Dear Mom

I am here at Camp Cole and I am sending you this letter because it was this or eat another hot dog

The weather here is  so hot you can start a fire on the scoutmaster's head. Today we  learned first aid after taking wood carving. You ought to see my tent. Did you know that  a mouse is funny - in someone else's tent, raccoons really do like Lifesavers, and you can wash in a river. My tent mate and I share our tent with (457 spiders, 5 snakes, 1,849 mosquitos, 984 flies and76 moths.

I really do miss  real food.  I'm going to enter a camp contest to  have the most skin area covered with mosquito bites and go the most days in the same pair of underwear.

Hi Guys

Wayne told us all write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and worried. We are OK. Only 1 of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Ben when it happened. Oh yes, please call Ben's mother and tell her he is OK. He can't write because of the cast.

I got to ride in one of the search & rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found him in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning. Scouter Brent got mad at Ben for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Ben said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up? The wet wood still didn't burn, but one of our tents did. Also some of our clothes. Andrew is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Saturday if Scouter Barry gets the car fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked OK when we left. Scouter Barry said that a car that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't get insurance on it. We think it's a neat car. He doesn't care if we get it dirty, and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the trunk lid. It gets pretty hot with 10 people in a car. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and talked to us. Scouter Barry is a neat guy. Don't worry, he is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Jenny how to drive. But he only lets her drive on the mountain roads where there isn't any traffic. All we ever see up there are logging trucks.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scouter Brent wouldn't let me because I can't swim and Ben was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. Scouter Barry isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn't even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the car so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid badges. When Luke dove in the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Also Brandon and I threw up. Scouter Deb said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken, she said they got sick that way with the food they ate in prison. I'm so glad she got out and become our leader. She said she sure figured out how to get things done better while she was doing her time. I have to go now. We are going into town to mail our letters and buy bullets. Don't worry about anything. We are fine.

Love Nathan

ps  Salsa , potted meat and ice cream should not be eaten after 10 PM, cause they don't mix right.