Well well, what an interesting day.
On the final night of a Jamboree, troops try to get as much of their gear packed and loaded onto trucks as possible. We were lucky to have our box-bodied trucks in storage, and they pulled up to our site at dinner time. We dismantled all of the tents, then cleaned and packed the stoves, dismantled two of our four large canopies, bagged up every bit of gear and dropped one side of two canopies to form lean-tos. Some troops did more packing and some did less. A few of us elected to sleep “out”, some leaders shared the screen house. The fun began just before 3 AM
I was awakened from a sound sleep by a message from our commissioner that a thunderstorm was rolling in. It was quite a task waking up the troop (did I mention this was 2:55 AM?) to get all of their gear under tarps or plastic, we wrapped the screen house in plastic sheeting. An hour later rain and lightning approached in waves, getting closer and closer. I was deciding whether to stay put or to weather the storm in the cab of the equipment truck. More pressing was the task of figuring out how to expel pooled water from the makeshift lean-tos as water kept discharging unexpectedly onto scouts sacked out near the edges.
My plan for a 4:30 AM shower become moot. Wake up and food pickup were scheduled for 5 so most of us just stayed up.
Our Commissioner asked the drivers to get the trucks off the soft ground before further loading so that left us hauling gear up to the road through the morning rain to load the truck.
Because two troops shared one truck, we had an awful lot of wet and disintegrating canopy boxes to deal with. We ended up chucking the individual pieces into the truck to be sorted later.
Then we had yellowjackets attacking our brunch, and a lot of waiting. If that had been the end I would chalk this up to a pretty easy exit.
Nope.
Not only were we behind schedule but two of our buses had a fender bender and that necessitated the involvments with EMTs and FD, and PD, and Sheriff units. (These emergency service folks were fantastic and professional, they were also impressed with Scouting discipline and courtesy.)
Short article about the accident.
Our bus (#2) and the others not involved in the accident, made two U-turns to circle back to the scene. I hopped off to see what I could do to help. Mr. Mack had things well in hand.
I didn’t see anybody seriously hurt, but any accident involves careful documentation and detailed medical screening. The buses all stayed together until we were sure that alternate buses were en route. Two busloads stayed behind for later pickup, the other seven headed home.
It’s weird how one event can overshadow the previous one. We had blistering hot weather at the beginning of the Jamboree, followed by cooler temps. We forgot the heat. We had a dry afternoon to pack up our stuff, then we had rain. We forgot the dry. We had a rainy muddy morning packing trucks, then there was an accident. We forgot the mud.
Cradle of Liberty Council planned ahead and sent box lunches on the buses but most Scouts gobbled them up before 11 AM and were really famished by the time we got to the Mall at 6:40 or so. I knew we’d never be together like this again, so I made my farewells, handed out achievement rockers (curved patches) and reminded them, one more time, to make sure EVERYBODY’S stuff got off ever compartment of the buses before grabbing their own gear and heading home. That’s the way Scouts do it.
Then we looked at the trucks. Oh brother, what a job! It was too late to drive the trucks to the warehouse for unloading so that job has been postponed until Saturday.
And THAT will really be the end of the Jamboree.
Philly Scouts to the National Jamboree 2010 