You may have noticed that Cinema Fromage was pretty quiet for the last week. There’s good reason behind that! Last week I packed my bags along with my daughter, changed my name to ‘Yogi’ and set off for the woods of Camp Dellwood Girl Scout camp on the surface of the sun! (Also known as Indianapolis, IN) The week was packed full of fun, heat and humidity and general good old fashioned camping fun. Me being 1 of 2 dads in attendance for the week, I was quite the spectacle as I roamed around with my unit of of 11 and 12 year old girls in tow. By the end of the week, I was a minor celebrity with the younger units. Good times had by all, but by the end of 3 days of hiking in 95 degree heat with a 101 heat index and high humidity, Delaney and I were both glad when it was over.

One of the funner things I got to do during the week with my older girl unit was archery! It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to shoot a bow and arrow and I was glad to see I still had it! Thankfully the archery range was in a shady spot and it’s not to intensive of a sport so it made for a nice break during the week.

Delaney was shacked up with her best friend Jess for the week. These two are pretty die hard campers and the heat, dirt and bugs didn’t phase them in the least. Ask them both, the pool was of course their favorite part but being Brownies, they had lots of fun in the woods as well. Where I spent my week in an old fashioned canvas pitch tent, these two got to spend theirs in a platform tent complete with cots. They had it easy! (Platform tents are way cooler though)

The theme for this years camp was back to basics, so there was heavy emphasis on basic camping skills. In my unit, we built our own fire on Wednesday and the girls had to cook their own lunches. The lunches were foil dinners, also known as hobo dinners, packed with veggies, hamburger and biscuits. My partner in Girl Scout crime and BFF ‘Ms. Laura’ will be thrilled to know that we also cooked with Dutch Ovens, making two dump cakes for dessert! For those not in the know, Dump cake consists of a layer of pie filling, a layer of dry cake mix, and a layer of butter. Throw it in the fire, walk away, check again later. Good stuff.

The remainder of the week, meal time was provided by the camp cook in the lodge. The lodge is a neat place, an old sheep barn converted into a cafeteria. Rustic, heavy wooden tables and heavy wooden beams complete the feel. As you can see it was a place of chaos and fun as we packed in all 250 girls of Camp Dellwood in for each meal on Thursday and Friday. This was the time that I got to catch up with my daughter and Delaney since she wasn’t in my unit. Good times where had by all, and I couldn’t walk far with out a yell of ‘HI YOGI!’ coming from one table or another!

A big event on Thursday for the girls was the rock wall climbing that was brought in for the day. Every girl in the camp got to take a shot at the wall as seen here as Delaney makes her way up. The only real problem was that the rockwall was set directly in the sun which made the hand holds and line standing both a miserable experience. Regardless, the girls were all quite pleased with themselves as they made it to the top and most of them were content to laze in the shade once they were done. Can’t say I blame them!

The girls of my troop, Troop 213, they’re all pretty seasoned campers by this point. Thanks to myself and Ms. Laura taking them on at least three camp-outs so far, this being their third year at scout camp, and another trip already planned for the fall, they’re old pros! They all showed up ready to go on Monday morning as seen above. One or two was venturing forth for their first time with a bit of nerves, but the girls of our troop are good and took them in hand and worked them right into the routine.
So there you have it. That’s the reason Cinema Fromage has been silent for the past week! By the time we got home in the evenings (it was a day camp with one overnight) ‘Yogi’ was too pooped to either watch a movie or write a review. Regardless, the entire experience was a blast and I definitely plan on returning with the troop again next year!
And now back to the recuperation part of our show.