The Busy Week That Was for Life in J.T.'s World

This past week certainly was a busy one for Life in JT’s World. There were two baseball games with a Spelunking adventure thrown in between for fun. Combine that with the semi-annual High Point Furniture Market and you have quite a week.

Let’s recap all of the excitement:

Thursday: Night Baseball Game Against the Reds
The Reds are the best team in the 14 team Triad MSBL baseball league. They had the best record in the league last year and they recruited more players for this year’s version. We played in the wonderful Stoner White Stadium, but that did not change the outcome. I went 0 – 3 at the plate, hitting into 3 ground outs. The highlight was that I pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief and struck out 2 batters.

Friday – Sunday: Boy Scout Campout to Lost World Caverns in WV.
We got on the Troop bus around 6:00 pm and arrived at the campsite in WV sometime after 11:00 pm. We set up camp and were in bed just before 1:00 AM. Around 28 of us in all were camping on this trip

At 7:00 AM we got up and prepared breakfast. J.T. was his patrol’s cook for the weekend, meaning that he had to cook for 7 boys counting himself. He made very good Ham and Cheese Omelets for that breakfast.

Around 9:30 am we got back on the bus for the 20 minute ride to the Lost World caverns. ( http://www.lostworldcaverns.com/ ). After we arrived, we got our initial briefing and put on our Spelunking equipment: gloves, kneepads, and hardhat with headlamps. They took a “before” picture of the group in case we didn’t all make it back from the adventure.

We headed into the caverns around 11:00 am for our 4 plus hour, underground adventure. The first part of the tour we followed the normal tour path, viewing the Stalactites and Stalagmites and other interesting formations. Then our guides told us to cross over the railing and follow them. This is where it got interesting. For the next 4 hours and 3 ½ miles we walked, climbed, crawled, slid, and shimmied our way through the caverns. It was an amazing experience. There was one section that lasted about 100 yards where the ceiling was probably no more than 2 – 2 ½ ft high. I had to lay out flat and pull myself along with my arms. James did great and usually was the first person in line behind the lead guide during our trek.

There were areas with names like “The Sewer”, “The Drain”, & “The Birth Canal”. This was not for the faint of heart by any means.

I decided to pass on “The Birth Canal”, so I was rewarded with another football field length arm pull on the alternate route.

Everyone made it out successfully and had a good time. It was quite a work out. You could not believe how muddy the kids were at the end of it all. I just threw my clothes away, since washing them would have been a lost cause anyway.

The Guides (3 in all) took pictures of us during the tour and will send them to us on a CD in a couple of weeks. I will post some then.

The rest of the campout was rather uneventful after that. James cooked another great meal for his patrol and we packed up on Sunday Morning and returned back home.

Sunday Night: Baseball Game.
After resting for a couple hours, it was time to play a night baseball game. This game was against the Orioles. Although we played them closely, we lost again. This time I was 2 – 3 hitting, with 2 rbi’s. This brought my batting average back up to 0.500 for the season. I also pitched in relief again. I pitched 3 innings this time. The first 2 were scoreless, but after some errors they score a few runs in the last inning I pitched.

All in all it was a very good week. Now all I have to do is great ready for this coming weekend’s 5K run with Madison.

After more than 25 years I discover that Winter Camping is still cold

Hello again! Before I start my revelation about the experiences of camping in a tent when it is below freezing, I want to share some learnings about the difficulty of keeping good habits.

I've decided that writing and blogging is a good habit that I am trying to keep. This is a great way to share family happenings and stay in touch. Ive also decided that this is a lot like dieting. You know that it is a good thing that you are doing, and when you are keeping to it on a regular basis it is not to hard to stick to. BUT...If you take a break from it for even little bit, then it becomes very difficult to get back on the wagon and get yourself into the good habit routine.

Today Iam trying to get myself back into the good habit routine.

So back to the topic at hand....Camping When It is Below Freezing.

A week ago, (you see, time lags when you get out of the good habits), James and I went camping with two patrols from Troop 42. This was a special campout that only included the youngest scouts and focused on completing some necessary requirements for their early ranks. We had 10 boys and 2 others adults besides myself.

We spent two nights at camp Cherokee, which had a much different look to it, compared to how it appeared during Summer camp. We had the entire camp to ourselves for the weekend.

The boys learned about First Aid and we spent time practicing fire starting skills and teaching boys how to cook over camp stoves and campfires. The pace of the campout was not rushed, because we didn't have to really be anywhere at a special time.

Aside from the twentysome degree nights, it was a really nice way to spend the weekend.

It wasn't the extreme cold that I remember from years ago during the Polar Bear Campouts with snow on the ground in Ohio, but it was still cold enough to bring back many of those memories. We all bundled up and made it through the nights, with plenty of hot chocolate and hand warmers to keep us warm.

We wore pleny of layers and James and I broke out our new warm fleece long underwear and doubled up our sleeping bags at night. Toasty might not be the right word, but we weren't cold.

I am glad I did not have to camp in the cold again this weekend, but I can still say that I had a good time and I will do it yet again in the future.

As we reach the end of the year, I will focus my efforts on keeping my good habits and setting my New Year's resolutions to keep at it.

until next time.......

Surrounded By the Colors of Fall

Amidst the splendor of Fall colors, James and I spent our weekend backpacking with the Boy Scouts. This month’s campout was at Pilot Mountain State Park in North Carolina.

The theme for this camping trip was Backpacking. This was to be James' first backpacking experience, and my first in over 25 years. We had spent the previous two weeks preparing for this trip. We had older scouts present proper gear to bring and how to pack our packs. We took a practice 5 mile hike with weights in our small packs to simulate what we would be going through. We even had to bring our packed packs in to a meeting to be reviewed to make sure that we weren’t bringing unnecessary gear along for the trip.

Despite all of the preparation, the only way to know for sure if you are ready is to just do it! We had 16 boys and 10 adults go on what was supposed to be a 5.5 mile backpacking hike. We left early Saturday morning and drove to the park. We dropped off our packs and gear at the beginning of the trail and then spent the next 30 minutes shuttling the cars to the campsite at the end of the trail.

Once everything was ready, we started our hike. The temperature was in the 50’s at the start of the hike and moved into the 60’s during the day. The weather was perfect. We were surrounded by the color filled forest as we hiked along. About the halfway point, we stopped and had our lunch by the trail. At this point, everyone had been keeping up and doing pretty well.

After lunch things got a little tougher. The packs seemed to get heavier and each successive hill was a little more difficult to climb. The group started to get further spread apart. It was also becoming evident that the trail was longer than advertised.

James, like many of the other boys was struggling during the second half of the hike. I moved his tent from his pack to mine to lighten his load by about 6 pounds. This helped a little, but not enough.

Finally, I took his whole pack, as well as mine (50 lbs total), and allowed him just to hike. We probably did this arrangement for about 2 miles or so of the hike.

Our 5.5 mile hike, end up being our 7.5 – 8.0 miles in length, but everyone made it to the campsite!

One we reached the campsite everyone set up their tents and relaxed a little before it was time to prepare dinner.

The boys had to chop up the vegetables for their dinner, while I lit the charcoal for them to cook over. Once the charcoal was hot and ready, the boys prepared their individual foil packs with a sirloin burger and their choice of: potatoes, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, and spices. They placed them on the coals, flipped them after 10 minutes and let them cook for 10 more minutes.

They turned out great and the hungry boys really enjoyed them.

Now it was time for desert. They boys had peeled and cut up some apples into small chunks. They then took a ½ of a pre-made pie crust, added apples, cinnamon, white sugar, and brown sugar to it. Folded the crust in half and sealed the edges to make a sealed pie. They wrapped it in foil and put it on the coals for 20 minutes, flipping once halfway through.

The apple pies turned out great! It was a recipe that I had invented earlier in the week and had tried it out on the family at home to make sure that the boys would like it.

As night fell, we spent some time looking at the numerous stars in the sky and enjoying the peacefulness. Then we moved to the campfire for warmth before retiring to our tents for the night.

The temperature dropped below freezing overnight and a frost developed by morning. The boys hurried to get a fire going to get warm as soon as they woke up.

After breakfast, we packed up our gear and patrolled the campsite to make sure it was as nice as we had found it. Then we held a short church service there in the wilderness.

Finally, it was time to head home after another wonderful camping experience.