Boy Scout Troop 81

Richardson, Texas

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Past Events / Campouts - 1999

Campouts/Events 2010 - Campouts/Events 2009
Campouts/Events 2008 - Campouts/Events 2007
Campouts/Events 2006 - Campouts/Events 2005
Campouts/Events 2004 - Campouts/Events 2003
Campouts/Events 2002 - Campouts/Events 2001
Campouts/Events 2000 - Campouts/Events 1999
Campouts/Events 1998 - Campouts/Events 1997

USS Lexington

Starting out on this campout was very different: we left on a bus at 10:00 P.M., driving through the night. In Corpus Christi the next morning, the bus stopped for breakfast, and then got to the Lexington at about 9:00 A.M., in time for some football on the beach. At 10:00 A.M. Troop 81 checked in on the Lexington.

After the orientation and welcome aboard ceremony, we took sack lunches to the Texas State Aquarium, ate there, and then toured it. At 2:30 all of us cleaned up the beach for a service project. After that everybody toured the ship seeing the bridge, flight deck, engine room, sick bay, fo'c'sle, fantail, admiral's quarters, and the control tower. Around 6:00 P.M. we had to sing for our supper. Then we had more tours, and we had a contest where 2 anti-aircraft guns were facing up and away from each other. Two scouts were manning each gun. The first team to rotate and lower the guns to face the other team won. After that, they showed movies, told ghost stories, and offered more tours. After an exhausting day, the 12 troops on board finally got to bed.

In the morning, we were awakened by a bugler's rendition of Reveille. Then we had a mustering out ceremony and left for San Antonio. In San Antonio, Troop 81 had lunch on the Riverwalk, and walked across the street to the Alamo. We had an hour to spend at the Alamo before our bus came to take us back to Richardson. We safely arrived back in Richardson at 9:30.

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Family Camp

The 1999 family camp was held at Fort Parker State Park near Mexia, TX. Many family members were there and stayed in cabins next to the lake, and one family slept in a tent. The best food was served this weekend by none other than Craig Cox and others. The Saturday dinner was rotisserie chicken, lasagna, and macaroni and chesse. Sunday's breakfast was eggstrada, cereal, and oatmeal. During Saturday's festivities, scouts made a rope bridge, a compass course, first aide station, and a station about how to set up your tent and how to build a fire. Also we had a Court of Honor Saturday night with an inspiring message from Mr. Kelly, followed by a camp fire and skits. The chubby bunny marshmellow eating contest was won by Mr. Lassiter. Sunday morning we were awakened by a cannon blast to eat breakfast, had flag lowering, and then left for home.

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Camporee

On March 26, Troop 81 left for Camporee, a competition between troops to see which troop knows their scouting skills best. After a one hour journey, Troop 81 arrived at Camp Grayson, only to find a campsite of pure dirt, and a leaky faucet. If you think the faucet was bad, you had obviously NOT listened to the weather report- thunderstorms and rain all day Saturday. Despite our position, Troop 81 managed to set up neatly, preparing for rain and mud.

In the morning, everyone woke up to what looked like a nice day. After we had a nice breakfast, Troop 81 went to the opening ceremonies at the main flagpole. There, we learned where the events were. We went to our first competition, the obstacle course. A few minutes before we were scheduled to begin, we got our first rain shower. It lasted only a few minutes, but these showers would continue all day. The obstacle course consisted of a log that we had to cross without falling off, a suspended tire that we had to jump through, a rope web that we had to crawl under, stepping stones that we had to cross, and a wall that we had to scale. Next on our agenda was the model campsite. We finished the obstacle course early, so we had a half-hour of free time. In the model campsite, we found 5 things wrong with the campsite, 5 things right with the campsite, and had to make a campsite of our own. Then we were scheduled to go to orienteering. The orienteering course was set up so that there is a question for each part of it. When we found the correct stake, it had the answer on top of it. When we finished with that, it was lunch time, so Troop 81 went back to our campsite finding it pretty dry. After a good lunch, we took part in a skit contest. Troop 81 did one of our famous skits involving water. After receiving full points for the contest, we went to first aid. It had begun to rain harder, so they moved it inside into the dining hall. When it started to rain really hard, they closed all of the events and moved the people into the dining hall. Trying to do first aid on dummies is hard enough without being crowded by hundreds of people. Even though we got through first aid, when we got back to our campsite, there was foot-deep mud. Peoples' shoes were getting stuck in the mud, and the shoes that were still on peoples' feet had pounds of mud caked up on them. Somehow we managed to cook dinner over a fire, and miraculously made it to the campfire. Because it was raining, the campfire, awards ceremony and OA tap-out were held indoors. Troop 81 placed third in the bugling contest, second in the skit contest, and second overall. The Webelos scouts that were with us placed fourth overall. One adult and four scouts from Troop 81 were tapped out: Craig Cox, Matt Lassiter, Chase Russell, Scott Steger, and Brian Thompson. After we got back to our campsite, we had another hour until taps was played.

In the morning, we were awakened by a bugler playing reveille. We loaded extremely muddy tents into our trailers and headed for Richardson. Even though the weather did not cooperate, Troop 81 had a great time!

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Summer Camp

For a week in July, 46 kids and six adults in Troop 81 went to summer camp at Camp Constantin on Possum Kingdom Lake. Troop 81 camped in Echo Valley. The day that we got there, we had to take a swim test. While we were sitting on the dock, it started to rain. These showers would haunt us for the rest of the week.

Monday, we all got up, had breakfast, and started our merit badge classes, or TFC (In the rain!). After lunch we had more merit badge classes, and more rain. However, it stopped raining after dinner, just in time for Possum Fest, a waterfront party where you can swim, blob, sail, canoe, and row. Tuesday was no different from Monday, but instead of Possum Fest, we had Troop Blob at night and it didn't rain as much.

Wednesday morning, most of the Troop 81 scouts went on the Hell's Gate Canoe Trip. We almost missed the whole trip because Mr. Cox forgot to set his alarm clock. So, he did not get the senior patrol leader up. The senior patrol leader didn't get the patrol leaders up. The patrol leaders didn't get the participants up. We woke up 2 minutes before we were supposed to leave on the canoe trip. However, we got back in time for breakfast. Then the usual--merit badge classes and Trail to First Class activities. At 4:00PM, the first year scouts left to hike to Johnson's Peak. They camped at the base of the peak on Wednesday night. One first year scout did not pack a sleeping bag or a ground cloth, but made sure he packed 6 cans of soda!

Thursday, the first year scouts hiked up to the top of Johnsons' Peak and back into camp. Most of the merit badge classes were finished. We made ice cream and had a troop campfire, despite thunderstorm warnings. From our camp site, we could see lightning across the lake, but we stayed dry.

Friday morning all merit badge classes were finished. If any requirements remained, this was the last time to finish up. Families began to arrive in the afternoon to camp with the troop. In the afternoon, there was a mile swim. That night we had a nice dinner with our parents and another party. The party consisted of a regatta, troop-made raft race, and wacky relay. Then we had an OA Tap-out ceremony in which Ben Nichols got tapped-out.

Each day, one partrol had to make a camp gadget. By the end of the week, there was a cooler holder, entrance, swing, and a tripod. There were only two injuries that week--one first year got four staples in his scalp when the poorly-constructed tripod fell. The other emergency was when another first year got dehydrated, even though Mr. Herrin gave you a Winnie-the-Pooh hat if you were caught out of camp without a water bottle, and an Elmo hat for hat violations.

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