You won't believe the weekend we had....
 
Part of Troop 940 (23 boys and 3 adults) went camping up near Mt.
Mitchell. It was the maiden voyage for "Miss Mabel," our new school bus.
We had a few glitches over the weekend that will, hopefully, be printed
in an upcoming issue of Boy's Life and Scouting Magazine. 
 
There I was.....
 
We started our trip at about 6 p.m. on Friday p.m. Just before all those
storms and tornadoes hit this area. We made it through downtown and a
hail storm without too much trouble. We stopped in Advance for dinner at
a Wendy's restaurant. As we pulled into the parking lot at Wendy's,
Mabel's engine caught fire. Jim Barber, our scoutmaster, discovered some
leaking antifreeze hitting the hot manifold. He tightened some clamps
and all was well. We were off to Mt. Mitchell. 
 
At about 10 p.m. we got close to the mountain. Now Miss Mabel is not
keen on hills. Some of them we took at about 5 mph. Then we got lost. We
were supposed to take a right at a fork, but we didn't see the sign we
were looking for. So, Jim turns left. We ended up on a road with
switchbacks and turns that would most drivers nervous in a van. We were
in a 54 passenger bus! Finally we hit a blacktop road. We knew that
wasn't right so, after some discussion, we decided to head back down the
road we just drove. (Jim found out later that we had hit the Blue Ridge
Parkway.) This time when we came to the fork, we saw the sign that we
had been looking for in the first place. And there was a man in his
little golf cart at the front of the campground waiting for us. It was
now 12 a.m. on Saturday.
 
We got to our campsite and had the boys unload only the absolutely
necessary items--tents, sleeping bags,etc--so they could get to bed. I
guess we got the campsite set up at about 1:30 a.m. Had to leave ALL
food and scented items (Soaps, toothpaste, etc) in the bus because of
bears. The campsite across the road was hit while we were still setting
up our stuff!
 
Saturday was beautiful. 
 
We discovered that we were on the banks of a little river. We had a very
clean latrine and a large picnic shelter with a fire ring for our use.
The boys were in heaven. They made a rope bridge to climb on and played
with that off and on all day. Some guys took a short hike, others played
football or in the river. One little boy was on his first camping trip.
Adam Crews ran up to Ed at one point, paused long enough to say "This is
GREAT!" and ran off again. That makes it all worth it!
 
Then came Sunday. 
 
We got up around 7 a.m. and told the boys that we were to be on the road
at 9 a.m. because we didn't know how long it would take us to get home.
Little did WE know. Miss Mabel was loaded and ready to go when Jim
turned the key at 9 a.m. on the dot. The engine wouldn't turn over; the
battery was D-E-A-D, dead. But, we got a jump from our campground host
and we were off. It was about 9:30 a.m.
 
At about 10:00 a.m. we started having trouble with what Jim thought was
the fuel line. "Didn't sound like it was taking in enough gas." So we
stopped on the side of the road next to a little grocery store. (It was
a shame it was closed. From what I could see, it would have been a neat
place to explore.) A man named Blair drove up with his son, B.J., to ask
us if we needed help. The three guys, Jim, Blair, and Ed Freels, our
troop committee chairman, worked on the engine for awhile and then
deemed it fixed. So we were off again. It was now about 11 a.m.
 
We made it to the top of the next hill, barely. Ed watched for traffic
while Jim maneuvered the bus over to the left side of the road into yet
another parking area. This time Miss Mabel sounded like she was going to
die for good. Chugging, backfiring, etc. Sounded awful! After awhile, a
woman and two little boys walk up. "There's an artisan show this weekend
and these two are selling lemonade and cookies up at their mother's
house. Would you like to come up?" I jumped at the chance. (Being the
only woman on the trip, I didn't have anywhere to go for a bathroom. We
were in the midst of several homes, but everyone was gone for church.)
Later the scouts would go up and clean the little boys out of cookies
and lemonade. Those kids probably made more money in 30 min. than they
had all weekend!
 
We had all kinds of folks stop by to help us out. At one point there
were about five pickups parked around our bus. Everyone wanted to make
sure we were okay. 
 
Ed and Blair, our first angel as he came to be called, went to the
nearest town for a new inline fuel filter. (It's now after 12:30 p.m.)
Jim has called his wife, Tracy, with the news that we were going to be
late (We were due back at Main Street UMC at 2 p.m.) and to call the
parents. He told her to stay near the phone in the event we needed to be
rescued. 
 
Once the filter was put on the bus started up okay, but still sounded
funny. One of our other angels said that he had a friend of a friend who
was a bus mechanic. Thought he could get him to come out and help.
Eventually, Perry, a minister and Scoutmaster, came by in his yellow
Yancy County Schools van to help us out. "Oh, yeah. These International
busses always have a problem with moisture in the coils. Let's check
that out." Sure enough, he blew off the water and everything was
beginning to look a lot better. 
 
It's now about 2 p.m. The boys have been playing in a nearby
field--thank heavens for soccer balls and footballs!--and had learned
about the buzz of an electric fence. That was a hoot; Imagine, grass
could conduct electricity, too! We loaded them all up again and were
off...to the bottom of the hill. When we got to a stop sign, Miss Mabel
died yet again. This time, the battery was draining almost faster than
we could charge it. What was wrong?!?!?!
 
Remember our angels, Blair, who had little to no money to his name, and
Perry? They had volunteered to follow us as far as the next town,
Burnsville, to make sure all was well. Blair went home to get a large
truck battery that he had just in case we needed it. He refused payment
for it. Perry pulled us to a place near Hwy 226 so we could work on the
bus yet again. Jim installed the new battery to use as a backup for the
other one. But now they were talking about the alternator. It's about
2:30 p.m.
 
I dug out some luncheon meats and chips, cookies, water, and more for
the boys. We couldn't get to all the bread and stuff so they just ate
what we could reach. They had been munching on junk food all morning.
Now at least they had their tummies full. 
 
We started again on Hwy 226 toward the interstate and Marion. Got to
another hill and Miss Mabel got stubborn. Jim had to pull off yet again
to see what the trouble was. I talked him into letting the boys off for
some "hip pocket training" on the side of the road which happened to be
a dead end road, with no traffic to speak of. (One of the new scouts was
disappointed when he realized that I wasn't going to teach him how to
"pick  pockets"!) The patrol leaders had their boys on the sides of the
road working on first aid training, races, and more. They had been so
good all day playing cards, not complaining, and just going with the
flow. I'm sure that the new scouts will forever think that a camping
trip consists of breakdowns like this. 
 
At this point, Jim jerry-rigged something so that the old Volkswagen
engine he installed in the back for the AC could charge the battery for
the engine in the front. While we were waiting on another part, a
Scouting District Executive and two Scoutmasters and numerous others had
stopped to see what they could do. One volunteered his church up the
road if we needed a place to stay. It's now about 3:30 p.m.
 
We finally get going again. Seems like Miss Mabel is going full throttle
without a care in the world. As we pull into the Exxon at I40 to top off
the tank, she is idling just fine. Then, the Volkswagen engine, our
lifesaver, stops. Right there at the pump. The main engine will go, but
the alternator won't juice up the battery enough for the guys to feel
comfortable with driving farther down the road. So we pull in beside a
KFC and try to decide what to do.  Jim calls Tracy and asks her to
mobilize the parents. Come get us! We will have to leave Miss Mabel and
the supplies we can't carry home and come back on Monday. 
 
Ed goes off to call a truck repair service. A little while later, Jim
hands me all the cash ($141) that he has and tells me to go to KFC to
get the boys some supper. By the time I find out what the boys want (I
only give them a couple of choices), it was pushing 5 p.m. I put in my
order and it totals to $141.75!  The store manager gave us a 10%
discount!!! The KFC assembly line was fantastic and we had the boys
eating in less than 30 minutes. Meanwhile we wait for the truck repair
guy; he's gone to the wrong Marion exit and is headed our way.
 
The truck repairman shows up at about 5:30 p.m.and promptly determines
that the alternator needs to be replaced. So off he goes again to his
shop. At about 6 p.m. the parent convoy shows up. Boy, were we are
thrilled to see them! We offload the boys and any absolutely necessary
items and divvy them up among the cars. Tracy will stay with Jim and
their son, Tommy, until the bus is repaired. Craig Montgomery, our
driver, and Ed decide to do the same. So after a while (the remaining
boys are playing soccer in yet another field) the guy returns with our
part. After installing it, he turns to us with a bill for $370.75. I
just looked at him. But amazingly among all us adults we come up with
$371. 
 
By 8 p.m. we were finally on the interstate with a fully functional bus
and two vans. We arrived at the church at about 10:30 p.m., a full 13
1/2 hours after we started! 
 
All weekend apparently it rained, hailed and blew everywhere but where
we were. Only God could have prevented that. I cringe when I think what
a horrible time it would have been if it had been raining all day
Sunday. And thank heavens for our angels that He sent us. We would not
have stayed sane if they hadn't been there.

By Wendy Freels
 

 

Troop 940, Salem District OLD HICKORY COUNCIL, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA © 2003 Old Hickory Council, Boy Scouts of America.  All rights reserved.