Enroute with a quick stop at Wendy’s for fortification, the spooky 13 T648 staff members arrived at R-Boo-C right as promised just as they closed registration and the camp gate at 8pm. Setting up tents in the dark grassy field down the hill next to the pond, troop members were mostly successful in avoiding fresh cow deposits, although there were a few complaints of sleeping on rocks during our subsequent closing ‘Thorns & Roses.’ The next day dawned early, and T648 ate quickly so that we could work the kitchen for the 400+ cub scouts, families and staff. Our scouts loved working in the dish room with the auto refill three basin wash, rinse, sanitize, the hanging sprayer, and the super spin pan dishwasher. They want to outfit our trailer with the equivalent as part of Mr. Murphy’s trailer remodel. Their dads ponder why they don’t have the same motivation at home?
This Pre-Halloween event at R-Bar-C cub scout camp was a total volunteer event, brainchild and organized by a scoutmaster of a large troop in west Phoenix. Activities run throughout the day by our scouts and others were envisioned by a mad scientist high school science teacher who wore a wig and looked like Doc Emmett Brown from Back to the Future. Periodically he would stage exhibitions in the middle of camp of ‘elephant toothpaste’ streams high into the sky or sodium-in-water explosions. Our scouts ran many of the stations throughout the day, including Dry Ice Bubbling Acid, Screaming Balloons, Crystal Ball Bubbles, Doctor Slime, and Giant Smoke Cannons. Add Archery, BB Guns and a dozen candy games, and our troop ran out of gas before the cub scouts did. Serving food, cleaning dishes and bathrooms, cleaning up decorations and trash – this weekend often felt more like work than an outing in the Tonto Forest. But seeing the joy on the faces of little scouts in costume from packs that had even more struggles during the pandemic than troops did, made us vow to coordinate a return trip next fall to help put this blast of a spectacle on once again!
Notable moments included: We were so busy all day running games for the cub scouts and working the dining room that one of our sleepy scouts fell asleep during Saturday campfire, and almost couldn’t be awakened to return to camp for a double round of birthday cookies for a second scout celebrating his 14th birthday. A third scout’s first outing as a cub scout had been to R-Bar-C, and now years later he did the perfect bookend by finishing up his boy scouting journey as an Eagle two weeks before his 18th birthday at the place it all began. He was often heard to be saying the long-time camp motto – ‘Drink and pee, Drink and pee, that’s what we do at R-Bar-C!’ During a surprise rain shower in the late afternoon, there was a beautiful double rainbow in the sunny sky to the east. But true to the Halloween theme, looking straight down the lawn from high on the deck there was rain in the camp pouring down into the trees to your right, and no rain in the camp in the trees to your left – spooky!
As we finished up with some fun with crawdads from Christopher Creek, we also rued neglecting to bring the troop first aid kit, and the requisite bone saw which would have been useful in addressing multiple scrapes and bruises. There was joy that being on staff meant we could have Saturday leftovers for breakfast (‘You want some Ruffles?’ ‘Nah, I’ve got Fun’yuns!’) There was awe and amazement as Scoutmaster Blair’s tent resembled a clown car as creature comforts continued to emerge until they dwarfed his bubble tent when piled beside it. As usual, we left the camp cleaner than we had found it, although all were aligned that cow patties were not within leave no trace scope. As we all loaded up after tearing down what remained of R-Boo-C, transforming the camp back to R-Bar-C, we all agreed that we would ‘check out, but never leave.’ See you again at R-Boo-C 2023!!
