Part one started with a special scout camporee. This particular camporee we attended to support a patrol mate of mine from my session of Woodbadge training. His name is Al. While we were at Woodbadge, there were a few times we needed to adhere to the "buddy system" and Al happened to be MY buddy. He's a great guy and I admire how he talks about his family. That man LOVES his family!
So anyway, this camporee was a part of Al's project (also known as his "ticket")...to prepare it and document the planning and to provide a guide for others to follow in putting together future camporee programs in his district. I don't live anywhere near there, but Al invited all of our patrol and it just so happened that I got to go....AND I got to bring the whole family! (Everybody but Mesa that is.)
Off we went to the North Georgia Mountains to the Woodruff Scout Reservation where pitched a few tents and hunkered down for our first night of camping.....where it promptly dropped dramatically to 26 degrees!!! No I'm not joking! Tommy was on a cot. Manti was on some animal hides and blankets. Morgan was in a tent with his buddy, Adrian (where I had to help him remember how to sleep INSIDE a sleeping bag! go figure!), Jared was on a narrow air mattress and I was on a good sized air mattress with the best sleeping bag EVER! We were fine, but boy were we surprised at the temps! We survived, but wow!
It was a great camporee (a first for me and Morgan and Jared!) and I got to spend it with two of my best friends (Sara and Tommy) and my favorite boys. What a blast we had!
BUT....the story doesn't end there!
Sunday morning, we got to experience a "scouts own" service, which is a non-denominational religious service planned and prepared and presented by the boys themselves. That was first for my little boys too. After we did that, we took down our tents, packed up the car and headed....
NORTH!
Yep, north....to Cherokee North Carolina. It was a nice scenic view all the way. From all the walking during the camporee, I could barely get my legs to work so I got Tommy to drive me around like Miss Daisy :D Ahhhhhhh the life! That means I got to take pictures! And that means YOU get to see some of them now :D You thought I'd never get to this point, right?
This is a distant view of the mountains as we were coming up on Blairsville Georgia, the area where the scout camp is located.
Manti standing in front of this sign. Who cares who William Bartram is, it's Chief Atakullakulla we were interested in, because he is a REALLY distant ancestor to Tommy's side of the family. Neat, huh?
Morgan was easily excitable this whole trip. We're standing at the edge of an overlook, looking down at the Nantahala River.
And this is the Nantahala River.
This one is inside the Cherokee Reservation. This is the Oconaluftee River that runs through the middle of town. I found it sweet how the boys followed Manti around wanting to see everything that interested their older brother.
This one was taken over near the Kituwah Mounds. The area has been through a lot of changes. It is now strictly used by registered members of the tribe for hunting and gardening. Visitors may drive through and look, but may NOT leave the path or touch anything. Their gardens were unbelievable! I've never seen so much corn in one place in all my life! Anyway, the view of the mountains from those fields was amazing. It was a foggy morning and the haze over the whole town was gorgeous.
See what I mean? Gorgeous!
