dear mom and dad,

hello! our scotmaster told us to writer this letter to our parents, just in case, you saw this flood on tv and worried. we are ok! only one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washing away. luckly, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for adam when it happened.

oh, yes, please call adam's mother and tell her he is ok. he can't write because of the cast. i got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. it was neat. we never would have found adam in the dark. if it hadn't been for the lightning.

scotmaster keith got mad at adam for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. adam said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so hew probably didn't hear them. did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas will blow up?

the wet wood didn't burn, but one of the tents did and also some our clothes. matthrew is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

we will be home on saturday if scotmaster keith gets the bus fixed. it wasn't his fault about the wreck. the brakes worked okay when we left. scotmaster keith said that with a bus that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't insurance.

we think it's a neat bus. he doesn't care if we get it dirty and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us rides on the fenders. it gets pretty hot with 45 people in a bus made for 24. he let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrol man stopped and talked to us.

scotmaster keith is a great guy. don't worry, he is a good driver. in fact, he is teaching jessie how to drive on the mountain roads where there isn't any cops. all we ever see up there are logging trucks.

the morning, all of the guys were driving off the rocks and swimming out to the rapids. scotmaster keith wouldn't let me because i can't swim, and adam was afraid he would have sink because of his cast. it's concrete because we didn't have any plaster, so he let us take the canoe out. it was great. you can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood.

scotmaster keith isn't crabby like other scotmasters. he didn't even get mad about the lifejackets. he has to spend a lot of time working on the bus so we are trying not to cause him in trouble.

guess what? we have all passed our first merit badges. when ryan dived into the lake. and act his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works.

steve and i threw up, but scotmaster keith said it probably was just flood poisoning from he leftover oven. he said they got sick that the way with food they ate was poison. i'm so glad he got out and became our scotmaster . he said he just figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time. by the way, what is a pedal-file?

i have to go now. we are going to town to mail our letters and buy some more beers and ammo. don't worry about anything. we are fine and tonight it's my turn to sleep in the scotmaster's keith tent.


love as always
your only son,

johnnie