Fill 'Er Up!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
I can't help but smile as I read the title of this post. I am, of course, referring to the picture to the right, but the irony does not escape me. Almost immediately after camp ended last month, we opened the old rusty drain for the swim lake and let all of the water out. More on that in a minute. The irony, at least for a number of us in the Southeast, is that we have not been able to "fill 'er up" for the last twelve days or so, since Ike made his debut on the Texas coast. Here in the mountains, we are at the end of the Colonial pipeline, and gas has been scarce. Luckily, I don't have a lot of desire to leave this time of year. After all, it IS the Heavenly World!
The swim lake is certainly the focal point of main camp, and without water, it is downright depressing! So why did we drain it? Late last year, we noticed a wet spot at the bottom of the stairs leading to the Beanstalk climbing tower. Nothing instills fear into the heart of a camp director more than thinking about a swim lake that looks like the picture posted here! Add to that a very dry summer, and we became concerned that the lake would drop in level. As it turns out, there was a minor leak in the first couple of inches below full, so we hauled in some clay, dug some trenches, poured some concrete, and put it all back together. Now, we're filling it back up. We're only going to go about halfway, though, as we plan to rebuild some of the docks, and really spruce up the swim lake area. After all, it is the BEST swimming lake around!
Our office has been BUSY lately processing applications for 2009, the BEST SUMMER EVER! It seems that everyone wants to come to Illahee. We all know why! I am also getting ready to hunker down and start editing video footage from 2008 so that we can hit the road in a few weeks. We start our camp showings in Greensboro at the home of Claire Burns on the 15th of October. We will be traveling through the end of the year meeting prospective Illahee girls and reuniting with old friends. We can't wait!
It's easy in these days of long lines at the fuel pumps and struggling banks to get discouraged at the state of our country. From our perspective, the future is bright, and camp is the perfect antidote to all of those worries...a place where simple living and good friends help remind us of the true blessings in life. Keep checking back!
