Elora Gorge
Saturday August 20
We were on the road at approximately 10:30am. We were set back on a major detour because of a scout leader who will not be named around Kitchener. It took us about 4 hours to get to Elora Gorge.
Once we arrived we set up camp with our tents, personal belongings, food and other things. We then went on a long walk around the camp grounds scouting out new things we could find.
We had lunch here about 4 o’clock then dinner at 8pm, and after clean up, it was off to bed
Sunday August 21
After the breakfast crew finished cooking breakfast the rest of us were awoken. The clean up crew then cleaned and put everything away. After everybody got their stuff together, it was off to The Ontario Science Center in Toronto. We were there about 3 and a half hours and it was lunch time. We sat on the tail gate of the truck in the parking lot and ate sandwiches.
When we were finished with that, we took a city bus to the subway and took two subways to the hockey hall of fame. We were at the hall of fame for about an hour and a half. After we got through, we all decided to go to the Eaton Center (which is an underground mall) then we went to the Mall nobody knows the name of. Everybody liked it because it was a change from the mall we’re used to. This mall has elevators, 5 stories, 2 food courts, and a lot more. When we were walking back towards the CN Tower we stumbled across a movie set. One of our leaders had to find out what is was, so she went and asked. The told her they were making a television series on CBC. They told her the show was called “Love and Beyond”.
After we were finished around town we took the subway then the bus back to where we parked then drove back to our camp site. By the time we arrived back at our site it was approximately 9:30-10pm. We finished cooking dinner about 10:30.
Later a few of us decided to go take a shower. When we arrived back at camp we quickly tucked ourselves in our beds and warmed ourselves up.
Monday August 22
After breakfast we took off to town. We gallivanted around the small town of Elora. It started to rain off and on, almost like the flick of a switch. We walked up and down the Grand River. We walked down a trail that eventually lead us to an abandoned building. The building looks as if it was once a house. It had lost its roof and all the windows.
We continued on down the trail and found a steep path that lead to somewhere which nobody knew. We all followed it in search of something amazing or unique, but instead we found the river and a small cave like place in the side of the cliff. 2 of our troop members decided they were going to be like Spiderman and climb the steep walls of the rock face.
When we all got bored of throwing rocks into the river for an hour we all head back to the vehicles. We then headed back to camp where we cooked lunch and played baseball.
After a healthy game of baseball, we all sat down beside a non-lit fire. After about an hour of doing this, somebody got a great idea of lighting it. We quickly ran out of wood for our tremendous fire, so, Scouter Mike, Matt, and Jake ran over to the tree, threw a robe over the dead branches and pulled. Very soon branches fell upon them. Mildred came up a splendid idea of moving the branches behind the tents so the park wardens wouldn’t take it away.
Scouter Jim put on a delicious pot of Peach Cobbler. I don’t even thing anybody tasted it. They ate it as if they hadn’t eaten anything for days.
Tuesday August 23
Today was a fun time at Niagra Falls. There our first stop was the Butterfly Museum. After that, we rode the “People Mover” to our second destination which was “White Water Walk”. We walked right beside the river before the falls. It was really beautiful because the water was blue, the rapids were white, and the rocks were high.
Our third destination was “Journey Behind the Falls” where we were given ponchos so we wouldn’t get wet. We walked from opening to opening looking at the falls and taking in the glory of one of Canada’s natural wonders.
Our fourth destination was “The Maid of The Mist”. There we rode a boat to the falls and got soaked from the mist.
After our little shower we decided to go up Cliffton Hill. We split off away from the leaders where we went to a few different places. One of those places was Hard Rock Café. One of the leaders Mike told the boys that there were a lot of good looking girls there and to check it out, so we did. Nick, Jake, Chris, Matt, Adam and I (Cindy) all went to the Café for dinner, and to check out the girls. But there was a few good looking men there too.
After we got bored of Cliffton Hill we left at about 8:30 back to camp.
Wednesday August 24
Today we were aloud to sleep in until 9am. When we were awoken from our soundless beauty sleep we ate Breakfast. While the clean up crew cleaned up breakfast a few of us took Jims truck and blew up our tubes. We didn’t want to pay for tubes at the camp ground so we Mildred got 6 inner tubes from good year off Transport Trucks only because she knows everybody everywhere and in almost every Country. So I guess you can say we have good connections.
Mike (leader), Nick (leader), Adam, Matt, Jake, Chris, and I all took off in our inner tubes down the fearless rapids. Nick, Mike, and Jake all fell off on the first set of rapids. The first sets of rapids are fast and steep. We went about 10:30-11am the water was cold and shallow. Everybody kept yelling at the river because the river was beating us up. I think after we got off the river 2/3 of us were scrapped and bleeding with bruised butts and the other 1/3 of us just had bruised butts.
After our fun ride down Hells River we went back to camp and ate lunch. We didn’t want to move off of our camp site for the rest of the day because we were sore, bleeding, and tired, so we just made a lazy day out of it.
Jim, Mildred, Mike, and I did go into town though to get groceries and a ball the size of a soccer ball. There’s a funny story with that ball. We went down to a volleyball court and just started field kicking the ball to each other. It wasn’t soon after that that the ball flew down the gorge. Adam decided to go running after the ball ignoring the signs that said “steep drop”. He jumped right over the fence to retrieve our $5.00 ball. He was over the fence for about a minute so I yelled to him and he didn’t answer. I ran over to the fence and jumped over it, and sure enough, there he is standing there leaning up against a tree looking down. It got stuck in a tree on the way down so a couple fisher men gave us our ball back.
After that exciting experience, we decided to call it quits for the day, so we just hung out at camp.
Thursday August 25
I think Thursday was everybody’s favorite day. We went to Canada’s Wonderland. We spent the entire day there. From 11am to 9pm; 10 hours. We again split off into groups. We split off into 3 groups; leaders, kids who wanted to ride every ride, and the kids who didn’t want to go on rides. There were a lot of people there. For a ride it was about a 60 minute wait.
When we got back from the park, we were blest with pizza because Mike was complaining all week that he wanted pizza and bread sticks; so, on the last night, his wish was granted.
This was our last night. It was really sad because it was our last week. I knew nobody wanted to leave but we all knew this time would come. As we all sat around our last campfire the only thing we could do was sit and think about the fun times we had this past week.
Friday August 26
Since it was our last morning the leaders let us sleep in. We quickly packed up our belongings and put them in the trucks and left. We were on the road at 11 and on the highway by 11:30. We arrived in Windsor approximately at 3:30.
Highlights
On the way up we passed many corn fields, so that became a joke for the week. Corn, Corn muffins, corn in pancakes, corn in pizza, corn chips. Everything had corn in it, just as a joke.
A few people don’t like onions, so there was a joke that onions were in everything too.
At the beginning of the week when this individual farted he made a really funny laugh. That eventually rubbed off on some of the other boys. They eventually did that laugh too. By the end of the week, somebody just did the laugh and everybody ran.
Jim did an amazing job of making breakfast every morning because the kids didn’t want to get up; we wanted to sleep in.
Our neighbors didn’t have any matches, so they came over and borrowed some from us. When we came back from Wonderland, we found a gigantic pile of wood next to our camp fire, so we think they left it for us.
On the way up to Elora, we had a detour through Kitchener. We were lost. We must have crossed over Victoria Street about 7 times.
Tuesday night on the way back to camp we went up a hill that was steeper beyond belief. The drivers had to switch their trucks into 4-wheel drive to make it up the hill. If it was raining, the trucks would have hydroplaned backwards down the hill.
Tim Hortons discount.
Burping Contests.
Individual Highlights
Mildred: “Seeing Mike when we went to Hard Rock Café in Niagra Falls, and me introducing a handful of girls to him. Seeing all the youths eyes lights up with the new things they experienced.”
Mike: “Peach Cobbler, Hard Rock Café, Campfires, beauty queens in Niagra Falls.”
Jake: “Rollercoaster’s, and the girls in bikinis, all the burping contests..”
Matt: “My hat and the three chicks who stopped when we were at Wonderland. All the girls at The Eaton’s Centre”
Chris: “All the beauty queen in Niagra Falls”
Adam: “Wonderland, and Beauty Queens in Niagra Falls.”
Nick: “Beauty Queens at Niagra Fall, and when the Falls were lit.”
Jim: “Being with the group and having fun.
Cindy: “Seeing Jesse McCartney live at Canada’s Wonderland, Peach Cobbler, tubing, and growing a bigger bond with the two groups.”