I've exhausted all my hand-written entries from last week's camping trip, but there were a few things I still wanted to get down here before moving back into the real world...

6 Jul 2001

At the closing campfire tonight, which always has a patriotic theme, the staff retired a large American flag.

It wasn't that tattered or worn, but was certainly faded. The red stripes were actually more of a pale burnt orange.

As with our retirement ceremonies, the old flag flew until the end. And received a final salute and recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

It also received a final singing of the Star Spangled Banner. Will not try that in our small group. My voice cannot hit those notes like some other peoples' voices.

The old flag was neatly folded into the standard triangle for the short, 10 m walk from pole to pyre. Then reopened before the fire. Nice touch, will add that to our ceremonies.

The staff held the opened flag high over the fire until the eulogy was finished, and then extremely slowly lowered it onto the flames.

Nice if you have tall people, of about equal heights. We'll skip that.

And quite dangerous if you have a highly flammable flag, like some of ours have been. Theirs burned slowly, as though fire-resistent, which it may have been.

The Master of Ceremonies was armed with a long staff to lift unburned portions of the flag back into the flames. Good touch, will need to remember that.

They concluded with the presentation of a new Stars & Stripes to take the place of the one retired. Also a good gesture, but probably not appropriate if you're conducting your retirement at dark, as we do. (For you non-Yanks out there, our flag is not supposed to be flown in the dark, unless lit by artificial light.)

Before the retirement, the staff recited an abridged version of American history, tracing the changes and passage of the flag along the way.

A fellow redhead described the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.

As we filed out at the end, I shook his hand and thanked him for that inclusion, mentioning that my Dad was there.

So was his grandfather.

And a grandfather of the staffer standing next to him.

Would have liked to have stayed and discussed their grandfathers' experiences, but there was too much of a crowd, too many folks eager to get back to camp and pack for home.

Earlier in the program, the staff led us in a round robin of "Zulu Warrior." Anyone out there familiar with that, or did it come from our South African guest? It was fun, so I scribbled the lyrics down. Hopefully I will be able to remember the melody.

Mountain Man did a memorized recitation of Abraham's Gettysburg Address. Also thanked him at the end. The compliment surprised him, and knocked him out of character for a few seconds.

All the crowd of 280+ people headed up the gravel road past the mess hall to the campsites. I diverted our small group to the Columbine Trail shortcut, which we hiked by moonlight.

Nice ending to a week in camp.

Oh, and one other good thing.

Lost three pounds.