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Surrounded by unbelievably accessible Tennessee beauty, we drove through hills and towns to Camp Buck Toms and retrieved who we now know, is one of the noisiest members of our family. In his absense, it was a quiet weekend!

His face was full of sleepy joy sitting there on the bench with his den buddies, waiting for us. He seemed fairly clean but all his gear was wet from the storm. He didn’t have a cold as I feared, nor was he overly releived to see us or be leaving. He had a BLAST. I’m so, so glad we dealt with our hesitations and let him go!

From the weekend, he hasn’t changed his undies in four days. He slept in his clothes. Never showered, nor was taken for the chance to do so (they swam too much, said he). His tent was flooded and he borrowed a sleeping bag to make it through the overnight backpacking trip. They didn’t serve a single vegetable. He’d had nothing but processed meat, ice cream, chocolate, milk, and popsicles for four days, and with no running water or flushing toilets, hadn’t gone in 4 days. The boys took turns searching each other for ticks and saw a snake in the latrine.

They also shot targets, did science experiments, built a bridge and a closed circuit and a catapoult. They hiked a trail, took a swimming test, and boated around the lake. They stayed up late, late, late talking, roasted marshmallows on the campfire, and got to know boys from other packs. They chased a skunk out from under a tent and killed spiders and ants and shared snacks from bear proof boxes.

I’m glad my birds are all back in the nest but I’m just as glad we booted him out and he got to fly a bit. Now, convincing him he needs a nap just might be harder than letting him go!

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