Hot as a Pistol and Then Some!

This picture pretty well sums up the weather today at A.P. Hill. I think it was really "just" 102 or so ("Feels like" 109), but this picture was taken of a thermometer on the backpack of a staff member who was out in the sun. The black flag was flying today indicating we should all do very little work and just rest and hydrate. I for one, took that to heart and enjoyed some shady rest under a cedar tree in the relative comfort of my gravity recliner for a hour or so.

It is "only" 94 degrees right now at 9:30 p.m. according to Weather.com. While that may seem hot to you all, it is feeling pretty awesome to us. We were rather brain-fried earlier in the day. A heat advisory will continue to be in effect tomorrow, but by the time the troops start rolling in on Monday the temps will be back down into the lower 90's and upper 80's. Hallelujah! (Yes, the staffer pictured here IS wearing a fan around his neck and an ice bag on his head!)

Postmasters Tim Janacek and Chris Daughtrey have worked hard on getting the Subcamp Post Office set up. They needed something in which to sort mail and started pricing various things like small tubs, etc. In the process, the perfect Scout Thrifty solution arose! Ace Hardware in Bowling Green offered some old fastener display boxes - PERFECT for sorting mail! Those and a little signage and they were on their way. The first mail arrived yesterday and another load came today. Lots of packages from home. We are curious to know if they are full of cookies or forgotten gear!

I am happy to say that mosquitoes and other insects have not been a problem thus far in our campsite. There has been no need of putting up mosquito netting. However, one of our staffers was visited by this large green fellow in the night. He was crawling across him and he tossed him out of the tent. Later this morning he was found again crawling nearby and we had to take his picture. Pretty darned impressive! A little internet research revealed it to be the caterpillar of the cecropia moth. Here is what it will look like all grown up:

This morning I took a drive with Vance Lackey, our Subcamp Administrative Officer. We cruised the Jambo site and took a look at the progress being made in setting up the various areas. We visited the Southern Region Camp. They had an impressive
gateway and an even more impressive display of memorabilia which included a hiking staff that once belonged to B.P. himself! To top it off, they offered this "beautifully furnished" hospitality area, complete with a fountain, cushy furniture, microwave, cold water and coffee pot.

We saw the areas for sail boating, mountain boarding, archery; HUGE inflatable swimming pools for swimming and scuba; Buckskin games area (hawk throw, muzzle-loading and more); and SO much more. If you haven't checked out all that the boys will see, take a look at the Jambo Guide for Scouts. This pocket-sized guide will get the Scouts where they want to go and help them be sure they don't miss a thing. Here is the link: http://www.bsajamboree.org/filestore/jamboree/pdf/410-153.pdf Yeah, I know. I should have taken pictures. I will try and do that in the morning so that you can see some of the areas before they are thick with kids.

If you are wondering about what kind of "facilities" you boys will be using during their stay, let me assure you that they are fortunate indeed! They will be using trailer toilets --- the ones with AC like the staff has, along with the cool trailer showers. Supplemental porta-potties will be located on the fringes. OTHER subcamps will be using facilities like these:




I'll close tonight with a "before" view of the subcamp site (click to enlarge). It shows the white commissary and staff dining tents in the center left with the green staff tents left of that. The tall skinny tree with the trailer is where the Westark Area contingent will be camping. The grassy foreground shows the vast area that makes up the LARGEST subcamp at Jambo; nay, in the World. There will be 65 troops occupying this area come Monday. That's a total of 2600 people, including staff and a few other adults that are camped here from other areas. That's more than five times the population of your average elementary school. More on how all that will work in future installments.... Goodnight.