Ted E. Bear's 2005-'06 Onward & Upward Tour

Cork is one of 26 counties which are much like the States in the United States. Cork County is located in southwest Ireland. Cork city is the "County town", which is similar to a state capital in the US, located inside Cork County but is has a different council governing it. Cork City was chosen to be the European Capital of Culture in 2005 and they are celebrating. The trip from the United States took me 8 days. There were stops and transfer points so for someone traveling by plane non-stop it would take less time. I will be spending my time in Douglas with the 6th/47th Cork (Douglas) Scout Group. This Scout Group includes all age levels of Scouting; Beaver Scouts 6-8 yrs. old, Cub Scouts / Macoimh (an Irish version of the Cub programme) 8-11 yrs. old, Scouts 11-15 yrs. old and Venture Scouts/Venturers 15-21 yrs. old. Douglas is a suburb of Cork City which is right on the County/city border. They have many new housing developments, two shopping centres (malls) [in fact, one is the first covered shopping centre in the country!], many schools, shops, restaurats and other services. Check out the city's website at www.corkcity.ie.

24th August - I arrived today! I spent lots of time helping Mr. Casey (who is insisting I call him Kevin) prepare for his first night back to Beaver Scouts in the new Scouting year. In Ireland, Scouts runs from September to June with camp and other activities for the older members during the summer break. I'm very much looking forward to meeting them! The first meeting will be 2nd September.

29th August - Kevin, some friends visiting from the UK, France, and Germany and I went to Blarney! Kevin's friends wanted to kiss the famous Blarney Stone (and get the "gift of the gab"). I wasn't allowed because I'm too small so Kevin (who had kissed it before) and one or two of his friends stayed with me while the others climbed to the top of the castle. To kiss the stone, you have to lie down on your back and bend right over a ledge with nothing under you but a great big drop to the ground! There are bars and someone holding you but they said it's still very scary!

While in Perryville the Cubs here hope to take me to a Civil War re-enactment which takes place during their Camporee. Everyone has a good time learning about the The Map is on the right Speaking of history before I leave here I hope to visit the exact spot where Lewis & Clark began their journey across North America in 1803. From there I will travel to Oregon and hopefully visit the spot they marked as the end of their Trip in 1805. What took them over two years will hopefully take me less that a month.

Sept. 26th: I arrived today to Louisville from Cork, Ireland. It was a long journey and I am very tired. I am also very excited to be here. The Cubmaster has a son that is a Bear Cub like me! We will be able to cover some achievements together and that will make my stay very exciting. We are going to do a lot of activities while I am here. For now, I must try to get over my “jet-lag” so I am going to bed.

October 1st: We went to a Native American Pow-Wow today. Kentucky is actually an Indian name this state was named after, and there is a lot of heritage here. I am so excited. I got to learn an Inter-tribal Native American dance and it was so much fun. All the Indians dressed up, and drums beating in the background, with spirit flutes playing really make this very exciting. I even visited the mobile American Indian museum they brought to the festival. I didn’t know it, but Mr. Bean, the Cubmaster, is part Indian and he really enjoys trying to keep his heritage alive.

Everyone here is very nice and when I told them of my journey, they were all very impressed that a Bear Cub could travel so many places they said I must have Indian Blood too if I am known as a Bear. They said it takes courage to travel away from my family to make new friends and I am always welcome around their campfire.

October 7: Today I was made an honorary member of Cub Scout Pack 308. The leaders presented me a Lincoln Heritage Council Patch for my collection. After the short ceremony, we left Louisville for Perryville Kentucky. While at Perryville, I will get to see the re-enactment of the Civil War Battle of Perryville, which was the largest battle in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

About an hour out of Perryville, it had started to drizzle. Mr. Newcomer explained that it wouldn’t be Pack 308 campout without liquid sunshine. We arrived at the Perryville Battle Field State Park around 8:00 and we had camp set up by 8:30. I was impressed on how fast the Webelos worked to set up camp with the drizzle coming down and the wind picking up. They told me it wasn’t fun sleeping in a wet tent. They said the faster the dinning fly and the tents went up the better the chances of things staying dry. I’m glad Mr. Faust packed my blanket. I think it is going to be very cold tonight.

October 8: This morning the poor weather is gone. Shortly after breakfast, we hiked a mile to the center of the battlefield park. There is a small museum at the battlefield that we toured before the re-enactment started. The museum contains a lot of artifacts that have been found on site. The 5th grade Webelos bought me a Battle of Perryville pin for my jacket. It looks great with all my other pins. After we toured the museum, we joined the spectator line for the re-enactment of the Battle of Pottsville. This was a cavalry skirmish that occurred a few days prior to the Battle of Perryville.

After the cavalry re-enactment, we visited with the soldiers in their camps.

After the re-enactment, we toured the Sutlers tents. Sutlers were merchants who sold goods to the soldiers during the Civil War. I tried sarsaparilla, which is a lot like root beer. One of the scouts bought a neat cap gun.

Early in the evening, we hiked back to the battlefield for a firing demonstration of the cannons used during the civil war. This was done at night and so we could really see the flames shooting out of the barrels. It was a good thing that the leaders brought earplugs or I would be deaf. We returned to camp for a nighttime snack and campfire. It has been a long day and I think I hear my blanket calling me.

October 9: This morning we packed up and returned to Louisville. I’m going to have to rest up now. I got another big day tomorrow. I will be the guest of honor at a Den Meeting. The Bear Den of Pack 308 is taking me to the Falls of the Ohio. which is the starting point of Lewis and Clarks expedition to the west.

October 10: Well, after school today we went to “The Falls of the Ohio” state park site located in Southern Indiana. This is the site that Lewis and Clark started their expedition to the Pacific. This area used to be the shore area of the ocean and beneath the water level of the river is the “Flats” where you can find fossils from the Devonian Period. They have uncovered animals as well as plants from this area and put them in a museum and we got to tour it. They even allow you to go to the fossil beds and look at, pick up and take pictures of the fossils. Talk about a hands on experience, this is cool! It was also the last step of the “Leave no trace” achievement the scouts were working on. They say “take nothing but a picture and leave it better than the way you found it.” Let me tell you about the “Falls” area.

I stood on the very spot where Lewis and Clark met. This was very cool. There is a statue to commemorate the meeting. The rock the statue is mounted on is from this area and is 387,000,000 years old (That is 387 million). Man, is that a lot of candles to blow out on a cake! We got to have our pictures taken a lot here. I jumped up in the arm of Merriweather Lewis and had mine taken. Merriweather Lewis was Secretary to Thomas Jefferson and William Clark was his friend and associate. Together they lead a group the President called the Corps of Discovery. From here they traveled to what would become St.Louis where they spent the winter of 1803, before continuing on across the Great Plains by following the Missouri River north then west.

I have a long journey ahead of me, but it is not going to take two years, I’m flying. I am sad to leave, but excited to make new friends and see where Lewis and Clark completed their journey. I’ve had fun here with Pack 308 and I’m going to miss them. They said they will miss me too, but they are going to watch my journey on the internet to keep up with me.