A Rough Start

Scout trip to Maine Day 1. Everything actually got off to a good start. All the scouts arrived on time for our early departure of 8AM, and we were actually able to start driving 10 minutes early. The drive north to Maine is always only supposed to take around 6 hours (to where we were sleeping the first night), but as is almost always the case with the bottleneck of interstates just north of Boston, we hit traffic and the driving was extended by an hour and a half. Not a big deal, I expected as much and that was part of the reason for leaving around 8 in the morning. One of the dads before we left sent a text to the parent group guessing that the ride up was going to be quiet due to all the scouts being on their phones and the ride home being quiet due to exhaustion. Well, after our first stop on the way up to use the restroom, a number of the scouts satiated their sugary desires with sodas and candy and within minutes of being back in the van, they were going bonkers. I honestly didn’t mind and instead was laughing at the hilarity of it; 8 scouts singing the 3 words they know to “Sweet Caroline” and mumbling the rest at the top of their lungs. The sugar and artificial dye eventually dwindled, but that was quickly replaced by an energy that could only be attributed to excitement and being stuck in close proximity to other teenagers for an extended period of time in a van.

We stopped for lunch at a Subway after we crept through that gnarled traffic for an hour. It became apparent that a few of them had only eaten at a true fast food place where you order a specific meal and go on your way instead of a Subway where they ask what type of bread, what toppings, etc. etc. one wants on their sandwich. It was amusing, but more amusing was that they thought they were going to eat those sandwiches while driving in the rental van which I would need to return clean.

“Absolutely not,” I said, “I know how you teenagers eat!”

We ate inside, taking up most of the tables, gassed up the van, and carried on the short distance further to one of the adult’s friend’s house on the water across from Acadia National Park. It was a beautiful spot and we had tents on loan to set up. The scouts got their stuff all set, played football in the yard for a bit, one of them discovered a distinct fear of tics after we took a group walk down to the water, and shortly after we headed out to a local diner called Governor’s for dinner. When we got there, one of the scouts quickly disappeared into the bathroom and remained there for a while. Upon his return to our dining tables, we asked what happened and he complained of his stomach feeling a little off. Nothing had yet happened in the bathroom, so we told him to take it easy on dinner and not overstuff himself or get food that was too heavy for him. The rest of the scouts luckily didn’t cause too much of a ruckus and we were able to leave of our own accord. It was a nice dinner, not too expensive, but also not that quick.

Finally returning to the house and our tents for the night, most of the scouts decided to throw the football around, a few tried to play D&D in their tents, and the adults chatted on the porch till about 10PM at which time we called lights out due to an early departure in the morning in order to get to base camp between 8&9 the following morning which was still a 3 hour drive away farther north. Instead of unpacking my gear, I opted to stay in the barn on an old couch. I tossed and turned for an hour or so until I heard a knock on the barn door with the announcement that the scout whose stomach was feeling off had in fact vomited all over his tent. Taking a peek inside of the tent, I knew it was too much to clean at that hour as we all needed to sleep, so I had the two scouts who had been in that tent move into the barn and I went to try and sleep in the van. After another hour or so of tossing and turning and not really sleeping, at the early hour of 12:30AM, I get a phone call that the same scout who vomited was now having other issues. I went to the barn to find out that food poisoning or something else had taken hold and it was now coming out both ends. Without going into all the messy details, suffice it to say that I and another adult were up till almost 2 getting the scout cleaned up after which the other adult brought all his soiled laundry to a 24 hour laundromat in case this scout was able to continue on the trip.

I finally got the scouts back and somewhat comfortable in the barn and I attempted to eek out at least 2 hours of sleep. I maybe got a few 10 minute stints, and with the sky turning light around 3:30, I was waking up and ready to make coffee to try and survive the next day. Once we got all the scouts up around 4:30 to pack their stuff and get in the van to head to Dunkin for breakfast sandwiches and coffee, myself and the other sleepless adult bleary eyed, somewhat vampirish waiting for the initial burst of caffeine to kick in, we got the scout who was sick to talk to their mom and between the two of them decided that it was best if he not continue on the trip. It was unfortunate as he seemed to be doing better, but it wasn’t my decision to make. So on Saturday morning, instead of heading to base camp with 8 scouts, we would be arriving with only 7. It was a rough start, but sometimes, things happen and you have to adjust accordingly as we did. Just because one scout had a rough start didn’t mean we weren’t going to make the best of it, we just had to alter things slightly. So Day 1 was an adventure in itself. One glimmer in the darkness of that sleepless night was glancing up at 1:30 AM and being able to see the Milky Way bright a distinct overhead. The rest of the trip will come….