Robin Hood Camp Overview.
Its the 20th of July now so we have decided to cut our losses and just do one big catch up/over view of what we have been up to since we arrived at camp.
PICS...
Well we had 2 pre-pre camp weeks which took a bit of adjusting to. Well for one we got separated into boys and girls cabins and of course had to share a bunk with a complete stranger.
The other thing took a lot to adjust to was the huge language barrier. all the Colombians speak Spanish and although they can speak English at the start it must have been easier to speak Spanish. That being said the Colombian counselors are one of our many closest friends at camp, they have an amazing culture, so fun, colorful and welcoming. not sure when but one day Renee was talking to one of the girls and had a full on conversation and then realized she was speaking Spanish's and Renee was replying in English... cool huh.
On the 14th of June all the other consulars arrived from all over the world. The Camp started really coming together, it was so run down when we first arrived. But after braking every OSH regulation in the book the boys rebuilt and the girls painted and cleaned that place into order.
We had a tiny bit of training, a ridicules talent show that kept you laughing out loud all night. Renee and I did a fear factor challenge that we used to to at youth. then a few nights off - CRAZY - and then the kids arrived on the 24th of June.
Things have just been so full on since. We often get sent to pick up kids from different cites. eg Bangor- 1 1/2 hours, Portland 3hours, Boston 5 hours and we even got to goto New York, New York 9hours- 11 back.
PICS...
More pics
Camp is fun but they are completely unorganized - it is extreamly frustrating for us.
We have some photos of Renee's cabin over nights, she still refuses to kill the lobster and the photo is honestly the first time she has ever held one - they freak her out!!!
Renee not only dose the Cabin overnights but she also goes on 3 day cruses on a 37ft sail boat. Pretty much the boat docks at little boutique towns around the coast and she takes them shopping, to the movies and out to dinner. The only downer the captain is so slezy (but funny too, he ,likes to call himself "salty") He tricked her into kissing him... it was meant to be on the cheek, so she says.
Pics
More pics
I am now a developing guitar teacher/wondering minstril. when i'm not driving I am basically jamming with my friends Austin who is a JC (junior Counselor) and the Andrews, both are tall and have glasses but one is from England and the other is from Australia, they teach drums. we are very lucky the room/cabin they have provided us with has 3 semi-sound proof rooms in it and an open teaching area. Work is fun.
Another little highlight was that we with 3 other counselors went on a 3 day 2 night trip to Boston but unforuntaly...joining... we had to take 27 campers with us, we did a lot of shopping and sight seeing including half a fennway park tour, botston duck tour, went to Harvard square/university and a harry potter movie. all expenses paid, it was great.
Thats our catch up for now and we will try and keep ontop of the blog site from now on.
Sorry
Love Matt and Renee
Monday, 23 July 2007
Sunday, 22 July 2007
Cross Country Roadie - Day 9
Day 9 03-06-07
Well we spent our day making our way to camp and made it safely to " Top Notch" (where the boss lvies) After chatting with a director (Jeff) he wanted to take us down to the camp to unload the horse trailer.So we jumped into the car and headed back out the driveway when we hit something at first i thought it was a dog, I was so scared of what i was going to find when i got out of the car to find it was a huge rock...we once again had a flat tyre and this time we had bent the axle of the trailer way out of proportion grr we thought we had made itt with no huge dramas or expenses to the camp but apparently not. anyway we went down to the camp it is pre pre camp, so like only7 other people are at camp2 Australians and 6 Colombians.
Well we spent our day making our way to camp and made it safely to " Top Notch" (where the boss lvies) After chatting with a director (Jeff) he wanted to take us down to the camp to unload the horse trailer.So we jumped into the car and headed back out the driveway when we hit something at first i thought it was a dog, I was so scared of what i was going to find when i got out of the car to find it was a huge rock...we once again had a flat tyre and this time we had bent the axle of the trailer way out of proportion grr we thought we had made itt with no huge dramas or expenses to the camp but apparently not. anyway we went down to the camp it is pre pre camp, so like only7 other people are at camp2 Australians and 6 Colombians.
Cross Country Roadie - Day 8
Day 8 - 02-06-07
Photos http://picasaweb.google.com/mattblairmail/NiagraFalls?authkey=MQJugmeoqHM
We started the day with a "Bang" yes thats right another popped tyre. Two hours later we were on the road heading to Niagara falls. That was pretty smooth sailing up till we got into buffalo, took a wrong turn onto a one way bridge and ended up in CANADA with customs questioning what we had in the horse trailer, if the dogs had rabies certificates and where were we studying. once the realized we were one of the apparently many dumb assess that took the wrong turn, they stamped a piece of paper (unfortunately not our passport) and sent us on our way back to America.
Niagara falls is the bombdiggaty! we went on the maid of the mist that takes you right up as close as the currant will allow the boat to go you get rally wet and woah is all i can rally say about the size of the falls.
Arrived in Utica new your at 9:30 for an early night ready for our final cross country day tomorrow.
Photos http://picasaweb.google.com/mattblairmail/NiagraFalls?authkey=MQJugmeoqHM
We started the day with a "Bang" yes thats right another popped tyre. Two hours later we were on the road heading to Niagara falls. That was pretty smooth sailing up till we got into buffalo, took a wrong turn onto a one way bridge and ended up in CANADA with customs questioning what we had in the horse trailer, if the dogs had rabies certificates and where were we studying. once the realized we were one of the apparently many dumb assess that took the wrong turn, they stamped a piece of paper (unfortunately not our passport) and sent us on our way back to America.
Niagara falls is the bombdiggaty! we went on the maid of the mist that takes you right up as close as the currant will allow the boat to go you get rally wet and woah is all i can rally say about the size of the falls.
Arrived in Utica new your at 9:30 for an early night ready for our final cross country day tomorrow.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
Cross Countrty Roadie - Day 7
01/06/07
Day 7
gerr... where do we start ??
Well we had to head into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to pick up all the Robin Hood Camp uniforms and load them into the trailer...
PITSBURG WAS THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER.
It has rivers winding all over it with huge bridges, road works around every corner , insufficient singadge... as far as I am concerned, cars parked on both ides of every street, and people who seem like they don't even know where they are..
So I guess ed it.. we got lost, big time, more lost than we have ever been lost before.
After taking the milleanth wrong turn given to us by another random on the street we ended up in no mans industrial land as we proceeded to do a U E , to get out of there we popped our first tyre. But what was real amazing was that out of all the placed we have been in the last 3 weeks this was (although we didn't know it yet) the most unpredictably perfect place to have a punctured tyre.
As we got out to examine the damage we found our spare tyre also had a hole in it. But out of no where came our guardian angle, in the form of a short, over weight sweaty little man. guessed in blue overalls. Ye thats right, once again Hod had our back. He called up his mate to come and pick up Matt and took him down the road to get the tyre fixed. He was so helpful (and cute) then $25 later (so cheap for a tire) we were on our way with a decent map in our hands and directions the had given us.
.... however we got lost again. but we made in eventually. we meet our first fellow camp counsellours Ellen and Emily who helped load the trailer and then safely guided us out of Pittsburgh. They even brought us flowers at a traffic light stop and got the man to bring them back to our car an he wished us a safe trip from them.
by this point we were absolutely nackered so we stopped driving by 5pm and ended up in Grove City , Pennsylvania for a bit of retail therapy at old navy and an early night.
Day 7
gerr... where do we start ??
Well we had to head into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to pick up all the Robin Hood Camp uniforms and load them into the trailer...
PITSBURG WAS THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER.
It has rivers winding all over it with huge bridges, road works around every corner , insufficient singadge... as far as I am concerned, cars parked on both ides of every street, and people who seem like they don't even know where they are..
So I guess ed it.. we got lost, big time, more lost than we have ever been lost before.
After taking the milleanth wrong turn given to us by another random on the street we ended up in no mans industrial land as we proceeded to do a U E , to get out of there we popped our first tyre. But what was real amazing was that out of all the placed we have been in the last 3 weeks this was (although we didn't know it yet) the most unpredictably perfect place to have a punctured tyre.
As we got out to examine the damage we found our spare tyre also had a hole in it. But out of no where came our guardian angle, in the form of a short, over weight sweaty little man. guessed in blue overalls. Ye thats right, once again Hod had our back. He called up his mate to come and pick up Matt and took him down the road to get the tyre fixed. He was so helpful (and cute) then $25 later (so cheap for a tire) we were on our way with a decent map in our hands and directions the had given us.
.... however we got lost again. but we made in eventually. we meet our first fellow camp counsellours Ellen and Emily who helped load the trailer and then safely guided us out of Pittsburgh. They even brought us flowers at a traffic light stop and got the man to bring them back to our car an he wished us a safe trip from them.
by this point we were absolutely nackered so we stopped driving by 5pm and ended up in Grove City , Pennsylvania for a bit of retail therapy at old navy and an early night.
Cross Country Roadie - Day 6
31/05/07
Day 6
Another long day of driving, skipped two states (Illinois and Indiana) a time zone and ended up in Toledo, Ohio.
Matt had his first walmart experience (in Michigan) although it was a quick one because it just seems to keep getting hotter and hotter as we head east which is weired because i Thought it would be the other way around.... point being it makes me feel real bad leaving the dogs in the car and we can't wind the windows down to far in case things get stolen.
On the way to walmart we saw a horse and a carriage go over the overpass of the interstate. It turned out to be an Amish Family all decked out in there gears heading to the local walmart for supplies... it all seamed a little ironic to me and I checked, no cameras seemed to be around, just two kiwis who just couldn't stop staring.
Day 6
Another long day of driving, skipped two states (Illinois and Indiana) a time zone and ended up in Toledo, Ohio.
Matt had his first walmart experience (in Michigan) although it was a quick one because it just seems to keep getting hotter and hotter as we head east which is weired because i Thought it would be the other way around.... point being it makes me feel real bad leaving the dogs in the car and we can't wind the windows down to far in case things get stolen.
On the way to walmart we saw a horse and a carriage go over the overpass of the interstate. It turned out to be an Amish Family all decked out in there gears heading to the local walmart for supplies... it all seamed a little ironic to me and I checked, no cameras seemed to be around, just two kiwis who just couldn't stop staring.
Cross Country Rodie - Day 5
30/05/07
Day 5
Extremely uneventful... got lost like 3 times kept missing exits.
Traveled from Ogallala, Nebraska to Newton Iowa about 516 miles all up.
Day 5
Extremely uneventful... got lost like 3 times kept missing exits.
Traveled from Ogallala, Nebraska to Newton Iowa about 516 miles all up.
Sunday, 1 July 2007
Cross Country Roadie - Day 4
Day 4 29-05-07
http://picasaweb.google.com/
mattblairmail/MtRushmoore?authkey=yPidfzonlMk
up real early... we couldn't stand the smell of the motel any longer, got on the road by 7.30am
we made it to Mt Rushmore today, when we pulled into the car park i must say we were a little disappointed with the size, but once we made it to the viewing platform the true scale of the sculpture was amazing. just like all the pictures, movies and photo's we have all seen so needless to say we didn't feel a need to stay for to long.
Random experience: Pulling out of the Mt Rushmore "Steep" car park, Matt realized that the trailer brakes weren't working (this happens a bit, no big deal, you just have to plug them in at the back.)
So Matt puts the car in park, puts the hazard lights on and gets out to push the plug in. I was sitting in the passengers side exhausted, tired and hungry. So it took me a while to realize that Matt had pushed the plug in, it had also pushed the car and I was rolling down the hill. The Suburban is massive so once I click onto what was happening I couldn't fully reach my foot over to the brake so I was revving the car like "hang" but was just managing to stop it when I see Matt out of the corner of my eye casually jogging along trying to catch the car...ahh good times... we had a good laugh over that one.
Got a bit lost on the way back down Mt Rushmore and ended up going through this crazy, beautiful, but 1 hour out of the way road that had one way tunnels that we couldn't see the other side so you have to honk the horn. It was all a bit scary with the massive trailer on the back.
After traveling about 450 miles there was a storm a brewing pretty bad so we decided it was time to stop, however every town marked on the map, wasn't even a town they were like those two tiny little places you drive through on the way to Hamilton, but without the gas stations... useless!!! So about 100 miles after that we arrived in Ogallala, Nebraska for a good nights sleep.
http://picasaweb.google.com/
mattblairmail/MtRushmoore?authkey=yPidfzonlMk
up real early... we couldn't stand the smell of the motel any longer, got on the road by 7.30am
we made it to Mt Rushmore today, when we pulled into the car park i must say we were a little disappointed with the size, but once we made it to the viewing platform the true scale of the sculpture was amazing. just like all the pictures, movies and photo's we have all seen so needless to say we didn't feel a need to stay for to long.
Random experience: Pulling out of the Mt Rushmore "Steep" car park, Matt realized that the trailer brakes weren't working (this happens a bit, no big deal, you just have to plug them in at the back.)
So Matt puts the car in park, puts the hazard lights on and gets out to push the plug in. I was sitting in the passengers side exhausted, tired and hungry. So it took me a while to realize that Matt had pushed the plug in, it had also pushed the car and I was rolling down the hill. The Suburban is massive so once I click onto what was happening I couldn't fully reach my foot over to the brake so I was revving the car like "hang" but was just managing to stop it when I see Matt out of the corner of my eye casually jogging along trying to catch the car...ahh good times... we had a good laugh over that one.
Got a bit lost on the way back down Mt Rushmore and ended up going through this crazy, beautiful, but 1 hour out of the way road that had one way tunnels that we couldn't see the other side so you have to honk the horn. It was all a bit scary with the massive trailer on the back.
After traveling about 450 miles there was a storm a brewing pretty bad so we decided it was time to stop, however every town marked on the map, wasn't even a town they were like those two tiny little places you drive through on the way to Hamilton, but without the gas stations... useless!!! So about 100 miles after that we arrived in Ogallala, Nebraska for a good nights sleep.
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