Venturers

Venturers is a part of the Boy Scouts that is for high school girls and boys. Raeley went on her first Venturing trip a few weekends ago and I got to be the female chaperone. I was so excited, it was so much fun! And I was proud of myself for braving the cold weather.

40 degrees = cold in my book.

As a matter of fact, none of the kids complained. I was very impressed with this group of kids, they were courteous, thoughtful, really good kids. It restored my faith in our society's youth.

We went to Cheaha State Park in Alabama. It is the foothills of the Apalachian mountains. Very pretty. Very rocky.

Rocks = rock climbing and rappelling to these kids.

So that's what we did. Well, first thing Saturday morning we ran to see the sunrise. Yes, ran. You guessed it, cross country is their sport of choice. After breakfast we found a 95 foot high rock wall by going to a cliff and looking over the edge, noticing it might be climbable, and throwing down the rope to let the fun begin. I don't think I will look at rocky edges the same way anymore! I didn't get a chance to rock climb, but I did rappell down. Raeley rocked! Literally, all the way to the top. First time ever rock climbing, and she did awesome!

Raeley and I both survived the afternoon hike - at times I wondered if I would survive it. The trail drops almost 1000 feet in 1/2 a mile. Yah, try climbing UP that! Seriously, the feeling of accomplishment is so worth it, you really should try it sometime.

1000 feet in half a mile = steep

It was a great trip, and on a work related note, the man who was the chaperone for the guys works for a competitor of ours. He runs a gym here in town. We had a great time talking and I enjoyed getting to know him. It was like the cherry on top. Now, if MSU would have beat Bama, that really would have been the cherry on top! Maybe next trip Mark can go, too. He would have thoroughly enjoyed himself.