This morning was more of the usual routine: breakfast, long bus ride, setup, work. After lunch, though, I had the rest of the day off. I didn’t feel much like standing in the hour-long line to catch a bus down to where I could catch a bus out to my barracks, so I headed out on foot, with the intention of stopping to see Brian’s camp along the way. I hadn’t walked more than a quarter mile when the thunder started and suddenly someone was dumping out bathtubs full of warm water overhead. And then the wind kicked in.
I was not prepared, which is a hard thing for a scout to admit. In my defense, I hadn’t really had an opportunity to watch the weather report on the news before turning in last night, what with no TV or radio in the barracks. Anyway, the rain didn’t bother me that much. I was soaked through in less than a minute, but it’s not the first time that’s happened, and the rain was not too cold (except for the wind). The problem was that my bag was not waterproof. That lasted maybe two minutes before it too was soaked.
After about thirty minutes, the rain stopped. It was sunny again by the time I made it to Brian’s camp. They had survived everything all right. It appeared that they hadn’t seen as much rain as my area had, but they still got dumped on pretty well.
After that visit, I walked to the central transfer point and caught the bus out to Wilcox. After changing out of still-wet clothes, I headed over to see if I could use the base laundry room. I had heard that there was a sign posted saying that BSA personnel could use the room from 2400 to 0600, but I thought I would see if I could use it during daylight hours so long as I was willing to yield to the soldiers. When I got there, I found that there were plenty of open machines, and the soldiers in the room were fine with my using them.
Laundry done, I went to dinner just before they closed the cafeteria, hit the shower, called Pam, and headed for bed.
Pam spent a little time seeing a few things in the Kansas City area, so she was running a little behind schedule. She plans to stop for the night in Colby, KS. I think that will put her two time zones behind me.
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