We were joined by a Sea Scout advisor, a District Executive, and a new Crew leader. After the Essentials training, we were joined by 2 other Crew leaders - one from another Scuba Crew.
We broke for lunch around noon. This consisted of a hamburger bun with a tiny little bit of ground beef on it. We all used ketchup packets and salt to make it at least edible. We were also served limp soggy french fries, and canned peaches. A salad bar was also setup - which actually wasn't bad.
Our training included youth protection, Venturing advancement, uniforms, BSA structure, chain of command, conducting reflections, how to do planning, available resources, etc. We also did the infamous human knot and got untangled in record time. So Ron had us all turn with our backs to the center to try to make it more difficult before grabbing hands. Again, record time. We were just too good!
We found out from our kids that they took second place in a problem solving exercise. Way to go, guys!
Training was done around 5:00 and was followed by dinner. Chicken fried steak (very small, but tasty), gross peas, bland rice, and peach cobler made from the leftover canned peaches. The salad bar was again essembled.
After dinner, they had an awards ceremony were everyone got a card that showed that they had completed the training.
We polled the kids and they decided to stay another night. It had been cold on Friday night, but not cold enough to chase us home. Bobby and the kids went hunting for firewood and came back with a truck full! Bon-Fire!!!!!!!
We got to sleep earlier on Saturday (around midnight) and were up around 7:30. We took our time packing up and headed out of camp around 10:00. We went strainght to the Cow Place restaurant in Orange City to get some REAL food!
We got back to Melbourne around 1:30 PM. Overall, it was a fun weekend. I think the kids learned a lot. Our training, however, was more of a reinforcement of OTJ training that we've all been getting from Dave over the past 6 years - but now we are all 'card carrying' trained Venture leaders.
Cost for this trip was $20. Bobby and I donated our vehicles and gas. John Choate donated a bunch of soda and water left over from a park party that his sound production crew put on 2 weekends ago at Rotory Park. Thanks John!
Our next meeting is 1/21. We'll be planning our 1/25 Blue Springs dive.
For those going on the Keys trip during Spring Break, don't forget your payment. We still have a couple of spots left. Cost for divers is $500. Non-divers/snorklers are $300. This is all inclusive. It includes transportation, camping, food, 4 2 tank boat dives (including the Speigle Grove, another wreck, Christ of the Deep, and Captain Slate's Friday Creature Feature Feeding), Pennekamp swim area dives, air, gear, and a full day in Key West where we'll be doing the Conch Train Tour, the Aquarium, Mel Fisher's Treasure Museum, and the Shipwreck Museum. We'll have dinner in Key West and enjoy the sunset at Mallory Square before returning to camp (all of this is included in the cost of the trip!). Dave and I are going to be teaching a number of classes during the week including Advanced, Rescue, Fish ID Specialty, Bouyancy Specialty, and Nitrox Specialty. If you want to take any of these classes, you will need to attend the academic portion of the class prior to the trip. If working on Advanced, you will need to get a book (cost $30), read the applicable chapters, and complete the chapter knowledge reviews prior to the trip. The savings in the costs of the classes is well over the $500 cost of the trip considering each class retails for at least $200. The only class that has Advanced as a pre-requisit is Rescue. All of the other classes are available to Open Water divers.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily