Question: what is an excellent way to celebrate George Washington's Birthday?
Answer: By camping out at Valley Forge in the winter, just like he did!
I'll bet camping with Boy Scouts (7 boys 4 leaders this trip) is similar to camping with the Continental Army. I bet we had fewer discipline problems.
Senior Patrol Leader Michael, and new scout, Fred, work on dinner...
...under the coaching eye of Scoutmaster Greg.
Meatball sandwiches, with green beans and potatoes. The green beans ran out first, by the way.
Fred, first time camper, thought the food was great.
Michael tries on warm boots.
Sitha dodges the camera.
Breezy is chilling. "Cold? I don't feel the cold"
It was a bit chilly, though. That denim bag in the front is actually a black nylon bag. We got a bit of frost overnight, but everyone slept pretty warm.
No camping is allowed in the Valley Forge National Historical Park, except Boy Scouts, and only once a year at Pawling's farm. This was the 100th annual sleepover. It was a big deal: 2000 campers, and about 4000 people for the day activities. It takes a lot of tents to Occupy Valley Forge.
After a pretty good night (lots of stars) we had a hearty breakfast (good eggs, Derence!)...
...and headed to the amphitheater for opening ceremonies.
This shot is apropos of nothing except to note that in the right light, scouts can look like zombies lurching down the hill.
I don't know, if they had colder nights that we did, they might BE zombies.
After that, we got demonstrations and history vignettes on cavalry,
manuevers and muskets, medicine,
and field artillery. This little chirping cricket made some chest-thumping noise.
It's usually hard to tell Nathan apart from the other boys.
Good-looking bunch of good campers.
We came, we camped, we got another patch!
(not actual patch, that comes later...)
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