An Excerpt from our Summer Updates!
Friday, June 30, 2006
Every night, camp director Gordon Strayhorn updates camp families with musings about the day in addition to hundreds of pictures of campers having a blast. This is an excerpt from his posting on June 29th, 2006.
It is rather late and I want to get these pictures out to cyberspace for you night owls, so I am going to post a short update tonight and finish it up in the morning. The reason for the late post is somewhat humerous as I just got back from Sliding Rock with all of Hillbrook, which includes some pretty young campers here for the Mini 1 session. They were by far the slowest moving group I've taken to the Rock in a long time! It wasn't slow in a bad way...a couple would stop to sniff a dandelion on the way down the hill to the buses. Another couple boarded the bus and then decided they just couldn't wait to go the the bathroom. There were groups arm in arm singing songs to the bus, from the bus, down the rock. We just took our time...there's really no reason to get in a rush...watching this group painted a true illustration of the old adage: "stop and smell the flowers!"
Our opening day rain really helped to bring up the levels in area lakes and streams. Sliding Rock was much more fun as a result. More of the rock was covered with water, and the ride was a bit faster. We had quite a crew! Dolly was waiting for us with extra staffers ready to scoop...the favorite flavor was...(you guessed it)...Illahee Swirl, an amazing concoction of Moose Tracks and Cookie Dough. Though there are other camp flavors out there (and some pretty good ones), Illahee Swirl was the original camp flavor, and still one of the most popular according to Dolly (not that I'm competitive at all).
It's hard to believe that we are scooting through this week. There are markers in my summer, and one occurred yesterday as I snuck away from camp in the morning to head down to South Carolina for my annual fireworks purchase for the Fourth. I have been buying from the same family for years, and they always help me put on a fantastic show. This year will be no exception. I go to South Carolina because the North Carolina offerings are pretty pitiful. I remember the first year I discovered this...many moons ago. I arranged for the local fire department to be here with their trucks at the ready, told some local families so they could come and enjoy, and gathered the campers and staff around the lake where we were shooting them. IT was a giant fizzle. All of the fireworks would spray out of the tubes, none higher than 2-3 feet! So, it's the memory of that first show and a matter of pride that I make the annual trek south with my wad of cash to assemble the BEST show for campers around!
The weather today was amazing, again, and it looks like tomorrow will be the same. Activities are in full swing, happy campers abound, and I am looking forward to another GREAT day in the Heavenly World! Sleep well. Gordon.
