Dads, daughters and sons packed in a weekend’s worth of fun at this year’s winter campouts this past February. Girls and boys competed in games, sled down snow-filled hills, and hunted for plates during the day while a Council Fire followed by bingo concluded the night activities. The children then played until they were exhausted enough to fall asleep on the hard, wooden bunks or until their dads said that it was time.
Into the early morning, dads huddled around the roaring campfire exchanging tales of past glories and failures while enjoying the camp chef’s burgers, dogs, and even some more exotic creations. A group of dads peeled off into the cabins to play card games. One by one dads trickled into the cabins. Eventually the cabin lights went dark and the camp fire burnt itself out. Campers grabbed a few hours of sleep before they made the journey home with new tales to share with their families.
The final morning of the Park Ridge Iroquois Nation’s campout, Bobby and Kevin ventured onto to Camp Tecumseh’s wet roads for a one-on-one footrace that Federation Chief Mike Charley would come to describe as “Epic!” 50-meters in distance with bragging rights at stake, the runners met at the start line early in the morning as Navajo dads and daughters paused from loading their cars to go home and instead lined the roads to watch the sprint.
The racers quickly reassembled at the start line and readied themselves. All of the spectators were quiet. “Go!” Geoff shouted again. The sprinters exploded off the line displaying surprising speed. It was neck and neck. Muscles and lungs burned as the competitors quickly closed the distance to the finish line meter by meter. At 35-meters, Bobby pulled away in his racing Crocs.
This past Monday the Binz family led a Chocolate Fondue party like no other. There were no warm and delicious chocolate strawberries and pineapple chunks impaled at the end of long thin metal skewers. Instead the Binz family treated the PR Sauk tribe to dried crickets. Yes, crickets… WE ATE BUGS!!!
