9/20-22/13 Eight Boy Scouts from Troop 100, three adult leaders, and I rode the troop bus from Seattle and spent three days at Camp Serendipity: Friday through Sunday. We were joined by two other adult leaders later on.

Of the four adults on the bus, three of us are named Paul. There was Paul Hendricks, the scoutmaster, Paul McMurtry and me. Roger Smith was our bus driver. The eight boys rode in the back of the bus which was loaded with all our gear.

We arrived at Camp Serendipity in the dark at about 9 PM. The boys set up their tent camp in the parking area and they carried most of the gear up to the porch before turning in.

On Saturday morning, Paul H got up early and cooked a delicious breakfast of ham and French toast. Ernie, who is looking very old now, sneaked off with a couple slices of French toast when nobody was looking. Bert opted out of climbing up to the porch and visited with the boys down below instead.

The boys spent most of their time up in the loft doing their annual planning for the troop activities. During one of the breaks, as a service project, the boys pitched in and moved a bunch of rocks for me that had been left in the roadway near the old trailer site. One of the rocks was very big and required chains and a come-along in order to move it. I was extremely happy to have that work done.

The boys also erected a flagpole and tamped it into the hole I had dug the previous week. From now on I will be able to fly the flag at Camp Serendipity. It's about time. I shot a video of the first flag-raising ceremony using that flagpole.

In the afternoon, Brian Kemly drove up and joined us. A few days earlier I had "butt dialed" Brian, probably because his name was at the top of my cell phone list. It was our good fortune that he called back to return my call because in the ensuing conversation, I told him that the scouts would be up at Camp Serendipity. It just so happened that Brian was going to be heading home from Wenatchee on Saturday so he said he might drop by. We were all delighted that he did. He had dinner with us and spent the night on the porch. Paul H also slept on the porch as he always does. Paul McMurtry slept in the living room and Roger slept in the loft. I slept in the bedroom.

Paul H cooked a wonderful beef pot roast with potatoes, carrots, onions, and gravy for our dinner.

On Sunday morning, Paul H made a great breakfast in the Dutch ovens of hash browns, eggs, and ham. About the time we finished eating, Bill Dunnell showed up. He had come from Wenatchee and needed to pick up a couple boys to get them home early enough for a soccer game. While he was there, I opened up the bronze model of Mt. Rainier and showed it to Paul Mc, Roger, and Bill, none of whom had seen it before. Bill has a plaster version but he had never seen the bronze one.

The boys finished up their planning activities and then we packed up to leave for home. It rained a little off and on as we were packing up, but the really hard rain waited until we were on the road. The batteries on the bus are old and not too reliable, so Roger and Brian had to jumper the bus from Brian's truck in order to get the bus started. We had no problems after that.

It rained cats and dogs as we drove over the mountains and it was still raining when we stopped at Zeke's for milkshakes on the way home. But by the time we got to Monroe, the sun had come back out and it was dry in Seattle. It was a delightful end to a delightful weekend.