Lemons, Moosibou, Jungle Grub and the Glove

Wow, a full day of pretty much sticking to our schedule… wild!  After a few tears leaving the church we hit the highway and everyone’s spirits were high.  The Scouts spent most of their time singing (as per normal) and carrying on like this was just a normal bus ride to a normal camp.  Hard to believe we were in the first moments of a trip we will remember for the rest of our lives.

For the first time EVER we have no bathroom requests in Gander and managed to keep slightly ahead of schedule through to Clarenville.  We gave everyone 20min to get what they could in C-Ville and I have never seen the kids run so fast… well, it was nothing compared to how fast Scouter Amanda ran to Timmies for her coffee though 😉

As we neared the Goulds Charlie and I realized that we really had no idea where we were going, so we ended up taking the “scenic route” with an assist from Google Maps before finally finding Naveah’s Lemonade Stand.  The parking lot of the sports arena was BEYOND packed, but Charlie once again proved that he’s the best driver on the island as he wove between cars and pedestrians.

This was certainly like no lemonade stand I have seen before, it was more like a full blown carnival!  There were easily thousands of  people there, all out to support a brave little girl who, when faced with death, decided to spend her remaining time helping others.  The Scouts made us all proud by donating generously, and it turns out that the lemonade was pretty awesome, so all in all a great experience.  As we gathered outside to board our bus Naveah and her mom came out to personally thank us for coming.  What a sweet, lovely little girl – truly an honour to meet her 🙂

The next stop in our adventure was Bowring Park… and once again, none of us had a clue where we were going, lol!  Fortunately our map reading skills are at least adequate and we found our way to the Caribou Memorial.  This memorial is an exact replica of the memorial at Beaumont-Hamel and is the first of six that we will visit on our pilgrimage.  

As Devin called us to horseshoe and the Ode to Newfoundland was sung it all suddenly became very, very real; “Better than the Best”.  Before dismissal we all reaffirmed our Scout Promise and our commitment to peace and fellowship.  Being members of the largest peace movement in the world is a pretty powerful thing as we tour the remains of the “great” wars.

Despite an earlier locked-washroom tragedy we found an open washroom… and a HUGE playground, so life was generally good!

After some fun and one injured Scout (nothing serious, just battered pride) we made our way back to the big blue bus.

It was about this point that we all collectively realized that we were STARVING and VERY excited to pull in to Jungle Jim’s in the Goulds.  The staff at Jungle Jim’s were awesome and the food delicious.  To top off an already awesome experience the manager offered us all a 15% discount discount.  Jungle Jim’s in Grand Falls-Windsor has always been a great supporter of Scouting, and it was great to see the Goulds location be just as generous.  Huge thanks to Scouter Lawrence for making the arrangements!

With bellies full and excitement high we boarded the bus for one last ride, this time to the airport.  Checking in was a LOT smoother than expected, even though Zack M somehow missed the 300 times we mentioned that you could only take ONE checked bag :S  Once again though we were shown the generousity of others as the folks at WestJet waved the fees for Zack’s bag as well as for the two bags of troop gear.  Every bag (including Scouter Tracey’s!) were underweight (seriously Scouter Derek, she even took a picture to prove it!).  Since luck seemed to be with us we decided to head straight to security to get the last hurdle behind us.  The kids were awesome and efficient and we passed through in no time (despite some random swabbing…)

With a fresh coffee in hand and the kids in tow we boarded our flight after a short 20min delay.  After finding our seats we had some fun discussing the various ways in which we could crash and what we would do about it… (seems Eric has been doing his research, and Steven spending a bit too much time watching Mayday).  As the plane taxied towards our runway the flight attendants repeated the safety speech in french… this only served to reconfirm that I am totally screwed in France!  Thank God most of the kids in my patrol have their French Language Award!  Before we knew it the plane stopped… and we waited…

Then we were off!  Like a rocket the plane jumped to motion to the cheers and applause of the Scouts (and Scouters)!  After 19 months we were truly on the way.  I cannot even begin to describe the feeling when the wheels left the runway.  It’s finally real.  Bring on the adventure!

God guard thee Newfoundland!


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