Dear Mom & Dad,

Our Scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and are worried. We are OK. Only one of our tents & 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Adam when it happened.

Oh, yeah, please call Adam's mother & tell her he is OK. He can't write because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search & rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found Adam in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning.

Scoutmaster Keith got mad at Adam for going on a hike alone w/out telling anyone. Adam said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. 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 & also some of our clothes. Matthew is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Keith gets the bus fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked OK when we left. Scoutmaster Keith said that w/a bus that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't get insurance.

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

Scoutmaster Keith is a neat 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.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks & swimming out to the rapids. Scoutmaster Keith wouldn't let me because I can't swim, & Adam was afraid he would 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.

Scoutmaster Keith isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn't even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the bus so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our 1st aid merit badges. When Andrew dived into the lake & cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works.

Steven & I threw up, but Scoutmaster Keith said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said they got sick that way w/food they ate in prison. I'm so glad he got out & became our scoutmaster. He said he sure 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 & buy some more beer & ammo. Don't worry about anything. We are fine & tonight it's my turn to sleep in the Scoutmaster's tent.

Love, Jimmie