They're Home!!!...and so is their laundry...

But you all know that I LOVE laundry. It is four pm and I am on the last load. The socks that have soaked in bleach all afternoon and hopefully they are now some shade of beige instead of black.

What an adventure... Ray contacted me via cellphone around 3:15 to say that all the boys had finally been evacuated and that a headcount was taking place before any boys would be released. It was a long afternoon of waiting for everyone. At around 7 o'clock they finally hit the road but shortly after that....the bus broke down. They were around Barrie on the 400. They waited for a couple of hours for a second bus to come, transfered all the gear they had on board and got underway again. Ray advised me to go to bed, which I did, and I received a call at 1:30 am, which I relayed to another parent, that the bus, boys and counsellors would be at the church in an hour. I slept in my clothes so I wouldn't have to change, and went to the rendezvous point.

When I arrived, the trailer full of gear was there and as parents we unloaded it and lined it up on the sidewalk. I had brought a flashlight and had the very important job of shining it into the trailer since there were no lights inside....the driver had long since unhooked and gone home to bed. The boys Rubbermaid totes came off right away but it was a while before I spotted their hockey bags. A friend offered to load up their van so I wouldn't have to make two trips. Later I spotted Ray's canoe pack, the cot, the bag of dry clothes I had sent (which I had added a name tag to as an afterthought!), but Ray's hockey bag was in another truck. Ray worried about this since his new tent was in there and he had to pack in there wet. A moldy tent is not a pleasant thing to behold. I assured him that it wouldn't rot overnight since it was not a particulary dry evening around here. I had to wipe all the windows since they were covered with condensation....

So the boys are home, went to the library with friends, will go for a swim, tell their adventures to each other all afternoon and play baseball tonight! So exciting!!

I have completed the laundry process...a process, since this would not be a simple task. I sorted the clothes and gear into piles: "caked on mud", "just wet and muddy", and "wow, still fairly clean". I had filled up the now empty Rubbermaid tubs with water and set up a rinsing station at waist height (my back isn't what it used to be) out in the backyard. The caked on stuff went in to soak for a spell, then rubbed and scrubbed with a brush to get the most mud off and then into a second rinse, then to a laundry basket. The wet and muddy stuff really only needed a rinse and the fairly clean stuff could go straight to the machine. I brought the whole kit and kaboodle downstairs and presoaked it. Especially the socks,since the fragrance of organic matter can linger long....therefore the bleach. A lot of the really stained stuff got presoaked in a pail or tubs with warm water and detergent while the fairly clean stuff started to get washed. I managed to get all but one load onto the clothes line and my drying racks. I also had to wash all the hockey bags since they had to sit in the mud somewhere along the line. That was a fun little scub job too. While this was going on, Ray washed and scrubbed the boots and shoes, rain pants and his tent. He actually stayed really dry in there....a bit of water came in from above but NOTHING at the bottom and he was really sitting in water. (That is Ray's boot beside his tent...)People felt sorry for him.
The military was on call in case things went from worse to even worse, but with the help of the community they were able to get the job done. I think if the there had been no towns nearby they might have deployed the armed forces or if lives were at stake.

So this saga is over. What an adventure....it was really hard to get back to sleep after picking the boys up. They showered had a snack and went to bed....Ray told me all kinds of stories because he couldn't sleep either.....it was neat to hear the events to fill in the blanks of what was on the website. At 8:30 we were up and at 'em.








This is Ray's little buddy Kermit, sitting on the groundsheet that comes with his tent. See the water in the grass below. Wow. I can't believe he stayed dry!
And now the laundry is all done....time to make some supper.