MIC 2004 Daily Log
Day 1- August 1, 2004
Everyone met at Mildred’s house at about 6:30am, a little early, even for Venturers. By 7:00am, we hit the road. We were finally headed for a week of fun. By 10:30am, we arrived at our first rest stop. We had brought our own lunch; meat and cheese sandwiches. We had to wait for our host group, Troop 740, to come and lead us the rest of the way. In the course of an hour and a half waiting, all sorts of different countries had showed up; a couple of American troops, Mexico, Australia, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda.
When Troop 740 had finally arrived, it took us about 30 minutes to get organized. We were on the road about 30-40 minutes before we arrived at Northwoods Scout Reservation in Westbridge Michigan.
When we arrived at camp, we had to wait about an hour and a half to two hours to get all our paper work in order. From the front entrance we had to walk to our campsite while our all our gear was being hauled on a trailer ahead of us. It only took about 10 minutes to walk to the site we were staying at. After we go everything unpacked, we had to put our Class A uniforms on (full uniform) and head down to the main hall for dinner.
After dinner, we headed back to camp for about 20 minutes to get everything we needed for the flag break ceremony. This was where all 26 countries presented their flag in front of all the campers. We had to put our flag on a pole but couldn’t raise it until all the other 25 countries had theirs on too. We then raised our flags in unison.
We then came back to the campsite and had free time for the rest of the night. We used this time to relax, get aquatinted with the other kids, swap souvenirs, and set up our tents. Around 10pm we had cracker barrel (mug-up) and then lights out at 11pm.
Written By: Cindy Lywood
Day 2- August 2, 2004
Today the people who were on cooking duty for breakfast had to wake up a 6:30 and cook for about 90 people. After breakfast, we went to our first module; Native American Lore. We learned about the Native American way of life and we made dream catchers and dancing sticks. Our second module was at the waterfront. You could swim, canoe, kayak, or go row boating. After the lake, we ate chicken for dinner. After our dinner, Trinidad and Tobago and some more Americans came to our site. The people from Trinidad and Tobago played their steel drums and sang. This got everyone pumped up. We then had Dutch-oven cobbler and everyone left for bed.
Written By: Josh Sterling
Day 3- August 3, 2004
For breakfast we had turkey sausages and eggs. We had three activities to do throughout the day. Our first module was Scout Craft. We learned how to cook eggs and bread on a stick. After everybody made bread, we all helped make some apple cobbler. While we were waiting for the cobbler to cook, we played on an obstacle course. Once the cobbler was done, we ate and left for our next event.
Our second activity for the day was shooting sports 1. That consisted of archery, air gun, and shotgun shooting, but before we started the event, we ate lunch. Lunch consisted of sandwiches made of ham, salami, and cheese. Along with the sandwiches, we had nachos and salsa.
Our third and final event of the day was the nature center. The center housed dozens of snakes and other creepy creatures. At night, we all went down to the main campfire site to watch all the countries do their dances or skits. After the show, the people from Uganda came to our site for about an hour before leaving for bed.
Written By: Michael Lesperance
Day 4- August 4, 2004
When we awoke, it was pretty cold outside. We had warm breakfast burritos. After that, we went to our first module; team games. This consisted of volleyball, soccer, Frisbee ball, and crab soccer. We then went to change into our swim wear for our second module. We went down Rifle River in tubes. We finished lunch and were about to get onto the bus that was to take us to our module when Owen Stibbard (one of our Venturers) showed up. Unfortunately, he couldn’t come with us because he had paperwork to fill out. We took the bus up to the Rifle River and went down the freezing river in inner tubes. Once we got back to our campsite, we were all pretty cold for a couple of hours.
For dinner we had strawberry crapes, pavlova (an Australian dessert) and some Guatemalan soup. We had free time after dinner. Some of us went swimming while others went to trade patches at the dining hall. By the time both groups got back to the site, it was time to go to bed.
Written By: Matt Bottoms
Day 5- August 5, 2004
After a semi-satisfying breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and cereal, the campers prepared for a full day of events. First up: Team Games. The morning’s options consisted of an expanded version of volleyball, soccer and cricket. Many campers enjoyed their first exposure to this exotic game. Next on the agenda for Blackfoot sub-camp was Handicraft, where campers created "mystery braid" bracelets and leather head ties. While we were waiting for the people running the event to set up, we devoured a meal of sandwiches, chocolate milk, chips, cookies, and vegetables. Many participants found the braiding difficult but all persevered and succeeded in creating excellent leather jewelry. After each camper had satisfied their creative urges they began the walk back to camp to get their swim wear on for two hours of water activities. Immediately after changing out of wet clothes, the Scouts and Venturers pulled out their Class A uniforms and went to the event field in single file for a barbecue dinner of chicken, bean salad, rolls and apple crumble. The next hour was spent at the campsite relaxing while we prepared for the Pow-wow and youth dance that was to happen later that evening. The Pow-wow was in celebration of life and unity and consisted of native dancing, stories and blessings enjoyed by all. A quick hop from the flag field to the dining hall delivered campers from all sub camps to a dance of unmatched intensity and fun. The gathering was viewed by all as the best time we had in recent memory. Everyone then returned to Blackfoot sub camp for a long-awaited sleep.
Written By: Owen Stibbard
Day 6- August 6, 2004
Friday was our last day of events. We went to Initiative games and shooting sports 2 which consisted of .22 Rifle shooting and Black Powder. For breakfast we had sausage patties with eggs for breakfast. We had our normal sandwich for lunch, and at dinner we had chili. At the end of the day, we had a sub camp campfire. At Initiative games we played many different games like Spider’s Web and the Ice Sling Shot. Friday was a very good day.
Written By: Mike Portman
Day 7- August 7, 2004
Today was International Day. All different countries had a stand in an open field where they set up all there things they had to represent their own country. We had Canadian flags, pins, a collector’s coin with stamps, Canadian back bacon(we told people it was moose), and maple fudge (we told people it was chipmunk). There was music, dancing, and skits. We worked with the other Canadian group and we worked half an hour shifts. After the stands were taken down we went to church. After both of these events were done, we had free time for and hour. After everyone had got together in the field, we lowered the flags. After all the flags had been taken down and folded up, everyone marched out of the field and went to the closing campfire. There, we sang songs, listened to speeches, watched a slideshow, and people and troops were represented with the golden arrow of peace. After that, everyone went back to their campsites and went to bed. I thought Saturday was great.
Written By: Adam Orton
Day 8- August 8, 2004
Our last day at camp had finally arrived. It seemed to come very quickly for everyone. There was no doubt that everyone wanted to stay and have more fun at camp. They were all tired and worn out from the past week. We got to sleep in a bit later that usual. Other than the breakfast crew kids, everyone was woken up at about 7:45am. The camp had given us food for a cold breakfast consisting of bagels and cream cheese, cereal, and fruit, but the Canadians decided to give everyone a special treat. The other Canadian group from Pickering, Ontario had given us enough of the leftover back bacon from International day to give to our sub-camp. After clean-up, everyone was ordered to pack their gear and get it out of the tents so we could take them down. It took everyone about an hour and a half to get the whole camp totally clean because a lot of people we playing around. I guess everyone had so much fun during the week that they didn’t want it all to end. When everything was finally packed away, we had to wait to get our trailer and gear hauled down to headquarters. Since our campsite was cleared and there was nothing to do there, everyone went down to the administration Office/Tuck Shop/General Store. We had to wait for about 30 minutes until we got clearance to leave and until our gear arrived at our cars. We walked down the road to where all the gear had ended up and hooked our trailer with our gear in it to the cars. After everything was ready to go, we finally had to say our good-byes. It took about 10 minutes to part from each other. We had grown together and developed lifelong friendships in the course of a week. It was hard to say goodbye, but everyone knew throughout the week that the time would eventually come. After everything that needed to be said was said, we started to walk further down the road to our vehicles. We then realized that we had to wait for Chris and Andrew Bottoms, some friends of ours who had come up for Visitors day. We had lost them earlier and thought we would meet them. We spent 45 minutes looking for them and then gave up hope. At about 1:45pm, we left for home. We had 1-2 rest stops before we started to get hungry. We stopped around 4:15pm at a family restaurant called Cracker Barrel for lunch/dinner. We waited 25 minutes to get a table and waited 15-20 minutes for food. By the time we were on the road again, it was 5:15pm. We got home around 7:30pm because of traffic and road work. Everyone was finally glad to be home.
Written By: Dianna Boilard