Divine Lunacy

Introduction

I have put the writing of this summary off for sometime now. The only reason for my procrastination is laziness, but although procrastination is bad, it has given me time to think about how I intend to organize this. I had originally intended to make a straight chronology. I stick to my original plan, but with the addition of chapters, to add some sense of organization. I’ve written about 1.5 pages at this point, and I haven’t even finished the first day. For this reason, my experiences will be split across several blog posts. The cuts will be dependent on the volume of information.

The beginnings

It being summer vacation, I was accustomed to going to bed at 0100. Going to bed at 0100 is a bad idea for one who needs to wake up at 0300, but after trying to get to sleep since 2200 the previous day, I finally managed to sleep at 0100.

After a mere two hours of sleep, I woke up, put the finishing touches on my packing and departed for Logan airport. My lack of sleep made the whole experience feel surreal. I needed coffee…

Our flight was scheduled for departure at 0700. By then I had already devised a most ingenious plan to get coffee. Between my two personalities, it was decided that a large black coffee would be my main priority at our Layover in St. Louis. I spent a large amount of the first flight drawing graphs of orders four and five. (still haven’t completely completed that.)

By the time we disembarked from the plane, my want for coffee had consumed me. I needed coffee, and I needed it immediately, lest I fall into a deep caffeine deprived insanity. My wants were quickly satisfied, when upon looking around the Airport, I spied not one, but two Starbucks. I’ve always thought that those “Caution contents hot.” warnings on coffee cups were stupid, but when I tried to touch my coffee cup (without the cardboard insulator thing), my hands were instantly scalded. I learned a few very important lesson that day: Most importantly, never put the hole in the lid of the coffee cup over the seam in the cup; danger can happen, including, but not limited to dripping coffee on one’s class A (Class A = formal uniform). My uniform was stained, but it was all good, I had my coffee and it’s not like coffee stains show up well on khaki anyway…

Colorado is Hot!

The 2005 National Boy Scout Jamboree was in the news a lot this summer. Hearing about the it on the news reminded me of the great time I had at the 2001 Jamboree. One of the things I’ll never forget is the heat. I had been traveling on an air conditioned bus for several days, and even had to sleep on it one night. The bus was nice and cool, but it was 103 degrees (with humidity) at fort A.P. Hill. That day was miserable. Try setting up tents in an open field in that kind of heat. It just isn’t easy.

When we began our descent to Colorado springs, I once again began to feel this heat shock. The airplane’s air conditioning was no help. The heat was dry, and piercing. Such heat I had never felt. (hadn’t been anywhere so dry before.)

The Colorado spring airport is rather interesting. It is extremely small and it has a small feel. The decor and the maroon carpets everywhere give it a much more comfortable feel than most airports.

Peterson AFB: Colorado Springs, CO.

After picking up our luggage and 14-seater rental van, we made our way to the Peterson Airforce base, where we would be staying for the remainder of our visit in Colorado. I couldn’t help but remember my trip to D.C. In ‘99. We stayed at a Naval base and ate our meals at an Airforce base. We had to sleep on cold concrete floors and shower in open, military-style showers. Little was different this time, except that we were both staying and eating on the Airforce base, which was considerably smaller than the one in D.C.

Although we had reached our destination, the day was far from over. Before retiring, we went horseback riding, ate dinner at the AFB, and payed a visit to The Garden of the Gods.

I finally went to bed at 2300 (MDT), after being awake for 22 hours and jogging several laps around the parking lot. Even after the jogging, I didn’t feel tired enough to sleep.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 6th, 2005 at 1312:36 and is filed under Scouting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.