Survival Outing

I woke up at seven o’clock in the morning because of the light coming through the window. I stayed in bed hoping to get back to sleep but I could not. Jon came in a little bit later and told me he and the boys were heading out and to lock up when I had to leave. I stayed a tiny bit longer then left because I was not sleeping.

I headed home and started to get ready. I packed a backpack with the stuff I would need and had some breakfast. I got dressed in warmer clothes then headed out to get a flashlight from the store.

From there I headed to Exit Thirty-Four where I was going to meet up with Mr. Thout and the others. When I got there only Joe and Mr. Thout were there. I sat down and we all chatted while we waited for everyone else to get there.

Mr. Thout did his normal talk about things to think about, things to watch for, and what not. Then we carpooled up to the Bandara Air Field. On the way we always stop and Mr. Thout points out a few mountains and the trails that people can take and what kind of hikes certain areas have.

Then we got to the air strip. Mr. Thout said I could take my truck down with the two others going down there. I was happy about that. But he wanted me to make the trip down the first time on foot. It is about a quarter mile. We got down there and got all the wood and supplies from the vehicles. A couple of us helpers walked back to the gate and we got my truck. We loaded the wood into the truck and then drove to the outer gate where we had a gate keeper. We told him that Mr. Thout wanted him to call to make sure they had cell phone coverage. We also told him that it would be a while before anyone else showed up and that he could come down and join us for a while.

While the students are off looking for a shelter location, the helpers and Mr. Thout set up the instructor’s area. We set a shelter for sleeping and keeping stuff dry. We also set up a canopy over the fire pit so you can keep warm and dry should it rain. I was expecting rain this weekend.

Joe and I started a small fire and we got it going with the first try. We did not have to keep restarting it. That was pretty cool. Some of us stayed around the fire to make sure it kept going as some of the others would do some rounds making sure everyone was doing okay.

As we sat around the fire we would talk about some stuff and we had a few things to eat or drink. We did not eat around the students because they are not allowed anything to eat for the twenty-four hours we are out there.

There are certain things we have the students do. One of them is putting each student in a place where he is all by himself for an hour. Just to get an idea of the boredom that could occur. While I was walking my group out to place them a girl asked me if I was one of the students’ dad. I laughed and said I wasn’t.

While they were doing that we were talking about how it must be rough in this day and age to sit around without the TV, Internet, video games, and “Playboy”. Then everyone started to laugh and I asked what the Nintendo portable game system was, and someone said “Game boy”. Duh!

After their hour was up we brought them back to the instructor’s area. Mr. Thout talked to them some more and then we gave them a little more time to work on their shelter. Close to eight o’clock pm we brought them back for one more talk. Then they had to go back and stay in their shelter until midnight. At that time they can build a small fire. Or they can come to the instructor’s area. During those four hours the instructors will make a trip around to make sure everyone is doing okay and following instructions on being in their shelter.

I was using my bleacher chair and it was nice to have the backrest. We pretty much sat around the fire and talked about the military, former students, people we all know, and other items. We asked Mr. Thout how actually retired from full-time teaching and only does the Survival Science under the Retire-Rehire rule, who many more years he planned on doing this. He said two more years. Peg put the potatoes on the fire. She always brings up some potatoes for us every year.

A little after midnight some of the groups came to the instructor’s area. They sat around and we all talked about stuff. They asked us about our experiences doing the survival outing. We commented how the weather was horrible for the survival outing. Normally we like it to be cold, rainy, and miserable. It was actually not too cold and it did not rain.

Mr. Thout and Peg went to bed around midnight for the first shift of sleep. We got them up around four o’clock in the morning. I went to my truck and went to sleep around four o’clock am.