To Hike, Ride and Dress Like a Granny

The weather was just perfect this morning, and around here that’s reason enough to find some altitude because we know the views will be spectacular. Clyde, our Adventure Director, and Catherine decided to take advantage of all this and signed up a group of Junior campers to go hiking along a section of the Art Loeb trail as it crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is a wondrous place with beautiful weathered rock exposed along the grassy trail. The trail begins winding through a dense grove of balsam fir trees, but then breaks into the open where you can see for miles in several directions. The elevation is more than 6000 feet up, making these mountains some of the highest east of the Mississippi river! The group made it all the way to the top of Black Balsam Knob (6214 ft). Along the way, surprisingly, they ran into a team of folks filming a music video up there, though we didn’t catch the name of the band.

We had one of those classic camp lunches today that everyone loves— grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade tomato soup. The super stocked salad bar helped us add a little green to our plates, and to make the whole lunch just excellent. After lunch the big excitement for everyone is checking their mailbox for new mail. Finding something in your box is always a treat, so keep sending those cards and letters!

Horseback riding continues to be one of the most popular activities this session. Cara and her staff are really doing great stuff with the girls, strengthening their enthusiasm for riding (despite the bugs!) and seeing them make good progress. This is Cara’s 5th year as the Equestrian Director at Rockbrook, so it’s not too surprising she runs a top-notch program. When you see all the action down at the barn, though, it’s pretty impressive.

Tonight’s evening program was a giant all-camp game of bingo, but not just sitting around calling out numbers. Oh no, at Rockbrook that’s a perfect opportunity to dress up! Like a granny! That’s right: it was Granny Bingo night. All manner of grannies and grandpas came out to play— gray hair, glasses, nightgowns, hats, pillows stuffed strategically in clothes, walking sticks, and wrinkles drawn with eyeliner. The counselors get into it just as much, calling the numbers in their best scratchy voice, hunched over the table. Exciting RBC prizes for the winners, snacks for everyone to enjoy while playing the game, it was a grand, silly time.

Did you know it’s a long Rockbrook tradition for the girls to have a snack of milk and cookies before going off to bed?  Everyday the kitchen makes a batch of homemade cookies for this, and like with our “muffin break,” it’s great fun to be surprised by what kind of cookie we have each night. Afterwards, teeth brushing, ready pajamas, and each cabin sharing their “pows and wows” (highs and lows from the day) settle everyone down for the night. Such a nice way to finish up another fun-filled day of camp.

Granny Bingo

Grits, sausage, eggs and fruit for breakfast… homemade broccoli-chicken casserole, salad and butternut squash soup for lunch… cheese tortellini, focaccia bread, with roasted summer squash and peppers for dinner.  It’s hard not to talk about the food at camp with this kind of variety and good healthy fare coming from Rick’s kitchen.  Oh, I forgot to mention the chocolate chip muffins we had for muffin break and the chocolate pudding served for desert at dinner.  The campers love when we have chocolate pudding because, beyond it being a sweet treat, it means the counselors have to clear their cabin’s table (instead of a couple of campers).  It’s a long, funny tradition at Rockbrook that even has a short song to go with it.

After breakfast Clyde took a bunch of Juniors on a day hike to Moore Cove in the forest. (By the way, have you read Clyde’s Bio?)  They looked great all geared up with their backpacks, water bottles and cameras.  It’s a short bus ride to the trail head, and from there, a wonderful easy hike through the woods to a cool 40 ft waterfall.  What’s neat is that you can walk under the falls and see from the “inside out.”  The falls are narrow and delicate, and in the morning in direct sunlight.  It’s truly beautiful.

Tonight the Juniors and Middlers played bingo in the dining hall, but not just ordinary bingo— Granny Bingo! At Rockbrook, everything is more fun when you can dress up and become a funny character. So tonight the girls pulled out wigs, glasses, robes and head scarves. They stuffed pillows inside their clothes (for an added effect!), and found a cane, or just walked around with a bent posture and talked with a scratchy voice. Very funny stuff. Of course, there were loads of prizes to win each round: stickers, card games, key chains, RBC sunglasses, etc. The counselors led the whole event by also dressing up and by calling the numbers “in character.” “N29… oh dear, I remember when I was 29… such a good year!” There are more photos in gallery, so be sure to check those out.

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