​Today we packed and moved camp from Lewisburg, West Virginia to Sevierville, Tennessee. We left on time, but that was late for us. We let the boys sleep in, though many were up and raring to go well before others had even stirred.
 
The drive was smooth sailing and we arrived in late afternoon, checked in, and left to find an activity or two. We settled on a place where the boys could choose between “black-light mini golf” or the “arcade.” We entertained ourselves until time for dinner, which wasn’t until 8:30. The gang was pretty-wound up by then, so good thing the staff at TGI Fridays had a separate room for us. After dinner we went back to the arcade for an ice cream treat. It was nearly 11:30 by the time we were settled back into the rooms for sleep.

Click to check out photos from today's activities.
​www.flickr.com/photos/mindstretch/albums/72157669822885906

​We made the most of our last day in Lewisburg starting with an excellent visit to Lost World Caverns. We enjoyed a guided tour with the owner and experienced an amazing trip over 1,000 feet back into the cave and several stories down. While it wasn’t a particularly hot day, it still felt especially nice in the 52 degree temperature of the cavern. After the tour, we had a snack and then hiked to a\top of the cavern to look for the original entrance to the cave. The owner explained how to get there and we didn’t have any trouble locating the grate-covered entrance way. This opening drops down the equivalent of 12 stories to the floor of the cave. The entrance we used was made in order to open up the cavern to regular visitors.
 
We then spent another hour gemstone mining and souvenir hunting at the Lost World Caverns visitor center. The boys hit it big during their gemstone mining experience. Hopefully they’ll all get home with their discoveries.
 
We went directly to the bowling center from Lost World and enjoyed the afternoon throwing strikes and gutter balls and everything in-between. After a warm-up game, we were ready for a tournament. The high scorer of each lane won five bucks and then we had a championship match for the top six scorers. You can check out the winners in the photos. We had pizza and soda at the bowling alley for lunch.
 
We returned to the hotel around 5 and had enough time for a short swim before heading out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We were “lucky” in that there was a mariachi band performing for our evening’s entertainment.
 
And now it’s bedtime, but many boys are watching the NBA championship playoff game. It was a long day, but the boys get to have a sleep-in day tomorrow.

Click to check out photos from today:
www.flickr.com/photos/mindstretch/albums/72157667169190844

Our day started by meeting our bicycling outfitter for the start of our ride on the Greenbrier River Trail. This trail, a rails-to-trails conversion, follows the bed of an old railroad for about 70 miles from where we started today to Cass. Cass is where we rode the train yesterday. These trails are car free and we saw very few other riders or hikers. We basically had it to ourselves. It was a great ride along the Greenbrier River and everyone made it without complaints or “injuries.” Boys rode anywhere from about 8 to 12 miles.
 
We came back to Lewisburg (just a few minutes away) for lunch and then went to a big field for a came of “baseball.” Most boys played the low-key game while a few others amused themselves trying to find the groundhog they saw run into its den in a clump of bushes as we drove up.
 
We returned to the motel around 3:30 for some swim time and chill time and then ended the day’s activities with a great dinner at When Pigs Fly Barbecue. We enjoyed dinner here so much three years ago that it was a “must stop” for this year. We called ahead and arranged for a buffet. The anticipation of mouth-watering barbecue was rewarded with plenty of great food.
 
It was another day of adventure for the boys and leaders.

Click to check out today's photos:
www.flickr.com/photos/mindstretch/albums/72157669819293635

​Great day today. Busy from 8:30 (earlier counting breakfast) to 9:30 today. Took the drive up the forests and into the mountains to Cass to take the Cass Scenic Railway train up to Whittaker station. A nice ride on a coal fired steam engine chugging uphill at a blazing speed of 4 mph. At the top the boys got to climb up into the engine to get a first-hand look at a true antique. The engine on this train was built in 1922.
 
After the train ride returned to Cass, we enjoyed a trail lunch before visiting the station gift shop and then headed over to the Green Bank Science Center, home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. We saw a film and boarded a bus for a guided tour. This radio telescope (taller than the Statue of Liberty) listens to deep space in hopes of finding out mysteries of the universe. It was some pretty fascinating stuff.
 
We also enjoyed another ice cream treat in honor of the boys getting yet another compliment.
 
It was a wonderful day!

Click to check out the photos from today's fun.
www.flickr.com/photos/mindstretch/albums/72157668857169210

We started our day's activities with a tour of "the Bunker" at the Greenbrier Resort. The Greenbrier has a dress code so our boys looked pretty snappy (according to a hotel employee) with their collared and tucked-in shirts. Our guide was excellent at getting and keeping the attention of the boys. He told the story of this top secret facility built during the Cold War to house Congress in case of a nuclear attack. After lunch and a short swim, we visited the White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery. They weren't giving tours but we did walk through the exhibits and got to see and feed some pretty huge trout. The boys also enjoyed an impromptu joke fest and skit show on the amphitheater stage at the hatchery.
 
The boys have really been on a roll in racking up compliments these first two days so we did cash in a couple of thier treats today including some tasty frozen yogurt. One boy commented that his mom only lets him get one topping and he was proudly adding five or six!
 
As always there's swimming and the boys have also been enjoying some parking lot baseball with a foam ball and bat one of the boys bought at the Greenbrier.

Check out photos of today's activities at the following link:
www.flickr.com/photos/mindstretch/albums/72157669638806476

The first trip of the summer is underway. It's just a travel day, but the boys have been anticipating this trip for months...so everything is an adventure to them. We made it to West Virginia in about 6 1/2 hours from Greenville. That wasn't too bad considering we took off an hour for lunch and had another rest stop at the West Virginia welcome center, where this photo was taken.

So other than travel, we enjoyed a buffet at Shoney's and an evening swim at the hotel. The boys are happy (and so are the leaders) and we're looking forward to lots of fun ahead.

We're looking forward to a wonderful week and invite you to follow our trip here and on Facebook.

Check out photos from today at www.flickr.com/photos/mindstretch/albums/72157667025817604

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On this Thanksgiving day, let me say thanks to these guys, their parents, and my leaders for a wonderful time in West Virginia and Europe last summer. I've been blessed to have had so much support from parents over the years. Last year a total of 37 boys went to either West Virginia or Europe with MTA and we'll have that many again in 2014 for the Virginia and New England trips. This photo brings back some great memories and I'm excited that most of these boys are going again. Happy Thanksgiving from MTA.

Take a look at this short video slide show of some of our fun this past June. Thanks guys for a great trip. Give this a couple of minutes to load before starting. Enjoy!

We returned right on schedule from our West Virginia mountains adventure to a parking lot filled with excited parents. The boys were pretty excited too. They would soon be off to a "quiet" lunch without 19 new and old buddies and would soon get to see their home, siblings, other parents, pets, and their own beds.

But I can also tell you, I imagine most of the boys (if not all) will also miss the daily adventures that would unfold each morning in West Virginia. They might  even miss cramming into a couple of vans not knowing where we're going to eat until we actually drove up into the parking lot or not knowing what activities might happen on any given day until they were announced the night before.

And I also imagine, and I hope, that most of these boys will be with us on another trip in the future. Some are already signed up and I know others will follow.

It was fast-paced week with a great group of campers. I would also like to acknowledge how wonderful,  kind, and patient my leaders were. Thanks to Howard Yarborough, Doug Williams, and Brent Roberts for giving up their valuable time to serve as staff. You guys were the best.

And you campers...you were great! Lots of compliments (after a slow start) and lots of good times. I miss you already.

Click to see photos from our great week in West Virginia.

We spent another full day enjoying ourselves on the West Virginia adventure. Our first activity was taking a tour of the Lost World Caverns. I think everyone was in awe as we walked down the path deep into the huge cavern. We had a two-hour guided tour that was excellent. Along the way we were able to complete the requirements for an "EarthCache," a type of geocache. We had hoped to do more geocaching on this trip but just ran out of time.

After our cavern tour the boys tried their hand at gemstone mining and in just a few minutes each had a bag of some pretty impressive rocks to bring home. And then they hit the gift shop and pretty much made the owners' day. We really hadn't had any opportunities to do any souvenir hunting on this trip so this was a good stop.

From Lost World Caverns we went back into Lewisburg for lunch and another one of our "earned" treats for receiving yet another sincere compliment and then we decided to go bowling once more for our afternoon activity. Today was the first day we had any rain that "could" have interrupted our activity plans but it really didn't get in the way. Bowling took us up to dinner. We decided to try a local pizza establishment called Giovanni's and weren't disappointed.

And finally, back to the hotel to pack and then have a final "junk food & swim party" hosted by Chapman Mann. Boys enjoyed swimming one last time and actually didn't pig out all that much on the candy and other snacks donated by Chapman and the other boys.

It has been an excellent week. The kids have been great and I hope i'll see all of them again on a future trip.

Click to see photos.