Luaus, Bingo and Farm Overnight for the Big Girls!

On behalf of our extremely “slack” web hosts, I apologize for yesterday’s technology snafu. We had a similar website “down” issue at the start of the June session, and believe it or not, the root cause is interest. Our site gets a lot of traffic from everyone checking out pictures, reading the blog, etc. But, you’d think…it’s their business! If I could get a human on the phone, I would tell “Jim” from India that it’s not like we signed up with a discounter. We are on our own server (not shared), and I am willing to send them my first born just to get it to work consistently. Whatever it takes. So, when a problem arises, you fill out this web form and tell them what’s up, and then a week later (after I have resolved the issue myself), they email back that it looks like everything is working. Aaargh! O.K. Enough of that. I apologize for the rant, and if anyone knows of a great web host that actually has humans working there, send me an email. Our gallery for yesterday, when it finally did load, got all wonky, so we had to recreate it…which means, if you tagged anyone in the gallery on the 27th, those tags are lost. Sorry….but I do think I resolved the issue this time. So tag with confidence from now on. Also, please know that nothing is wrong if the website is broken. We always will work as fast as we can to get it back in action.

Today was awesome! I know it’s supposed to get hot tomorrow. If you check the weather for Brevard, subtract about 5-8 degrees from whatever it says. No doubt, it will be hot, and we are going to take every opportunity to get wet…at camp in the swim and canoe lakes, with sprinklers and slip n slides, at the farm in the two swim lakes there and in the river. But the weather folks always predict more heat than we get. This year, we have extra staff and extra vehicles and especially with four-weekers, we are trying to get each cabin an opportunity for a trip to tube or canoe on the French Broad. Dave, our program director, is doing a terrific job of navigating the logistics of a great tripping program.

I just returned from hanging out with the older girls from Pineview out at the farm. They were on “seconds” when I arrived, enjoying grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, chips, and veggie burgers for the veggie lovers. The campfire was roaring, and girls were busy exploring the new property. Our carpenters are spending their days out there now that camp has started, and are almost finished with a new dock for the big pond. It will be a great launch pad for swimming and fishing. Tomorrow, they will move to the smaller pond. The evening sky and temperature were absolutely gorgeous. The girls really love the farm as an alternative to Kuykendall. There’s just a lot of wide open space, the views are amazing, and there are a few creature comforts that make the experience a little easier…like a real toilet, running water…and it’s close to camp.

Hillbrook dressed up as American Tourists for a spirited game of Bingo. They all had a blast representing different states, but I would have been a little bit jealous watching the Heigh Ho girls with the swim lake to themselves at the Luau. Everything fun was wide open and girls were swinging from the Tarzan rope swing, sliding like lightning down the Streak, and just hanging out in tubes with their counselors. It was a perfect evening to enjoy a dip. A quick note for our new parents (and old). It is not unusual at all to get a less than enthusiastic letter home right about now. Remember that it was likely written on the very first day, and that by now it is most certainly resolved. Too, we would have called or emailed if we were working to help your camper get over a bout of homesickness. I also wanted to put in a plug for leaving Comments at the bottom of posts. Apparently, that helps with Google rankings 🙂