Well we said Goodbye to AP HILL for the last time today.  2010 is the last time the Jamboree will be held at the site that has hosted us for 8 of the last 17 Jamborees. We are now at Williamsburg Virginia getting settled in to unwind after a long trip!

Monday was the last full day of Program at the Jamboree. I think I commented about the implications of that to the boys in my last email. The last picture upload included that day.

Tuesday, we had another of a long line of early starts. Our ticket time for the Order of the Arrow (OA) sponsored “Mysterium Compass” was at 8:30 in the morning. This presented some challenges that resulted in some fast scrambling.  The program capacity could not handle the entire Jamboree so each troop received 18 tickets which left everyone in the uncomfortable position of having to choose which boys could go and which not. In PLC the boys decided they wanted to try to get everyone in even if we had to go standby, etc.

We had a bus arranged for to pick us up and take us to that end of the Jamboree in time for the event. The boys did a great job of getting breakfast on and cleaned up and all 40 were at the bus stop on time. The buses weren’t on time however. They were about 5 minutes late and these school bus drivers could not be hurried. He took his time getting out of the staging area, drove about as slow as he could and got us there 5 minutes late. Luckily we have Chris and Russ on our team. They instantly transformed into a barracuda and a shark, gave the OA event staff a protocol adjustment and got all the boys on the two succeeding sessions against all odds. The kids loved it. You’ll have to ask the kids what it was like because the scoutmasters weren’t allowed…..however they did have “the Vault” right next door for the Scoutmasters to hang out while the boys were being taught and entertained by the OA. The Vault was one of the most amazing collections of scouting memorabilia I have ever seen. Yes, I went a little crazy with my camera. So if scouting memorabilia pictures dull your senses just skip that part of the upload tonight!

The boys ran from there to get the last couple of events in before we had to be back to break camp at 1:00. By 4:00 we were ready to load the trucks with our gear.  This loading of our gear the night before we left presented some interesting dilemmas.  First we had we still had to fix dinner. Luckily the trucks were late so this gave us an extra hour to hurry and squeeze in dinner before loading. But the real concern is, without gear we had to sleep under the stars in high humidity with a chance of rain. The boys used those ground cloths that everybody wondered why we brought and rolled out their fleece bags on them.  We held back the gateway panels (tarps) for a covering if we got some rain. Sounded like a good plan.

About 3:15 in the morning I heard the base loudspeakers squawk something. You never really know what it says but usually it is weather warning related. I sat up looked around. Nobody in our camp was stirring, nobody in the camps adjacent were stirring so I thought I was just dreaming. The next thing I remember is a couple of Army MP’s banging on my cot saying “you have a thunderstorm 5 miles out coming this way. You have 15 minutes to get all these guys into shelters”. You know how hard teenagers are to wake up in the middle of the night. We finally got them all rousted. They had to get dressed quick, roll up all their gear, pack their bags and get over to the camp HQ. We were just about ready to go and looked to the next camp over and nobody was stirring their yet. We woke them up and headed for HQ. The problem was there is only very limited shelter there. So for the next 4 hours we either sat at tables, curled up on the asphalt floor or stood around waiting for the rain to stop. The boys were amazingly patient through it all and caught some cat naps here and there but ended up with a short nights sleep. We had decided the night before to go ahead and load all of our gear on the trucks just in case it rained, we wouldn’t have to deal with that too. That turned out to be a good call. Many troops didn’t do that and couldn’t get things gathered up quick enough and had a lot of drenched gear. We were lucky.

We finally got the buses through the traffic jambs about 10:00 and got on board into nice air conditioned seats and headed off for Williamsburg. Mark Rueckert and J.D. Smeltzer were asleep on the bus in about 15 seconds, The Scoumasters were not far behind them.

We had lunch at Jimmy Buffets “Cheese Burgers in Paradise” restaurant. The boys enjoyed the first meal they didn’t have to cook for awhile. We had some time before we could check into the hotel so we decided to see if we could catch Jamestown on the way there. Jamestown was the first English settlement in the Americas established in 1607. There is some great history there and is considered by some to be one of the miracles that set the stage for establishing a country based on religious freedom.

I’m not sure the boys were too excited about anything that resembled another tour. With the time available we thought we would give it a shot. They have an amazing new visitors center at Jamestown complete with a recreated fort colony, a native American village, and a shipping yard. We were hoping to take a walk around the village but the entrance fee was prohibitive. We walked down to a marina to see if we could get a view of it down the coast line but couldn’t see it. A gentleman was at the marina and offered some great advice. He said to have the bus driver drive a few blocks farther down the road to where the road meets the James River. There is a ferry crossing there that takes 30 cars at a time, including buses, at no cost across the James River and pass right in front of the recreated shipyard and village. So that’s what we did. The bus driver got a kick out of pulling his bus on that ferry too. The boys were able to hop out of the bus and go up to an observation deck above as we crossed the river. 
They really enjoyed it. The boys caught the attention of one other passenger on the ferry who came up and talked to Russ about the boys. He was so impressed by them that he handed Russ $45 and said to make sure we take them out for ice cream. Treats are always on the agenda.

We had a great buffet dinner here at the Williamsburg Hospitality House, This boys got to unwind in the pool and after a short PLC here we are! We get to hit the sheets at a reasonable hour for a change and Busch Gardens doesn’t open until 10:00 so we should get a chance to eat into the sleep deprivation a little!

Here is the last two days link to the pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/100869686042495152805/Jamboree603Day15#

I owe you day 16 still…..