Why one should be a Girl Scout?
Why should one become a girl scout? Well, Aug of 2006 my summer vacation is a terrific example of why one should be a girl scout. There were to leaders and about four or five of us girls from troop 105 that made the annual trip to Iowa. Though we’ve gone to Iowa every summer this time was different because it was one of the best trips. When go to Iowa we stay in a girl scout camp in New Liberty Iowa called Camp Conestoga, a better form of our local camp in Metamora called Camp Tapiwingo. We stay in what is normally the staff house when camp is in session. It has an upper and lower room as well as a kitchen, which we use to cook some of our meals to save some money. The camp also has a really nice shower house with running water that is actually warm, warm is a definite plus when our camp doesn’t have it. So this year we not only stayed at the camp we also went to some really cool places. One of which was the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque Iowa. Where you learn about the trade on the Mississippi River and about turtles, fish, gators, and much more. When you mix history with fun you get something that everyone will enjoy. You learn a lot at the museum like how life used to be on the river in contrast to what it’s like now. They have a giant catfish model that you can go in and see the inside of a catfish. There’s simulator for driving a barge that is really cool. There’s an old tugboat for a barge that you can tour and we found out that you can do an overnighter on the barge and stay in the old crew member’s quarters. We decided that we should try to come back and do that some time as a troop. Before we left we took our picture with Mark Twain, well not him exactly, but a pretty good‑looking statue of him that sits on a park bench. I still have the picture for proof that it was him. In Wilton Iowa there’s a place called the Candy Kitchen it’s historic been around since 1896, normally we stop there for ice cream on our trip, but this year we only took a picture of us out front with sad faces cause they were for some reason closed. In the evening of the first day in Iowa we went to the mall in Coral Ridge Iowa, did some shopping and ate at the nearby Red Lobster. You can never really take girl scouts to nice restaurants and not have fun. Especially when a leader orders crab cause someone’s bound to do something funny with the empty shells from the crab and make everyone laugh. The next day we went to the Devonian Gorge, a place that if one ever gets the chance one should visit. It was formed when rain caused the Coralville lake to overflow and then the spillway itself overflowed. This washed away the campgrounds near the lake revealing fossils that are thousands of years old, thus forming the Devonian Gorge. You can walk through the Devonian Gorge and with each step we were walking on history. You could pick up a small stone and it would be certain that you would see fossilized creatures on it. When we went to the Devonian Gorge Visitors Center, the guy there asked us if we wanted to see a movie about the gorge since we were their on a girl scout trip. The guy was so delighted to see young minds with an interest in history and was very eager to answer any questions we had. My friend Bob, that’s her camp name, like the gorge so much that she decided she might one day become a paleontologist or even an archeologist. When Bob said that I realized another key reason for being a girl scout, that in being one, you just might get a little help with deciding your future when you least expect it. We went to the gorge and wound up finding something else of interest by accident on our way back to camp. I could ask someone to guess what it was, but they wouldn’t be able to. No, Mrs. B turned the truck around quicker than snot just so we could have our picture taken in front of the World’s largest wooden nickel. That’s right a giant circle of wood along the side of the road in a hayfield, I have a picture to prove it. Well any way the Devonian Gorge was a wicked cool place, so we all decided, it was the after event that wasn’t so cool. I mean, who really pulls U-turn in the middle of a road for a picture in front of a giant wooden nickel, oh right, Mrs. B. How do her girls scouts react, well, with a lot of protesting and really forced cheesy smiles for the picture, because it’s the millionth picture of the day. We didn’t just do stuff that wasn’t serious because we did discuss some troop business and we worked on an entertainment IPP badge. One of the last things we did before leaving was take yet another picture at the front entrance to camp to show we’d gone to Camp Conestoga once again. There’s no way I’ll forget this trip because if I do Mrs. B will be right there to get out the pictures and remind me of it, of that I’m sure.
