Day Joe Boy Cow Happy! I’m here to tell y’all young whippersnappers about one of the best days camp Timberlake has to offer, Cowboy Joe Day! 

Happening only once a session, this is a day where we do everything backwards! Yessirs you heard me right, todays the day where everything gets turned upside down. 

You see here at Timberlake, Cowbjoy Joe is something of a legend. Ole Cowboy Joe was famed for cookin’ up fantastical pastries he like 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 butl 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 playing some tribal games. Both tribal basketball and tribal soccer were played and those boys sure played their hearts out. We’ll have to fill you city folk in on who won in tomorrows daily post. Before the games we had an especially exciting even: The Timberlake Talent Show! Yes indeed we have some mighty talented folks here at camp. Here are some of the performances we enjoyed:

Brooks D did a solo dance performance. Harry K wowed us with an amazing card trick. Matt W woo’d us with his Ukulele skills. Chase C did his own solo dance routine. Ford B, Will S, Oliver M, Peter Q and Duncan S gave us an awesome acapella song. Ari P, Bo R and William H performed the original skit ‘the weird family’, Titus W and Chance M showed off an original sketch of their own with ‘the live TV skit’ and finally, Jonah N brought down the house with an electric performance of ‘Stairway to heaven on guitar’. 

Just before the Talent show 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 Teddy O, Declan Q, Oliver G, Bay J, Boone K, and Thomas M go kayaking on the famous Nantahala. 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 also had two birthdays to celebrate today as both Jonah N and Liam B celebrated finishing another trip around the sun today. 

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