Up at 5:00; clear and 60 degrees outside.  Did a rushed bathroom, then got everyone up at 5:20.  Bit of a delay because Hugh had flipped the lights back off and on again after I had turned them on already (they were the halogen type that took a couple of minutes to fire up).  Quickly packed up the last of our gear, then folded the cots and put them away in the outside locker.  Closed the garage doors, left the keys on the shelf by the door, and locked up.  Drew then announced he had forgotten his bolo tie (he left it on the shelves by his cot) - too late!  Gone at 6:02.  At the gate, I asked about the McDonalds on base (which I recalled from 2000, but couldn’t remember where it was located).  Also whether they needed the vehicle pass back (they didn’t).  Turned out the McDonalds was very close to the snow barn, so we turned around and headed back into the base.  Got there at 6:10, did another mass ordering, turned out OK.  Ate quickly, and back out the door at 6:35.  Arrived at the airport at 6:50 - and was quite surprised to find the Council bus already present, with the other Crews all eating breakfast outside.  Pulled up behind them, and got out to see what was up.  After saying hello to several leaders, I worked my way through the crowd to John Ruppel (the Council Contingent Leader) - he said he had expected us at 7:00, not 8:00 (as was listed on our Itinerary planning timeline).  But it wasn’t a crisis, since he wanted to leave at 7:45.  They also had breakfast for us (meal packages), but since we had just eaten we gave ours away to everyone else.  Interestingly, the other Scouts jumped on our meals immediately - guess there were still some hungry hombres there.  After quickly unloading all the gear from the truck, we left Luke and Matt to handle reloading everything into the bus while Hugh and I returned the vehicles.  Things were going to be a bit more rushed than we had expected, but it was still doable.  At Budget, it turned out that the truck would take three gallons of gas and also cost an additional $25 refueling “hassle” fee.  After some discussion, Hugh decided to go get it gassed up and take their shuttle back to airport.  So I headed off to Enterprise on my own, getting gassed up on the way.  This time, I just added regular - no more mountain-climbing to worry about.  At Enterprise, I got there just as the first shuttle of the day was getting ready to leave, so they held it while I polished off the last of the paperwork.  No problems, and I was on my way in short order.  I got back to the bus around 7:40; Hugh was already there, and all of our stuff was already packed up and ready to go.  So I got right on board, and we were on our way in a hot minute.  [Photos: 1, 2, 3]  First stop:  The Garden of the Gods for a quick tour.  On the way, I gave John Ruppel the (required) photocopies of our medical forms, so another administrative chore out of the way.  At the Garden, we did the slow loop road tour, with John giving a running commentary.  We stopped for about 10 minutes on the back side for some standard photo ops.  We had to dodge some local drivers (who use the Garden as a commuter shortcut) in order to get our own Crew shot.  After the other Crews got some similar shots, it was back on the bus and off to the Garden of the Gods Trading Post, arriving 8:35.  Everyone got off for about a planned 30 minute visit (30 eventually turned into 40, but that was OK).  Per my prodding, Drew bought a replacement bolo tie (and also got yet another ¼ pound of fudge for personal consumption).  I liked the bolo design (and price) so much that I kept the attached inventory card for possible purchase as Troop 111 bolo ties.  Most everyone else bought postcards and patches, etc.  The prices were actually pretty reasonable, surprisingly enough.  Matt got a floppy rubber cactus antenna ornament (which was just weird).  Todd got three napkin holders for his mom, and Mark got a “choker”-style Indian necklace.  I just got the usual array of postcards.  On our way at 9:15, and over to Balancing Rock, where we once again all piled out for some more photos.  One car attracted a fair amount of interest from the Scouts and Leaders, being covered with bumper stickers (on both the front and back bumpers) offering various interesting life observations and pragmatic advice.  For example:  “Animal Rights Activists are More Violently Opposed to Fur than Leather Because it’s a Lot Safer to Hassle Rich Women than Motorcycle Gangs”.  But my personal LOL favorite was “Condoms are Easier to Change than Diapers” (yeah, especially when you factor in the relative frequency multiplier).  Hee-Yuck!  After some waiting (and gently shooing an Asian family off to one side (they didn’t understand English)), we managed to get the classic Crew photo with Balancing Rock as the backdrop.  [Photos: 1, 2]  Back on the road at 9:40, and down to Rt. 24 East.  Our bus driver (Bill Hunter) noted that the badly eroded area alongside Rt. 24 was runoff from the Cripple Creek mines.  They are putting top soil on it now to try and repair it.  By 9:55, we were on I-25 South and off to Pueblo.  John continued Naked Gun I, restarting at the point where the baseball game started.  It finished up around 10:15.  We arrived at Country Buffet/Pueblo at 10:30, way early (it opened at 11:00).  After 10 minutes, guys started getting rambunctious (especially Mark, Matt, and Luke), so I broke out the Philmont map and reviewed the FM (Fire-Modified) Trek 32 with the guys.  Got to our Baldy day before John broke in to “invite” us inside, since it was now 11:00 and he had seen other customers heading in.  Country Buffet lays out a tremendous buffet spread, and it was excellent as usual - and as usual, the Scouts ate like it was their last meal on earth.  Somehow we got to talking about gambling and then robbing casinos! (don’t ask me how!)  At 11:35, John came by and said we’d be leaving in half an hour, so I got the map out of the bus, got the Crew together, and continued on with the Trek review til about 12:10, with some of the other Leaders and Crew Chiefs looking on.  I offered to cover their treks in a similar fashion at the Koshare Kiva tonight, to which they all agreed.  After a slow cattle drive back to the bus, we headed back out about 12:30.  Some military aircraft were doing “Touch and Go’s” at the Pueblo Airport as we again headed south on I-25, another reminder that the nation was at war.  We also passed a mini-horse farm (many miniaturized animals visible), which excited lots of chatter from the Scouts.  We started another movie: “Office Daze” (or something like that), which kept everyone entertained on the way to La Junta.  Arrived at Old Bent’s Fort at 1:45; we were a little early, so we finished the movie, then headed over (about a half mile walk, passing a small graveyard on the way).  Sunny and very hot, but fortunately there was a decent breeze blowing.  At the Fort, we met our two guides, and divided into two groups:  All of 111 and half of 893 were in the second group, with Don Taylor (sp?) as our guide.  Don was “officially” acting as the doctor for the Fort.  Bent’s Fort was actually a major waypoint on the Santa Fe Trail, operating from roughly 1810 to 1840, and was much more of a Trading Post than a fort.  It had long since fallen into nearly complete ruin, so the existing Fort was actually a reproduction put together by the National Park Service.  However, it was considered to be a fairly close replica, because the Park Service had had access to a large number of highly detailed drawings and paintings from a frontier artist who had spent a fair amount of time at the Fort and in the surrounding area.  After giving the first group about a five minute head start, Don led us in and started in with the fur press in the middle of the courtyard.  Then it was a “walkabout” tour to the lookout parapet, living quarters, dining “hall”, billiard room/bar, blacksmith shop, fur storage rooms, water well, Mexican living quarters, saddle room, and trading room.  Don did a nice job, explaining that the “small” graveyard outside the Fort was actually quite large - it was just that there was only one large headstone, and almost all of the graves were unmarked.  He also explained the operation of the small cannon on the parapet, the different course of the Arkansas from its present day flow, the traces of the Santa Fe trail (wagon wheel ruts are still visible if you look in certain places), hardtack, the use of a chamber pot, how to repair wagon wheels, and the hows and whys of frontier doctoring, including a display of the medical tools for bloodletting and amputation.  Of additional interest, there were several peacocks wandering around inside the Fort, and their shrill calls added an occasional odd note to the tour.  Interesting stuff.  When we finished up, we headed back out the door to examine a wagon and several other artifacts in front of the Fort, then gave our sincere thanks to Don and headed back to the gift shop for about half an hour.  By this point, most of us were in need of some water (and conversely, a bathroom break) - so the gift shop got a pretty good workout on those two scores.  I finally “formally” greeted Anders Gilstad of Troop 647 (who I had recruited into Crew 893), and we chatted for a few minutes.  John Ruppel and one of the other Advisors from Troop 796 joined us and we briefly discussed some of the expected changes in the treks for all three Crews.  Finally back to the bus, and we hit the road at 3:40.  It was a quick trip to La Junta, and we pulled into the Koshare Indian Kiva parking lot at 4:05.  John went into the Kiva for 10 minutes to arrange logistics, then called for the three Crew leaders to go inside to get an orientation.  In the meantime, we offloaded all the carry on and sleeping gear.  When our Crew Leaders returned, we transferred everything to the floor of the Kiva (minding my admonition to keep gear separated and not create a huge “dog-pile” that would take an hour to sort out).  Once the bus was emptied, Bill took off for the night, while we went inside and sorted out our stuff.  The room was divided into thirds (by Crew), and everyone started in on setting up their sleeping bags, pads and other gear.  I spent some time reuniting one Scout with his sleeping bag, and another with his foam pad.  We stopped for a few minutes to get an orientation lecture from Linda Powers, the Executive Director of the Kiva (bathrooms, showers, gift shop, etc.), then finished setting up.  One of the Scouts (Robert) from Troop 796 had a guitar, and I asked if I could play it later (“sure thing”).  Chatted with Dan Ross for a few minutes, then everyone not already wearing them got changed back into their Class A’s.  At 5:10 we headed over as a group to the Otero College cafeteria - dinner was spaghetti and meat sauce, salad, soup, brownie, and drinks, pretty decent.  Back at Kiva by 5:55.  I offered to do my trek instructional training to Crew Chiefs and Advisors, and everyone agreed to start at 6:30.  Our guys started a game of Monopoly on the floor [Photos: 1, 2]; the other Crews played cards, chess, and checkers.  I got out my Philmont maps at 6:25, and ran through detailed descriptions of my “best guesses” for Treks 20 and 21, discarding the Valle and northeastern quadrants of the Ranch, and offering as many suggestions and tips as my brain could recall.  One of the Advisors from Troop 796 took all my various “Crew Chief Notes” and xeroxed copies for everyone else.  Q&A went til nearly 9:00 pm, so obviously they felt it was worth it (and John paid me some nice compliments in private afterwards).  In the meanwhile, most of 111 and 893 had left to play basketball on a nearby outdoor court.  Since all my sheet music was in my pack (in the bottom of the bus), I was unable to play guitar, and instead returned to diary writing.  The Scouts all returned from the basketball game at 9:30, looking for water and showers.  Apparently Troop 111 triumphed over Crew 893, winning by 4 or 5 points.  But in the immortal words of Todd, “we all sucked”.  Well, altitude has a way of surprising flatlanders.  Much more importantly, no one got injured.  By 9:50, things started settling down.  Lights out at 10:00 - reasonably quiet, reasonably quickly - with showers continuing til just past 11:00.  After a bathroom stop and a little more diary writing, I crashed around 11:20, and once again fell asleep in mid-prayer - but I did not sleep all that well tonight with all the additional noise of two dozen more people.  Even reasonably quiet is noisy for me!  A decent day today, though I’m not fond of pure sightseeing for Scouts, and the Council activity timeline could certainly be tightened up some.  Tomorrow Philmont!