MIC Day 5 - Thursday

MIC Day 5 – July 26, 2012


My taped bandages from last evening (on my blisters) needed changing after being dragged through the dirt last night on my way to and from patch trading. So went back to the health officer. It was great – he actually washed my feet, then dried them, then taped them up. The thing that I didn’t like was that he taped all my toes together to try to avoid the friction. Though it drove me nuts all day, I have to admit my blisters are no worse, and I have no new ones. He also had me wear a thin pair of socks under my hiking socks. Not sure if that helped or not but I did it.

Then breakfast, then the walk to Geo HQ. It’s getting routine. Unloaded our stuff, though not as much as it seemed like rain was coming again. The storms last night didn’t do any damage, other than probably some wet tents in the campsites. Though the commissioners were on standby to go alert the campers to move to safer areas.

We welcomed Blackfoot, our neighbors from across the street, to our 9:30 session. It had started to sprinkle by then so held opening under the canopy. Blackfoot consisted of scouts from Garden City, Michigan; Windsor, Ontario; Bonaire; and Ireland. I drew the short straw, actually a blessing for me because of my blisters, and stayed behind. Actually it was a bigger blessing than I had anticipated as it soon started pouring out. When everyone returned, they were all pretty wet.

Our second (and final for the day) group, at lunchtime, was late because they had been delayed by the downpour at shooting sports. Shawnee came from Lansing; Crete, Illinois; and Cumbria, England. Once they finally arrived, ate lunch, and were ready to go, we did the intro, again under the canopy, and then started off. I had a group of 8, including a leader from Crete. They did a great job, and the rain (for the most part) held off while we were hiking. Had some good geocaching and scouting conversations along the way.

After the session ended, we had been invited to “high tea” at Blackfoot, hosted by the Canadians from Windsor. I had met the Canadian leaders in April at the staff weekend, and they continued to be as friendly now as they were then. They even had me trying orange pekoe tea. I didn’t like it, but did take polite sips anyway. Along with biscuits, conversation, and a gift of a tiny Canadian flag pin, we had a good time. After tea we went back across the street to Geo HQ and brainstormed some more challenging caches for our open periods tomorrow afternoon and evening. Soon it was time to return to our cabins and dress in uniform for the international dinner.

We had been asked to sign up with a campsite at breakfast this morning, and I decided to eat with the Korean contingent so that I could try some of the foods that Scott has tried from Korea. Switzerland was the other international contingent in Chippewa, and they both served good food. Some kind of chicken soup with rice from the Koreans – not nearly as spicy as I thought (they may have toned it down for us Americans…) The Swiss made Apfel Kutchen and what I think was Russli – hash browns, bacon, with a fried egg on top. Oh, and a piece of Toblerone with a Swiss flag in it. Everything was good, I can’t wait until Saturday, though, when we can sample food from every country!

Then we walked over to the firebowl to see the Kwahadi Dancers, an Indian dance troup from Texas which is actually made up of a Venture Crew as well as Boy and Girl Scouts. The costumes were beautiful and the narration interesting, but I think I was too tired to really appreciate it, as well as dealing with sore feet. So I left after about 20 minutes, came back to the cabin, and got a shower in before the evening lines formed. Hope to get to bed early though there’s not much point as I doubt I could sleep through everyone else coming in. Two more days then home on Sunday.