The Bivouac!

Okay folks...grab a cup of hot cocoa or something and get comfy. This is going to be massive. Quick Note: I'm referring to all cadets by their first names, simply to keep last names of my blog.

Let's start out by defining some terms.
Bivouac: Pronounced "biv-wack" or, "camping," this is where you go out in the woods and live in tent (pronounced "mud puddle") for a couple days.
MRE: This stands for Meal Ready to Eat. You'll find it in the military surplus store with the rest of the cat food.
24-Hour Pack: This holds all the stuff you would need if you were on a ground team mission for 24 hours, and I use "you" in the sense of "Daniel Boone."
Hike: This is what we call it when we go into the woods and walk, either on the trail, off the trail, in the mud, or...in the mud. Pretty much.
CQ: Charge of Quarters. They walk around and keep everyone awake at night, so that we will be alert if any intruders should intrude.

It began Friday afternoon, when 8 cadets and two senior members met up at our squadron's headquarters to ride up to the bivouac. We loaded the van (10 people plus all their stuff...) and headed out.

Once we got there, Sarah and I set up the tent we were sharing. Then we sloshed back through the mud, grabbed our gear, put it in our tent, and found whatever staff members we needed to talk to. I found Joanna (actually, she found me), who was the other public affairs staff member. We found schedules, and I started taking pictures. The cadets continued arriving and setting up. Friday evening pretty much consisted of in-processing, setting up, getting the cadets into flights, and The Building of The Fire. Well, the excitement consisted moreso of The Positioning Of The Grate Legs So The Grate Will Fit On Top, but whatever.

Around 2200, we headed out on a night hike. As our group walked through the woods, we observed several items, such as a vest, that we picked up as we walked on our way to the flashing SOS beacon that we saw. Unfortunately, we weren't supposed to a) pick up the items or b) find the beacon, so when we were informed of this by the second group, we melted into the woods in embarrassment at our prowess, skill, and observational abilities. Melting into the woods (and I use the term "melting" very loosely) meant that we had to rely on our cat-like vision to navigate around puddles, trees, logs, mud, other people, etc. Judging by the sound effects, most of the hikers did not have cat-like vision.

After a midnight staff meeting, we headed to bed (and I am also using the term "bed" loosely). A train roared by every so often, it was freezing cold, and the ground was bumpy. I was on the verge of sleep when my tent buddy said, "Would it be a bad time to say that I have to go to the bathroom?" We escaped CQ and went off (at least the girls were allowed to use the bathroom in the house...finding that out was a story all to itself, involving awkwardness and near-hysterical giggling after the incident occurred). Then, after we had gotten back to our tent...the cadet in the tent a couple inches away from ours started snoring. I'm glad to know that at least one person slept fairly well, I'm sure.

Finally, in the morning, around 0630 or so, Sarah and I rousted ourselves out of our tent. We bemoaned our one hour of sleep as we stalked to the bathroom to prepare for what we knew would be a long day. We both had a hatred for the birds, who chirped loudly, cheerfully, and incessantly. They had gotten a full night of sleep, so why couldn't they just shut up and let us be tired and grumpy, we reasoned. After breakfast and getting wood for the fire, Bravo Flight went on a hike to identify safety hazard. My camera and I attached ourselves to Bravo. After the hike, one of the cadet officers, Matthew, taught us a class on shelter building. After going over some basics, he had each pair of cadets build a shelter. Then, he walked around and identified what he liked, or what he saw that could be problems, with each shelter.

Next, Alpha and Bravo flights had a class on fire building. Then they set fire to the cadet commander's tent. NO! Then they split up into four groups and built fires. Then they tried to light them. Some had better success than others, by which I mean, they all got them lit -- it's just that some went out after about ten seconds. Then we had lunch.

After lunch, the cadets were taken out to the woods where there was a very large log laying on the ground. Each flight was given a cross-cut saw and instructions, and the competition was on! The flights were motivated, and they were really close. It took close to an hour to saw through, and at the end they used a log as a lever to break the bark on the underside of the log. After that, we moved the log to camp, put it next to the fire, and used it to sit on. Of course.

Okay...have you ever wondered how you transport people from a plane crash out in the woods to an ambulance on the road? It's called a litter, and the next thing we learned how to do was using one. Basically, you put the victim (but never call them that -- you make up a name for them and call them by that name if necessary) in the litter, strap them in, and off you go. Random Bit of Trivia: You can tip the person upside down and they won't fall out of the litter. So our motto is: We may drop you, but you won't fall out! Comforting words to calm the quaking soul... I personally was carried in the litter for about half of a half of a journey -- it was interesting, and by that, I mean the treetops were pretty, but it was a little scary listening to the commentary, which centered on warnings of obstacles and near-drops.

The rest of Saturday was a few more classes, supper, closing formation, and a night hike with the litter (and its occupants). Saturday night, even though the same cadet snored again, I slept much better. Maybe exhaustion level is related to the ability to fall asleep.

Sunday morning was it...the exercise. Somewhere out there was a (simulated) plane crash, and its pilot. We had to find him and get him out. My camera and I headed out with Alpha Flight, and we marched around in brush for quite some time, and then struck out through some wood. It was raining slightly, fairly chilly, and muddy. We came across an open area -- I couldn't quite call it a field, but it was fairly open. Bravo Flight had arrived before we had and was already scouring the area. We found pieces from the airplane, and when I arrived, the medics were already tending to the victim, named Dan. His legs were duct taped together, and he was loaded into the litter and we headed out. We all met up at camp and had closing formation. Okay, here's the funny part: During closing formation, the sky turned from completely gray to completely blue. Go figure.

We packed up...and...left. Pretty much. It was sad. And I have mentioned pictures...they are all on facebook. If you don't know how to see them, contact me and I'll send you the link. I frankly was too lazy to upload a hundred here when they're just a couple clicks away :)

Thanks for reading!

A Blog Post

I'm starting to get a compulsive-blogging feeling, brought on mainly by the fact that I haven't blogged in 16 days. So here is an update, with promises to blog again. Next week. With pictures. Yep :)

I ought to put something, like a paragraph, in here about Easter, mostly because it happened and this blog documents happenings for those of you who are fortunate unfortunate enough not to be here with us. We had some of my mom's relatives over, and had a nice time visiting with them. We also did some church things, namely, a church breakfast, and a cantata by the choir (said cantata involved several of us who sang in the choir, did sign language along with one of the songs for a special effect, and ran the sound system and videotaping).

Last weekend, our friend Kim had a birthday party :) About 8 girls went over to her house for a sleepover. We had a fun time playing some games and talking. The next day, our Awana club had its 2nd annual in-house olympics. We've been practicing the games for it for several weeks, and all the clubbers did well. I was the line leader for the Green Team. We came in fourth place, but we still had fun. The Blue Team came in first, and that was the team with Hosanna and Josh, with Jessica as a leader.

A few evenings ago, Jessica and I headed to town. She had a political meeting, and then she was going to the college library to do some research and read a book that she has to read for college. I went along because I wanted a change of pace. We parked at the White Inn, which is where the political meeting was, and then walked down to the ATM machine that was at the drive-through bank. Jessica hopped from sidewalk crack to sidewalk crack. I considered walking the opposite direction. After the bank, she headed back to the White Inn, and I strolled down to the park and sat on a bench and did my math. After I started getting goosebumps (why did I not bring a jacket? I asked myself), I headed into the library. Then I did several more lessons of math.

(Okay, okay, okay...the last sentence is a total lie. I didn't even open my math book. I have a book at the library that I read every time I go there -- it's taken me several months and I'm not even halfway -- so I read that instead. Sigh. Doing several lessons of math sounds a lot better, though...)

The library closes at 8:00. Jessica was supposed to drive down and get me before then, but I could tell the librarians were ready to close, so I put my book back, grabbed my math, and walked back to the White Inn (which was an adventure all to itself...however, since I don't feel like posting *that* on my blog for the world to see, if you're interested, just contact me somehow). I got to the van before Jessica did. So of course there was only one thing to do: hide in the back and say "Hello, ma'am," in a low voice, to scare her. I need to work on my guy-voice...

Next stop....the college library. I figure that I'm the only person ever to do Algebra 1 there. It was interesting to see the college kids. Jessica made the observation that college students are not nearly as mature as she thought they would be (I guess she would know). That explains why she was hopping on sidewalk cracks again. But I still had to act like a mature highschooler. :P

And then, McDonalds. We were hungry, and Starbucks was too expensive. So we got some food and located a table and sat there and did our respective school work. I felt much better about doing my Algebra 1 there, as opposed to a college. Colleges seem to have a pervading atmosphere of intellectual things, like trigonometry. In McDonald's, however, the pervading atmosphere is one such that Algebra 1 ranks quite near the top -- possibly above the top-- of intellectual-ness. It made me feel better about myself, is what I think I'm trying to say.

Several tables away from us (and on the other side of a wall) was a table at which Bill, Jane, Doris, and Mark were sitting. I am pretty sure that is what their names were. They had several very interesting (and somewhat loud) conversations, on politics, space, health, and so on. Finally, toward the end, we hard on of them say, "How do we get out?" We could only assume that these four people (and they were all the "senior citizen" age) had been sitting in McDonald's for quite some time; days, even; potentially weeks, unable to locate the exit. At that point, it had gotten fairly late, so we went home.

So that about brings us up to speed. Add in school work and the sundry activities that we're involved in, and you've pretty much got it. And I think that wraps up the post for today, folks!