Trek, Day 2

I think I got a total of maybe 4 hours of sleep the first night.  Not good, but adrenaline was still pumping.  The powers that be decided to have us start an hour earlier and get all the trekking done before the afternoon, when the temperatures were at their highest.  This was my one and only day to spend with the trekkers all day.  I was at the very front with the staff cart.  I just had to push periodically when we were going uphill or over bumpy ground.  I'm so glad we did it earlier in the day.  We reached our first stop at about 9am.  The kids got a potty break and the staff brought tons of ice blocks to dump in all the water coolers.  It made a huge difference having cold water.    The staff also gave all the families cookies, but no one was allowed the eat them yet.  The kids weren't happy about that!  Little did they know that they would be used for bargaining at an upcoming Indian encounter :).

The next stretch took a couple of hours.  Most of the time the surface wasn't too bad.  The very last, we took a shortcut and had to walk through and around a lot of sticker bushes.  We made it through unscathed though.  As soon as we arrived, everyone started putting up their shade tarps.  We had some activities planned, but decided to wait till 4.  Some people were able to take naps during the long break.  A lot of kids were putting on some pretty heavy duty water fights.  The "Indians" came during this time, but I was feeling too lazy to participate in that. I tried to nap, but it was too hot and uncomfortable.  We mostly just sat in the shade, shooting the breeze.  Elle did get a tiny bit dehydrated, but they perked her up in the first aid tent after a few minutes.

I was in charge of the stilts for the afternoon activity.  I didn't have to do much, mostly just sit there and make sure the kids didn't break them.  It was funny to watch the boys teaching the girls.  Flirting with stilts.  The kids were pretty wasted after all the rotations were done, my last group mostly just sat there except for a few die hards.  Elle was able to get a bulls eye at the tomahawk station and everyone was shocked.  She has good aim.  Dinner was delicious, Dinty Moore, my favorite!    I was so hungry those first couple of days and I was craving meat in particular.  It's amazing how much hunger can make even processed food heavenly.

After dinner was the square dancing.  Elle was so excited.  I don't think more than a handful of kids didn't participate.  It was a huge success.  I was just amazed that they could continue to have that much energy after that long of a day and such little sleep.  I would have gone to sleep early that night, but the square dancers were occupying the space my tent was supposed to be in.

I slept much better that night, in my own little pup tent.  The ear plugs I brought were amazing, but they sure didn't drown out the morning bugle.