Haaaawwwwww Yeeeeee Lake Timber! Haaaaawwww Yeeee! For those who may not know, that’s how Ol’ cowboy Joe used to say Yee Haww at Timberlake back when he was roaming these parts.

What? You’ve never heard of Cowboy Joe?? Well pull up a chair there young-uns, and let me tell you about that famous rough rider and the special day we have here at camp to celebrate him. 

Cowboy Joe day is something like a national holiday here at Timberlake. Happening only once a session, this is a day where we do everything backwards! Yessirs, you heard me right, today’s the day where everything gets turned upside down. 

You see here at Timberlake, Cowboy Joe is something of a legend. Ole Cowboy Joe was famed for cookin’ up fantastical pastries he likes to call NutDoughs.  They was round and sweet with a hole in the middle and he made a good living sellin’ them to all he met.  Since Joe lived during the time of the great gold rush, he decided he’d head to where all the commotion was and sell NutDoughs to all and one.  But when everybody was headed west to California, he got a bit befuddled and ended up travelin’ east. He always wore a  big black hat and some snakeskin boots, but he always seemed to have that hat on backwards and them boots on the wrong feet.  You can believe me when I tell you that it was more than once in a blue moon that ole Cowboy Joe could be seen riding off into the sunrise sitting backward in his saddle.  Now I’m not trying to convince you of Joe being a hardheaded fool or nothing – he was a darn good cowboy… Could rope a runaway stallion with his six-shooter and drop a man cold from 30 paces with his trusty lasso, but I don’t know if I’d recommend standing behind him.

Anyway, to honor his legacy here at Timberlake, we do everything, and I mean everything backwards here today, and this here article will be no different don’t ya know? Well, iffen you’d like to hear the story of the day, I’d best be starting where all good stories start, at the end. 

Our rough riders finished the day by enjoying the Timberlake County Fair! Yessir we put on a mighty fine fair if I do say so myself. Up on Spencer’s Green tonight the boys enjoyed a dunk tank, giant slide, snow cones, tug of war, water balloon toss, appalachian wrasslin’, frisbee, soccer, spikeball and so much more.

Just before the County Fair we had chapel in the evening of course and instead of hollerin’ in the morning time we did our morning yell in the evening. The boys were mighty loud and proud and I can understand why, hollering after eating a delicious dinner of BBQ Pork, corn and mac and cheese. 

Before dinner time our intrepid tripping men returned from their time in the wilderness. Today we had Jack L, Dane T, Evan M , Hayes D, Jack W and Luke H go fly fishing on the North Toe river.  The boys proved to be mighty fine anglers and hooked eight total fish! We also had Francesco P, Haran R, Grant S and Sam C go waterfall rappelling! That’s right these brave adventurers rappelled right down the middle of a waterfall. It’s a good thing Cowboy Joe wasn’t on that trip seeing as he might’ve just tried to rappel up. And finally Graham W, Jack V, Giancarlo Z, Carson K and John David A headed off to the Camp Cup kayaking competition at the Nantahala river. This is a two day competition so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the full story but reports say the water was as cool as a popsicle in Greenland, but a good time was had by and certainly enjoyed it more than ole Cowboy Joe used to, seeing as how he never could stop trying to paddle upstream. 

In keeping with the theme of the day we went to our activities backwards today. Finishing with 1st period and starting with 4th.

Lunchtime vittles were not typical of course. Instead of the normal midday fare, our young cowboys chowed down on some delicious breakfast foods. Chicken and waffles were the star of the show but we also enjoyed a trail worthy grit bar and plenty of fruit yogurt and cereal. We were also proud to announce the cleanest cabin of the day…Tiger Tooth! We also announced the winners of last night’s tribal basketball and soccer games…The Golden Eagles! The soccer game came down to a shootout with George dB netting the winning goal and the basketball game was decided by a buzzerbeater that was just off the mark so it’s safe today the competition for the banner remains tight!

Now most of you city folk probably know by now that each night here at Camp Timberlake we play a tribal game. Well on Cowboy Joe day we play that game in the morning, of course. Right after morning vittles (more on that later), the caballeros walked themselves backwards up the hill to the Mark to play some Tribal Battleball (or ballbattle as it’s called today). The Bears Black and Eagles Golden duked it out and I suppose we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out which of these two proud tribes can add another set of spurs to their boots from winning the game. 

What did we do for morning vittles? Well I’m glad you asked as the start of Cowboy Joe day is my very favorite part. Instead of waking up to the sound of reveille at 7:00 am, the young buckaroos got to sleep in an extra hour and awake to the sound of their directors and senior staffers charging into the cabins with nut doughs and cow juice in hand. With music and whistles blaring and screams of “Haww Yee!” and “Morning Good!’’ echoing over the mountains it was a start to the day the campers won’t soon forget. And don’t worry, we came back through with some “nutrition actual’ for the boys once they’d wolfed down their Krispy Kreme nut doughs.

Well I guess that about does it fer my daily wrap up. The campfire is burning low here and the staff and campers are a snoozing after a day of wild and crazy fun. We sure do appreciate y’all parentals letting the young ranch hands spend the two weeks with us here at Camp Timberlake. We’re having a mighty fine time and and as proud of these boys as a first prize winner at the county fair. Unfortunately the days will go back to moving forwards tomorrow, but there is always more fun over the next horizon here at Timberlake. 

Off Signing, 

Menendez, John

Timberlake Director

Proud Eagle Golden

Cowboy Joe Fan Club President