Dear Mom and Dad,
We’ve had a lot of adventures so far and met so many people
at Camp Abercorn. The only downside to
the camp is a lack of a decent internet signal.
It’s keeping me from sending you any photos with this letter. I’ll show you the photos when I get to
another location with decent Wi Fi.
The first night at camp was short because we got in so late
in the evening. “We” being Zach, myself
and two of the other actors on the show.
Zach is the only teenager actually playing a teenager in the show. The other “teens” are in their 20s. They are all super nice to Zach but slightly
older than him.
It wasn’t until Sunday morning that we got a good look at
the camp grounds. On Sunday, it looked
green and lush and just like summer. By
Tuesday, the temps had dropped and the leaves had started changing colors. Fall is now in the air.
The first full day in camp (Sunday) was nothing but a
rehearsal day. Zach practiced a scene
where he announces a contest as well as a scene where he chases after another
camper on a bike. The bike scene is the
first scene he shot on Monday.
Each cabin is equipped with 12 bunks. Not beds.
Bunks. Everyone was advised to
bring sleeping bags to camp to use for extra warmth and sleeping comfort. The cabins all have indoor plumbing. The only non-bathroom lights in the place are
in the living room as you enter the cabin.
The bedrooms have no lights or electricity so it’s definitely bed time
when you go to your room at the end of the night.
There are three places that get a decent cell phone signal
at camp:
*The parking lot at the top of the hill (entrance to the camp)
*The meadow in the middle of the camp grounds
*The back parking lots by the cabins.
The back parking lot is outside our cabin. It’s really odd that the signal areas are all
an equal distance from each other.
You’ll usually find a gathering of people in the lot walking around
trying to find any spot where they can get two or more bars on their phones.
The other thing about camp is that it is an actual boy/girl
scout camp. There are no TV’s, no game
rooms and no general stores to pick up any necessary items. The main social activity at night is dinner
in the dining hall. It’s where everyone
gathers to talk about the day and spend time together away from the set. It gets dark around 7pm so once dinner is
over, people head back to their cabins for the night. There is no night “activity room”. People either chat in their cabins or hang
out in the dining hall before calling it a night.
It’s always exciting to meet new people. We’ve met quite the group of characters here
at camp:
*There are two guys that take care of the camp grounds. The older one is Charles and he lives on the
grounds. The other one is Porcupine and
he lives up to his name. His is 19, has
a pointy beard and likes to throw knives into logs.
*Jake is a volunteer that is involved with a local boy scout
chapter. I met him while he was
preparing to trim some of the trees. He
told me all about the wonders of Oregon with a smile that made think he was
recalling some horrible deeds he committed in the recent past. He excused himself to go work in the
woods. The next time I saw him he was
running from one part of the woods to the other like Forest Gump with the grin
of a crazy person. He was waving the
tree trimmer in the air and whistling at the top of his lungs.
*The lack of a decent internet signal has caused me to go
into town a few times. My first trip was
a drive to Portland to exchange my Wi Fi hot spot. One of the show producers was heading there
to pick up some equipment so I went along for the ride. I was told by AT&T technical support that
I could exchange the device at any retailer.
I found an AT&T corporate store in Portland and was told the best
thing for me to do was to go back to the town closest to camp and make the
exchange there (in case I still had problems it would be easier to get to that
location). I made it to the local store later
in the day only to discover the store did not have a device they were willing
to give me (long story about the inconvenient and unyielding policies of
AT&T) but I could easily get one back in Portland. This 4-hour adventure involved me, Zach, a
production assistant, AT&T employees telling me it would break the laws of
the company to exchange the device in store after 14 days of my owning the hot
spot, the random discovery of a Blockbuster store that is still in operation,
the fact that AT&T corporate employees are not able (or willing) to dictate
policy to their store employees and the music of Radiohead serving as the
soundtrack of a drive through the wilds of Oregon at night.
*The next trip into town was in a cab driven by Malcom. He is best described as a silver haired cab
driver who wears a leather jacket with sleeves he cut off by himself. Other facts about Malcom include:
A. He performs marriages as a side job
B. He has been married multiple times
C. The celebrities he has met in his life are Robert Blake,
Steve McQueen and John Denver
D. He is the owner and only employee of the cab company and
is on call 24/7
E. He has not slept a full night in 5 years
F. He loves to drive people home from bars so he can spread
the gospel to them late at night
G. He once had a neighbor who was convinced Malcom’s dog
could speak racial slurs
H. His cab has a photo of a horse on the side of the vehicle
I think that’s enough from camp for today. I don’t want to share everything at once.
Talk to you soon from Camp Abercorn - "Ready To Go!"
#campabercorn
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