Organized Chaos

This past week was perhaps the busiest week I have had in a long time. More than two thousand Venture Scouts attended the Summit to celebrate twenty years of Venturing BSA. There were crews from 48 states and 3 countries that included Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ireland. On Sunday the Canadian Crew celebrated Canada Day by giving out Canadian pins and flags. The Venturingfest staff had invaded the entire Pigott building, taking away most of our desk space. In showing their appreciation of us letting them work in Pigott, the Venturingfest staff gave us free pizzas and other cool nic-knacks. One of the directors of Venturingfest, Jim Lynch, was really grateful for Base Camp Staff's help with setting up tents, he gave me a commissioners coin from the the San Antonio Council. The first two days of Venturingfest went by smoothly with little or no problems. On Tuesday, all the programs were filled up, so I decided to go for a hike up to Garden Ground, the highest point in the Summit property. It took me all morning, but eventually I reached the top. When I reached the top I ran into a rafter of wild turkeys and turkey chicks. On the way down, I took many pictures of the trail. Once I reached the Summit Center, I rode a gyro sphere from Space Camp. I found it very dizzying.

As for Wednesday and Thursday, well, that's a whole different story. I usually like to hear what I need to do before I start working during the day so I can make a list on what is important and what is not. If no one tells me what to do during the day, then I don't know what my priorities are, which can be stressful. This is exactly what happened on Wednesday and Thursday. No one told me anything. I had to do more than 4 hours of Tie Dye during the Fourth of July which happened to be on the same day of the weekly Appalachian Celebrachian (that's what they call it). It rained on me, I didn't get enough food, I drank more than 2 gallons of water and I was still dehydrated. It was not good. As for Thursday, all those wet tents from Wednesday's storm needed to be dried out. In order to compensate with this issue I spent the rest of my evening lashing together ropes between the rafters of the base camp pavilions. By hanging tents in the rafters, the tents can dry very quickly.

I did get better later during the week on Friday and Saturday. Friday was such a quiet day for me. Venturingfest had ended early in the morning and the rest of the day and I was asked to take off. I found that to be a huge relief from the previous events of Wednesday and Thursday. As for Saturday, I slept in and read my magazines, wrote a few letters to some friends, and did my laundry. I found it to be very zen like. In the evening I got dinner at a local restaurant and went to the Fayetteville park to watch some fireworks. The performance was on Saturday due to the rain delay on Wednesday. After the fireworks, the rest of the staff and I went to The Riverman. The Riverman is a local bar and hangout joint for Summit staff and other high adventure tour guides. They have a volleyball court in the back, so I played volleyball all night. This week was not as enjoyable as I hoped it would be, but you win some you lose some.