Aho Mighty Creek!
What an outstanding campout!
1st, I am renaming the 2009 Mad Moon Campout to the 2009 "Creek FNG Domination Campout", due to the efforts of our Big and Little FNG Braves.
To start, there were several drop and runs Friday nite - Dean brought food for Sat morn brkfast, and Byron dumped the trailer - both had Fri nite commitments and could not stay. So the Friday night Creek attendance consisted of the Snake and Cougar families, the Snake family being the only presence at the official Creek site. Saturday morning Kingsnake and Rattlesnake tackled a small portion of the chow left by Dean and saved the remaining eggs and bacon for the Sunday's breakfast feast - it was lonely, but we had a good time. The Cougars slept in as Wise Cougar recouped from an unfriendly bug that infested his innards Friday afternoon.
Rattlesnake had many academic commitments Saturday, and had to depart the campout mid morning - Kingsnake was commited to much of Rattlesnakes agenda, and was therefore absent until midafternoon. But, starting by late morning, the cavalry (FNGs) began to filter in. The return of the Eagle family, Fox family, joined as well by the Barracudas, added to the lone Creekster Cougar family to make an awesome foursome for the ensuing War Game challenge. In the end, Creek took 1st place in the Buffalo Throw and 2nd place in the Shuttle Ringers, putting the tribe in potential contention for War Coup. Sadly, the vision of War Coup was not realized, but Creek stood proud none the less.
Choosing not to abandon any chance to excel, the Creek little braves (consisting of a compliment of 80% FNGs, including one brand new one recruited by none other than our Recruitment Czar, Wise Cougar) performed flawlessly in their display presentation. Wild Cougar led the chiefs through the Creek displays, as Ryan (totally brand new guy), Fierce and Chatty Barracuda, Running Fox, Growling Cougar, and Soaring Eagle all faced the nation's leaders with unparalleled poise and confidence. Their superior performance, coupled with the outstanding new crafts on display, earned the Creek Tribe the Mini Peace Pipe. This is a monumental accomplishment as ALL of the tribes are really stepping up their display presentations, and we did it with a bunch of 4-8 year olds. Chief is very pleased.
Congrats to Soaring Eagle and Chatty Barracuda for picking up their Brown Feathers this campout! We have many feathers to hand out at our January meeting.
Another area that many tribes took to task was the Saturday night wing competition. Their were FIVE tribes who participated. Nation Chief was not feeling well that evening, so Medicine Man judged the wings. Without question, Medicine Man was impacted most by the Creek Fare, finished off by a Fried Habernaro, compliments of Christian, the head of the Barracuda family. Christian has demonstrated that he too is worthy of the coveted title of Creek Master Chef. Dean served as head Master Chef, assisted and advised by Christian and Byron, with input as well from Rick, our newest tribal member (making an all FNG team) in the making of an assortment of wings, complimented with Christian's jalapeno poppers (totally awesome) and the coveted (dreaded) habernaros (I have no idea if I'm spelling that correctly). At the closing ceremony, the Creek wings fare was definitely the most talked about, but in the end Osage took the basket for their smoked wings.
The efforts of our FNGs, big and small, did not go unnoticed by the Nation Chief. He was very impressed and acknowledged those efforts by awarding Creek the Most Improved Coup award.
In my eight years of doing this, I have not had the pleasure of working with a group that is as involved and motivated as this one. It is a pleasure, and I look forward to Creek's continued success this season. On a small soap box note, I would like to send a friendly reminder to all of the big braves to be conscientious of their language, including the more 'benign' four letter words, around the little braves. I am just as guilty as anyone else in slipping now and then, but would just like to put that bug in everyone's ear. We have much more credibility when correcting the little braves regarding that sort of thing when we practice it ourselves. Nuff said.
Mark your calendars to meet at the Bevilacqua teepee around 9:00 am on the 12th of December for the CB XMAS parade.
More to follow on this.
Have a truly LARGE Thanksgiving!
Chuckles
