Summertime, and the living is...

Another hot (I should have said HOT!) day in Virginia. We are anxiously awaiting the Scouts to come tomorrow. I think all the exhibits are up (or will be after a long night tonight). The Trading Post was closed this morning for Church. I headed to the Staff Dining Hall in Area B for the Church of Christ service conducted by the MCCS (Members of the Church of Christ for Scouting). They had 10,000 Bibles printed to distribute here and have approximately 17 or 18 Chaplins here to work with all the Subcamps. They are conducting Services all over the Jamboree site next Sunday and will present the Bibles to those who attend. I met lots of CofC Scouters and wanted to visit with them afterwards but I had to run to get my car to the "Dead Storage". It had to be removed from the Jamboree site for the duration. I got it parked, caught the bus back and ran to my 11:00 meeting (10 minutes late).

I worked on the first shift today and the customers were steady. (They told us that our Trading Post brought in $138,000 on our first day and the Scouts have not even arrived yet.) We closed at 5:00 today because there was supposed to be a big arena show for the staff tonight. Unfortunately, a storm was headed this way and we secured the tents and prepared for the worst. We received only a welcome reduction in the heat. The men of "Tent 2" declared themselves the "Broken Chair Patrol" due to two broken chairs already. Here is a photo of the group.

Ian called tonight from D.C. He is having a GREAT time. I hope to be at the site tomorrow when they arrive. It will be good to see the kiddo. I think Keri is missing us too.

Irritable and Hot With No Place To Sit!

Trading Post C opened this morning and the crowd was lined up around the corner. Most of them were looking for one of the limited edition items with only 2010 produced. Once those are gone, the numbers will die back down. However, each day of the jamboree we will be selling a "Patch of the Day". These represent some special event of the day and may only be purchased in the Trading Post beginning at 9:00 each day when the TP opens. They are only producing 2010 of each patch and dividing them between the three TPs. The crowd will be huge and there will be many people disappointed. Staff must find someone to stand in line for them but that person can only buy one. Therefore they can either buy one for themselves or one for me. It is an impossible situation that is going to create more problems then they can imagine. I'm just glad that I'm not the "genius" that thought of this scheme.

Last night they had a barbecue for the staff. For some strange reason, we were sent to Wilcox Dining Hall instead of Longstreet (right next door). Most of us didn't have cars and the meal was around 8 miles away. It was an interesting task getting everyone to supper.

I am amazed at the extent of the jamboree. The footprint is approximately 3 miles by 5 miles and every inch of it is packed with events or people. I drove over to Ian's campsite and we are literally at opposite ends of the 5 mile stretch. Needless to say, we will need to take the bus.

I begin work this evening. My shift runs from 6:30 - 9:30. Things were pretty rough this morning, but I'm hoping they will have straightened out the problems before then.

2010 National Scout Jamboree

I have arrived at Fort A. P. Hill (about 30 miles north of Richmond, VA for the 100th Anniversary Scout Jamboree. I, and 9000 of my closest friends and on staff and are here to get ready for the 40,000 Boy Scouts which arrive on Monday. I am working in one of the Trading Posts and we are stocking it for our opening on Saturday. It is 1000 degrees F in the shade and we are sleeping in military tents. We have electricity, so we have fans and lights. The Scouts do not, so I have a battery operated fan awaiting Ian.

He is traveling with the Arkansas group and they are exploring Gettysburg tomorrow before heading on to Washington, D.C. I have some photos and will try to post them tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm going to get a shower and cool off before trying to sleep. I know, TMI.