Why The Gray

LETTER FROM CAMP

Dear Mom & Dad,

Our Scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you
saw the flood on TV and are worried. We are okay. Only
one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away.
Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were
all up on the mountain looking for Adam when it happened.

Oh yes, please call Adam's mother and tell her he is okay.
He can't write because of the cast. I got to ride in one
of the search and rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never
would have found Adam in the dark if it hadn't been
for the lightning.

Scoutmaster Keith got mad at Adam for going on a hike alone
without telling anyone. Adam said he did tell him, but it was
during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know
that if you put gas on a fire, the gas will blow up?
The wet wood didn't burn, but one of the tents did and
also some of our clothes.

Mathew is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Keith gets the
bus fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. The brakes
worked okay when we left.

Scoutmaster Keith said that with a bus that old you have to
expect something to break down; that's probably why he
can't get insurance.We think it's a neat bus. He doesn't
care if we get it dirty, and if it's hot, sometimes he
lets us ride on the fenders. It gets pretty hot with 45
people in a bus made for 24.

He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway
patrol man stopped and talked to us.

Scoutmaster Keith is a neat guy. Don't worry, he is a
good driver. In fact, he is teaching Jessie how to drive
on the mountain roads where there isn't any cops. All we
ever see up there are logging trucks.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and
swimming out to the rapids. Scoutmaster Keith wouldn't
let me because I can't swim, and Adam was afraid he would
sink because of his cast, -it's concrete because we didn't
have any plaster-, so he let us take the canoe out. It was
great. You can still see some of the trees under the water
from the flood.

Scoutmaster Keith isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He
didn't even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend
a lot of time working on the bus so we are trying not to
cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges.
When Andrew dived into the lake and cut his arm, we got
to see how a tourniquet works.

Steven and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Keith said it
probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken.
He said they got sick that way with food they ate in prison.

I'm so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster. He said
he sure figured out how to get things done better while he
was doing his time. By the way, what is a sigh cottic?

I have to go now. We are going to town to mail our letters
& buy some more beer and ammo. Don't worry about anything.
We are fine.

Love, Chris