The Crews
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February
26, 2000, found Venture Crew 37 of DeLeon and Venture Crew 30 of Dublin in the wilds north
of Dublin, engaged in a "wide game" of 200-acre proportions.
The 36 teenagers arrived at the Leatherwood place about 4:30 p.m. to
find several tents already set up, courtesy of advisors and members of Crew 30. Designated
areas were taped off for the "girls' area" and the "guys' area," but
it would be hours before anyone slept.
Gear was quickly stored in the tents, and the Crews spent some time
just exploring and socializing.
After
a supper of spaghetti and garlic bread, it was time to begin the wide game.
"If you go too far that way," Advisor Pat Leatherwood told
the group in preparation for the game, "you'll hit the highway and get run over by a
car. If you go too far that way, you'll hit the train tracks and can follow them
back to town."
Explaining the rules
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The game, begun just after dark, was designed to familiarize the Crews with orienting and using a map . . . and their minds. The hastily-drawn map showed the major features of the countryside, along with eight designated locations. At each of the locations, Leatherwood told the group, a light stick would be found. Somewhere within 50 feet of the lightstick, a diligent team would find a hidden coffee can. In the coffee can would be a different puzzle piece for each of the eight locations.
A lightstick in a tree
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Should finding the coffee can prove difficult, a clue was provided for
each of the eight locations . . . but it was usually a veiled description of the hiding
place.
Quick divisions into teams were made, and the teams scattered into the
darkness, each in search of a different starting place.
Flashlights flickered across the 200 acres for several hours as teams
searched through river bottoms, hills, woods and coastal bermuda grass fields to find the
clues.
When at last they began to filter back to the campfire, several teams
were preturbed to discover that the puzzle pieces, once assembled, did not make sense.
Instead, each piece had a single letter on it. The team had to make a word out of the
jumbled letters, and it took several tries and some frustration for teams before they
discovered (by campfire light) that the word was "campfire."
Deciphering the puzzle
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Discussions
and fellowship followed into the night, and as the temperature cooled and fatigue took its
toll, individuals either retired to the tents or clustered around campfire.
Before morning would arrive, frost would settle on the tents and the
grass, but most found themselves adequately prepared for the temperature.
At sunrise, the advisors started a fire in the cooker to
warm pre-cooked pancakes and heat water for hot chocolate. 
Keeping warm
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After breakfast and taking down and packing the tents, the Crews headed
for home.
The map
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