Idaho

Well, folks we are in Idaho! Flying here was really bumpy. The male flight attendant was walking down the airplane aisle. Suddenly, the flight attendant wasn't walking down the airplane aisle. He instead was stretched face down across a lady's lap in the seat in front of me. 2 second later the head flight attendant announced, "Flight Attendants, please return to your seats." Very timely instructions from the boss!! It was bumpy. Can you guess why? Two women were driving! When we landed they said, "Thank you for flying United." I checked to make sure I still was united. (i.e. in one piece) We stayed at a hotel in Spokane the first night. (Monday) We drove out to Bonners Ferry on Tue. On the way we stopped and got a 19" LCD monitor!! Total schweetness!! Justin came over to play pool one night; I went and played tennis with him and Evan Schlabach one night. On Thursday evening Pete/Noah Petersheims and Mel Zooks came! We had a cookout with grilled pork chops, salmon, gourmet potatoes, and blueberry and rasberry dumpling in a Dutch oven! We then went inside and played dig and pool. Then on Friday I went to the church gym and played basketball and volleyball with all the boys camp kids. On Friday night was the Boys Camp program. The program was funny. Before the program the guys were talking about what they were going to say; Caesar (Julian Beachy) said he that he was going to say: "Hi my name is Caesar. I'm 16 years old and am from and I'm available. My phone number is: ." I told them about last year when Neal, a guy from SC, inadverdently, under his breath, muttered into the mic, "I'm nervous as crap up here!" The whole audience erupted into as silent as they could manage belly laughs at that point. During the program, each of the boys told about what happened on a particular day. When it was his turn, a guy tried to furtively glance at his hand where he had obviously written what he was supposed to have memorized. He looked at it once and then glanced back again, 'cause he couldn't read it right. He still couldn't read it, so for the third time he squinted hard at it and brougth up within about six inches of his face. One guy Hakim, a big, black dude from Pennsylvania got the giggles when that happened and could not stop... His turn was next, and he finally calmed down enough to begin a brief narrative: it was the day of the cliff jump. He said, "We did the cliff jump... Well I guess, most of us did the cliff jump... " at that point he put his head down in hands and just stood there giggling for about 2-3 minutes. At various times during this he would raise his head and try to start talking, but each time he lowered his head in defeat and began more spasms of giggling. He finally got control of himself and admitted: "Everyone jumped off the cliff except me." He went on to tell about the chiefs constantly going up on a ridge to use their cell phones. He said, "Jeremy (one of his chiefs, recently engaged to be married to a girl from Holmes County) kept sneaking off to call his girlfriend. The whole audience cracked up at this point. Jeremy took the mic next and said, "It wasn't that much! I was calling the [IWBC] board, too!" Nick was about the best part of the whole evening. When it came his turn he said, "My name is Nick from Holmes County, OH. My nickname, what they called me on the trip, was the jukebox without an off button. It's funny how beforehand you think of twenty minutes worth of speech and then when you get up here you forget nineteen minutes. I am going to tell you about a bunch of stuff because they [indicating other boys] are intent on making fun of me anyway. I guess I did make a few minor... er, mistakes. First I forgot the lunch on survival night." They guys didn't have anything to eat for 24 hours. They puked at then end of the trail when they drank a bunch of water on empty stomachs. "Then there was the time that I sat on a sloping rock. I began to slide. I went splash into the water!" Another guy said his 'favorite' (maybe 'most memorable' would have been better) part was, "us starving on survival night while the subs got moldy in back at camp." On solo night Chief Jeremy and Chief Hans had the big tent to themselves. They were all gloating about the boys not having anything to eat and here they were and had food and fellowship and the big tent all to themselves. Jeremy was snuggling down in his sleeping bag when he felt something at the bottom of the his bag. It ran up his body and stopped on his neck. It was a mouse. He turned his flashlight on and watched as a WHOLE STREAM of mice issued from the dead log next to his sleeping bag! Jeremy said he next engaged in some "activity." One night Benji was being his normal, irritating self. They were playing a game and he was talking nonstop, nonsense. Stuff like, "Are you losing, honey? Guess what, I just won!" All said in a high squeaky voice. The worst thing about it was, despite everyone teaming up on him, he kept right on winning. They finally got so ticked at him, they all picked him up and threw himin the creek. Later when he was at the creek of his own volition, they filled his back pack with rocks. He came back, found them and removed them. When he was away again, they filled it back up with rocks. He came back, found all but one, and emptied his pack of the ones he found. He carried that rock (a little bit less than the size of a guy's head) all the rest of high country! He found it at Nelson's when he was emptying his pack!! =) There was a guy in Benji's group who, on survival night, was walking on a log. He lost his balance, did a 180 and, arms flailing, fell in a bush. The best part is that Jeremy caught it all on video! Darren was nicknamed the packrat because every night in high country, he would upend his pack and a whole pile of junk would fall out. There was another guy at camp who was nicknamed Thunderbutt because... well, I'll let you figure that out. Chief Jeremy was bragging to Chief Hans about how well he could throw a machete. Chief Hans decided to try it. He threw machete a bunch of times and missed the tree all the time. Jeremy threw it and it landed "Thwap!" at a perfect angle in the tree. Later they were shooting the .45 that was their bear protection in high country. Chief Jeremy missed the bottle every (3) time, but Chief Hans hit it on the first shot! While they were shooting the .45 a lady came through with her horse and was scolding them for "scaring the wits" out of her. That group was going to come out Flower Creek Trail, and told her that. Later they changed their plans and came out Permenter Creek. The guy picking them up didn't get the word in time and went to Flower Creek first. There were about three Ranger sitting there waiting for them. Apparently the lady reported them for littering. They, of course, didn't do any littering. It was previous campers. The chiefs always employ a strict "No Trace Camping" policy. She must just have been ticked at them for the shooting. After the program we played volleyball at the church. After that, we went over the Darren's and hooked up a his Dad's projector and watched Shrek 2! It was definitely home theater at its finest! We next watched part of Lion King 1.5, until most of the Boys Camp guys had to leave at 2 AM for the airport. On Sat. I went over to Darren's and watched Chicken Run. It is supposedly hilarious, but it was a bit of a waste of time. It wasn't that great. Sun. afternoon Benji and I went to Justin's and played bball with him and Darren. Justin and Benji then jumped in the pond. Darren and I were about to, but when we received ear splitting "temperature reports" from Benj and Justin, we changed our minds. We then played Nintendo. That evening the youth had a cookout at William Byler's campground. We played vball and ate and talked. While we were playing vball, I dived. When I dived, I heard my pants rip. I checked... no holes. A few minutes later, I dived again. Bigger ripping sound. I checked, result: big rip in crotch. I asked someone to take my place (none of the others noticed what had happened) and I went and told my predicament to Danny Beachy. Him and another guy bust out laughing. I asked if they had any duct tape. They didn't. Danny asked Jolyn to run get some duct tape at the house. She returned with it. I went to the restroom and repaired my pants. I didn't play any more vball, tho. Roger and Ruth Helmuth from SC came to Vernon's on Monday. We went over there for the evening yesterday (Mon.) evening. We had cake and ice cream. Benji, Justin, Valerie, Darren and myself played Rook. This afternoon we went to airport to fly. We were bumped. We each got an airline ticket anywhere in the US, meal vouchers for supper and lunch, and hotel vouchers. We are going to see NASCAR and Lewis and Clark in the iMAX this afternoon. I am writing this from the pool using the hotel's broadband over WiFi (802.11b). Benji, Heidi, Kristi, and Dietrich are swimming. Benji and Heidi were splashing the laptop when they jumped in, so now I have a towel draped over it. We are going to fly out at 6:30 in the morning.