Sat. Aug. 7th. Its scout camp out night. This has been a bit of a tradition on City Island for the past several seasons. Usually I don't think too much about it, because its just a bunch of Scouts and their leaders camping out in the outfield overnight. My participation in the past has been limited to roping off the infield and watching them file in as we're finishing up our work for the evening. I may have stayed around for 15 or 20 minutes after the work is done, but that's about it. But this year I would be in full participation. As you may or may not remember, I acquired an older VW bus/camper. I haven't really used it for camping other than sleeping in it out in the driveway at my brother-in-law's house in Delaware over the 4th of July. Now this wouldn't really be considering full fledged camping either, but to me, its roughing it. That evening's game was running a bit long and when it did finally end, we still had the ever-present Launch-A-Ball and the kids base race. And, of course, there were a gazillion kids there for the camp out. So until everything finished it was getting late. I finally was able to pull the van right onto the warning track and took a spot right in front of the home dugout. I had brought provisions for the evening (beer) and for the next morning (eggs, sausage, bagels, the grill, etc..) so I plugged in the on board frig. and moved all the breakfast stuff inside from the cooler and checked the beer to see if it was nice and cold(yep!) The scouts were all getting situated and I was getting set up as well, setting up the chairs for : Movie Time, Movie Time! That is Tim's catch-phrase for, well, movie time. They always have a movie for the kids and now that we have the new scoreboard, its pretty convenient. Nobody has to go anywhere, just kick back and relax by your tent and watch. When its over, you climb in you sleeping bag and fall asleep. But the movie is for the scouts. For the rest of us its beer drinkin' time, beer drinkin' time. We all headed back to the back picnic area, out of sight, out of mind and popped some tops and talked and laughed until about 2:30 in the morning. I almost forgot, too. It was alumni night on the grounds crew with former head groundskeeper, Ryan Schmidt in attendance. He was last on the job in 2oo5 so it was great to have him back in the house. Ryno now works at Lebanon Valley College as head groundskeeper for football, baseball, and softball. He slid right back into the job like he never left. After everybody dispersed for the night I stumbled back to the van, I discovered that I forgot to inflate the air mattress,so rather than start up the electric pump and disturb everybody I just climbed in and went to sleep. After several beers, it didn't take long. The next morning, though, sleeping on just the seat cushions took its toll. I was as stiff as a board, groggy and had a ferocious headache. But I managed to get up and wander around for a bit, taking care of a few things to get ready for the next game, which fortunately was at 6 PM instead of 2 PM. That gave me some wiggle room to go home clean up, get to church, and grab a nap before I had t be back. After a bit, I pulled the van back around to the back lower picnic area and broke out the grill and started cooking breakfast for myself and the other guys. I wasn't sure if trying to make breakfast on my portable grill was going to work, but it actually worked out great and everyone had a great start to their day. Knute, who rarely eats breakfast, said that this breakfast actually helped him make it through the day and Tim said his was the best bagel sandwich he ever had. So we all survived another scout camp out, I learned a few things about camping, and the Sens won the evening game. All's well that ends well. Until next time, later...
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