Kings Point Trip

May 2016

This was only an overnight trip, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun! We got to camp on the campus grounds itself, with a great view of the pier and the George Washington Bridge in the distance. We could see the outline of New York City. All the troops were packed together as canvas structures and tents dotted all of the premises. The students had an orientation in their auditorium and went over the itinerary. For those of you who don't know what kings point is, its a college where students study to work on vast military ships. We got to go for a ride on their research and training vessel the "Kings Pointer". We learned how a steam and diesel engine work. And we got to look around there very lavish musses. At the museum a giant ship propeller was stuck in the ground on a slant, so of course people tried to get to the top, Isaac and Jordan managed to but no one else. The building itself was full of varying sizes of ship models from a few inches to a few thousand inches. This museum held one of the 5 existing Japanese swords from the Japanese surrender of WWII. The sword was once owned by Vice Admiral Ugaki and was given to General Douglas MacArthur as a "a memento of valiant services rendered by the sons of this Academy in our struggle in the Pacific." This was a big honor to the academy to place on display. Just looking at it gives you the chills! After that we headed to the steam lab, where the students explained everything about how to operate a basic ship engine. On the Kings Pointer, we got to see what extended periods of time on a ship are like. The tour ended early so we had hours to spend on the campus. We all hung out on this gorgeous hill with a beautiful 360 degree view on the ocean and campus. Some of us laid in the soft grass listening to a radio that our friend Laik Green had brought, while the rest played football. Even though we were there for hours the sight never got old, we actually longed for more time to spend on that hill gazing into the sun setting over the horizon.When night was upon us we retired the colors and went to the summer camp style closing ceremony complete with skits. Our skit was about a lawnmower that wouldn’t start, it wasn’t that funny but it was so bad it was good. By far the best part of the trip though was just being on the campus, it was the most unique experience I have ever had camping and I hope we can get to do it again.

We arrived at the church a bit later than usual at 6. We saved the formalities and went on to embark on the long road ahead of us. The drive was not that long compared to others but still a lengthily ride of roughly 3 hours with traffic up to the site. Due to our late departure we got to the cabin at 10 and by that time we through our bags under the bunks and went to bed in the commodity of a heated and insulated cabin.

The wakeup was lazy since Mr. Bludgus’s wife had already prepared a weird cheesy egg concoction for breakfast. Cleanup was easy giving us amble time to get ready for the day before us. Everyone was unaware that there was a opening flag ceremony so no one brought their class A’s. As we marched out like bums huddled in our winter coats trying to hide the lack of formal dress but it wasn’t fooling anyone. To our surprise no one else had a class A anyway so the leadership gave us no trouble. The troop that ran the program raised the flags as we went off back to the cabin so we could plan the day. Before we could go inside however the adults told us to teach little Perkison to make a fire. After fiddling with damp wood and a lighter for half an hour the adults said “Enough!” and sent Isaac to make a fire. Afterwards we hiked up to the rifle range because everyone had 20 free rounds. We did that for awhile along with playing volleyball until we could go on the main event. We all were skeptical of the waterfall hike expecting a puddle over some pebbles to be the “waterfall” but to our surprise after climbing down the steepest trail ever we found a slightly frozen over waterfall. Everyone gathered for picture and hung around for a bit before we had to go back for lunch. Lunch was the best meal I have ever had camping, maybe even ever. Lunch was meatballs that Mr. Bludgus’s wife made along with some pulled pork but the tomato sauce was to die for paired with the perfectly cooked meatballs. But alas, like all good things, eventually it was over. So we went back over to the rifle range to shoot our last 10 rounds and play more volleyball along with a rare activity called tomahawk throwing. Most people didn’t do very well accept for Isaac who got 5 tomahawks on the target. As nightfall approached we headed back to the adults watching some old Little Rascals in the cabin. I was alright because I wanted a little power nap until everyone else said it was too boring so Anthony popped on a Looney tunes disc. He attentively watched it until after some time turned it off so the adults had a table to make diner with. After dinner we had to go to a closing ceremony which was pretty boring but it wasn’t until 9 so we had an hour to lounge around until Anthony turned on one of the terrible Star Wars prequels on to the sighing of everyone, which didn’t end till lights out.

Sunday we just cleaned up and got out of there quickly so we could get home and avoid traffic.

On Friday night we left the church in Freehold, NJ just about 5pm ...we were all very excited to get on the road, it was a several hour drive and we didn’t get to the campsite until about 8pm. Itw as still light when we pulled in and we had plenty of time to set up camp in the light. We enjoyed the campground, there was a lot to do here. The site had a nice general store, a snack shack where one could eat ( although we made our meals as a Troop and ate at our campsite). Threre was an arcade, ice cream shack and live entertainment. We got up our tents quickly and set up a very basic kitchen before it started to rain heavily. This was nature's signal to go to bed.

 On Saturday we woke up to sun, the rain had ended. We had planned a light breakfast of cereral and enjoyed our Lucky Charms. After cleaning up wechecked in with our tour and headed to the buses with life vests and wetsuits. The bus drove us to the river, we got put into our rafting teams and embarked on a very rough ride. Almost everyone fell out of the rafts at some point, yet for a dam release weekend there were not many rapids...I guess we need more practice!  We had lunch on a rocky beach midway through the 13 miles of rapids. We were all exhausted, wet and ready to head back to camp, so we took a nap on the 40 minute bus ride back to camp. After changinging into dry clothes, having a meal, warming up by the fire we were readyto relax. Our whole troop spent the evening around the campfire playing trivia games and our favorite card game "Mafia" all night long until lights out.

 

We awoke Sunday morning to dry weather luckily....as we packed up our site I noticed our neighbors were doing the same. They were another Boy Scout troop,  with boys around our age,  maybe a few years younger. The adults camping with this troop were doing all of the work. Seeing this made me proud to be in my  boy run troop. We all had a great time, we enjoyed the location, and the company and would do it again in the future. White water rafting on the Lehigh River was a blast!

On the night up to the cabin it was a long ride up, about 5 hours in a car at night, one can imagine how fun driving up was when you consider that we didn’t reach the cabin until about 10:00. The cabin was nestled in a old rustic lake town in a scout camp. The cabin had a basement which was like a kitchen and a upstairs setup like a barrack. In the morning we had some weird mess that was trying to look like breakfast burritos but it still tasted good. We explored the forested and played Frisbee on a field in front of the cabin.

The ropes courses were very intense. There, 1 green course, 3 pink 2 silver 5 red and 6 black. Each had varying intensities. Ben and Isaac were the only scouts to complete the entire course. Many scouts said that the zip line was the best part.

Later that evening we had dinner, went on a hike to the lake watched cheesy movies because our cabin and a TV and electric.

Rich made a short speech and we went off to a long journey home.

The words the pastor spoke really touched the scouts and gave us some food for thought. Our two Chaplain Aides, Mark Anthony DeMeno and John Flanders read passages from the Bible and did a great job while our scouts sang with the chorus and received communion.

In between services we sold our fundraising Old Monmouth Candy bars (every last one mind you) and served as greeters. All in all it was a very delightful and reverent experience.

This month’s destination was a hunting lodge in Woodland, Lacy Township, NJ.  This was chosen by the scouts because we had been working on our Rife and Shotgun merit badges over the last couple of weeks.  The place was rustic and did have a huge kitchen, common rooms, plenty of bedrooms (Slept 40+) and of course a rifle and shotgun range.  22 scouts with 5 full time leaders and 6 leaders part time attended this trip.  We also had two certified NRA merit badge councilors (Thank you Mr. Lines and Mr. Malm).

January 24, 2015, it’s 6:30 in the morning as we took attendance in the parking lot and loaded up the cars for the trip to Shawnee Ski Mountain in East Stroudsburg Pennsylvania… 16 scouts and 9 adult where on their way. Thanks to our adult support and pre-planning, we arrived with all lift tickets and ski rentals labeled with our names.  All we had to do was Grab and Go.  

The weather cooperated, with light on and off flurries all day.  The temperature was in the low thirties which allowed for a great day.  The scouts broke up into small groups and hit the lifts.  Double lifts, triple lift and two quads including the high speed quad kept dropping us at the top of the mountain all day long.  A couple of our scouts took a lesson at 11:45, some for the first time and a few as a refresher. 

With that accomplishment under our belts, the skiing continued until the night sky began to show some stars. With our legs burning and the lights on the trails blazing for the night skiers, the day ended at around 5:30.  The walk back to the parking lot was much slower that the walk in the other direction 8 hours ago.  This told me that we gave it all we had and then some. See you again next year Mother Nature and maybe some diamond trails will be tested then!

Yours in Scouting, Thomas Pitarresi ASPL

Friday November 21st

Hi:34

Low: 20

When we got to Valley Forge, around nine-ish it was complete blackness, and look a very long time to set up the behemoths of tents that were brought. Rahill and friends kept rolling down the huge hill near our camp site.

Saturday November 22^nd

Hi: 43

Low: 15

We woke up and made breakfast hastily so we could make it on time to the trolley tour, which was really fun, we made cool stops along the way to an encampment, George Washington’s headquarters and the Chapel. The Guide explained a lot about what it was like to be a revolutionary during that time. We came back to play football for awhile. When it got dark we played some mafia and when it got really dark we played a game of strategic man hunt with the other troop, Troop 28.

Sunday November 23^rd

Hi: 57

Low:36

There isn't much to say about Sunday, we packed up quickly and Mr. Bludgus made a quick speech and we were on our way.

Yours in scouting, Christian