Worth the Wait

We opened the third session of camp this morning, and it brought us something we rarely see on an opening day. It rained.

Not a dramatic mountain storm, it was a steady soaking that arrived right as the first cars did and settled in for about an hour, so the whole check-in line ran under umbrellas and pop-up tents while we greeted families, went over health forms, and moved trunks up the hill trying to keep everything dry. Not much later the clouds moved out and left us bright blue skies for the rest of the day. The rest of the morning the cars kept coming, and somewhere in the middle we began to see girls standing up through the sunroofs of their cars, half their bodies out in the sunshine, waving at everyone they passed. That part was entirely ordinary, even expected. These are the girls who have waited the longest, whose session holds off until the end of the summer, who have spent June and most of July watching other kids go to camp. A little rain was not going to slow them down, and it showed.

Arriving Together

We ask families to arrive according to their camper’s age, with certain grades assigned to certain times through the morning. Since our cabin groups are also arranged by age, this means the girls who will be living together roll through the check-in line within the same short window. They notice each other. There’s a good chance the camper in the car ahead is one of your daughter’s cabin mates, and you can watch the recognition happen right there in the driveway. Having the whole cabin group arrive more or less at once is ideal, because they can start setting up together right away, making beds, pushing trunks into place, taping up photos from home, and hanging fairy lights. It’s the fastest way we know to get camp started.

Once the last cars had come up the driveway, the whole camp gathered on the hill for our opening assembly, where we made introductions, learned a couple of songs, and heard from Sarah about a few important things, including what to do when the lightning alarm sounds. Then, hungry and perhaps still slightly damp, we went to lunch.

Baked to a Crispy Crust

Lunch was Rick’s homemade four-cheese mac-n-cheese, baked to a crispy crust, with cool watermelon and the salad bar alongside. It’s so popular it has become our traditional opening day meal, and there are girls who start thinking about it somewhere around the Asheville exit.

Dinner was pizza night, which starts with Rick and his team making the dough from scratch, flour and yeast and oil and salt, then stretching it onto sheet pans tray after tray. They turned out 34 cheese pizzas, 34 pepperoni, and 12 veggie, plus specialty pies for our gluten-free and dairy-free campers so that nobody sits through pizza night eating something else. Even after everyone had stuffed themselves, we had a few leftover slices.

Truly Refreshing

After a shortened rest hour, the Juniors headed out on camp tours and down to the camp store, while the Middlers and Seniors made their way to the lake for their swim demonstrations. Conditions were about as good as Rockbrook Lake gets. The recent rain had warmed the water a little, and under a bright afternoon sun, the lake we politely call “refreshing” was, certainly today, exactly that. Jumping in is still startling, and that first gasp is part of the fun. Our lifeguards are watching for comfort more than speed, checking whether a girl can swim out and back and tread water without worry, which earns her a blue band and the run of the whole lake. One camper climbed out after her demo and told me she’d be happy to get right back in.

Mini Commercials

Line meetings came next, each age group hearing from its counselors and line heads about cabin and line activities, and then we filled the gym for activity skits. These are short presentations by the counselors who teach each activity, mini commercials designed to entice campers into signing up. The paddling crew had a counselor sitting in a kayak in full gear, PFD and helmet and paddle, going nowhere on the gym floor. The craft activities brought the evidence: finished potholders, pottery, dream catchers. The biggest reaction of the afternoon went to the dance instructors, who put on a small show of the styles they teach and closed with a stretch of the Thriller choreography, which got everyone cheering. After dinner came more get-to-know-you games and the first activity sign-up of the session, where each girl selects the four activities she’ll follow during the day. She’ll keep those activities for three days, and then sign up for a new set.

By the time the cabins went dark, the ground was still soft from the morning’s rain and the air had that cool, wet-woods smell that settles in after a mountain shower. Inside, the talking kept going well past when it should have, the way it does on a first night, when there’s far too much energy in a cabin for anyone to fall asleep easily. These girls have waited all summer for this. From the sound of it, they’d tell you it was worth the wait.