Tenderfoot
scouting
Promotion
Saturday
Camp Visit
Rainy Prep Day
Today we spent most of the day getting E ready for Scout Camp this week. Clothes, rain gear, miscellaneous supplies all packed into a big trunk. He went last year with a different troop because his uncle’s family was coming from Poland during the week his troop was scheduled to go. But this year, this year will be great, he assured us. Last year was great, too, but this year…
Once we were done and could do something fun, the rain started…
The Boy Returns
Our first camping trip with scouts was exactly six years ago this weekend — I didn’t know that until I checked the way-back machine at the bottom of the page. I was with the Boy during that trip, and I made sure he kept warm. And there was no rain, so keeping dry was a simple issue.
This weekend he was alone, and I had no idea how it would go. We went about our weekend, including a lovely walk this morning, as if everything had gone perfectly.
Still, the questions from Friday’s post lingered in our heads:
Did we prepare him well enough? Is he going to keep warm and dry this evening? Will he accidentally put his pack up against the wall of the tent and get his stuff wet? There’s no way to know until Sunday.
“Camping“
And so today, we found out.
“Did we prepare him well enough?” No, not really. We didn’t send him with a tarp to put under his tent, so he had to bunk with two other boys, crammed into their tent.
“Is he going to keep warm and dry this evening?” Most definitely not: the tent leaked.
“Will he accidentally put his pack up against the wall of the tent and get his stuff wet?” No, he didn’t do that, but the tent leaked badly enough that almost all his clothes got wet, so he was stuck with one tee-shirt and a pair of shorts for the rest of the trip.
But did he have fun? Most definitely.
“Did you want to give up?” we asked him.
“Yes, that first morning.” But after he and the boys he bunked with hiked back to the cars with one of the adults to get a spare tent and take back all their wet stuff — which was almost everything — things were fine.
Fine, but tiring — which you can see from the picture of his return:
Once we got home, and he took a shower and had some warm, tasty home cooking, he settled down with a cup of hot tea to relax for a couple of hours.
Camping
The Boy has headed off on his first solo backpack camping trip. They left today at four, with the plan of hiking about an hour to their first site.
Tomorrow morning, they pack up and head further into the Foothills Trail, camping one more night before heading back Sunday.
And of course, it’s raining there right now. If it’s raining like it is here, it’s a light rain that shouldn’t cause too much trouble.
But it’s rain nonetheless. Did we prepare him well enough? Is he going to keep warm and dry this evening? Will he accidentally put his pack up against the wall of the tent and get his stuff wet? There’s no way to know until Sunday.
Getting Ready for the Trip
The Boy is going on his first solo camping trip this weekend. He and seven other scouts are hiking in to the first site Friday afternoon, getting up Saturday, hiking most of the day, then setting up another site for the night. Sunday, they’ll head back out.
This is not the camping he’s used to, with a car nearby, potable water on tap within walking distance, and the ability to carry whatever kind of food one wants. It’s all dehydrated meals and the like, and filtration for water after his initial supply is gone.
He’s very excited about it.
Scout Family Campout Day 2
Scout Family Campout Day 1
The Boy Returns
The Boy came back from Scout camp — and he wanted sushi.
And we wanted, for dinner, fried green tomatoes.
Orlando 2023 Day 3
The girls did better today: won two, lost one. The one they lost they should have won: it was not a team that dominated them, but they lost in the third set.
Finally, we have some pictures from the Boy: K went for the parents’ night at scout camp today. He showed her around where they sleep, their bathhouse, and myriad other things — all the details that make camp camp.
“E is having a good time,” she texted, which assuaged my biggest worry–that he would be reluctant to engage with others and not really make any good friends.
The opposite seems to be happening.
Two Departures
The Boy left for Scout camp today:
I’ve been a little curious and worried about how he might take it: he’s not actually going with his own troop because his uncle is coming from Poland with his family that week. “There’s no way you’re going to camp while Wojek D is here!” K exclaimed, so the Boy is going with a different troop. He knows a few people in that troop, but it’s not his troop. He chose the troop he did because he wants to be with his friends, the friends who are going to Scout camp a couple of weeks from now.
The Girl and I, on the other hand, headed off to Orlando today for Nationals. How will her team do? I don’t know. Is that so important? Yes, and no.
What is important? Our TV greeted us when we first entered the room…
New Beginnings
The Boy is no longer a Cub Scout. That’s over — a whole phase of his life behind him. Tonight was his first meeting as a Boy Scout.
There was the requisite paperwork — which he filled out. “This is all you, little man,” I told him with a smile.
They started the meeting with introductions to the troop: “We’d like to invite our newest scouts to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about them.” E stepped forward, shyly as always, and said, “I’m E. I like soccer and guitar.” After introductions, the new scouts went out with some of the older boys to learn the ropes, so to speak.
So different than Cub Scouts. Boy-run, boy-planned, boy-approved. “We’re just there to make sure they do everything safely,” the scoutmaster told us when we first visited back in December.
We parents didn’t see the kids until they were done, wrapping everything up with their circle. In fact, tonight is likely the only night we’ll stay through the whole thing. “Most parents just drop them off and then pick them up later,” the assistant scoutmaster told us new parents.
“This is going to do the Boy so much good,” I told K.
Crossing Over
Final Cub Scout Pack Meeting
The Boy is moving on: cross-over is in a couple of weeks, and the pinewood derby is in a couple of days. After that, he’ll no longer be a cub scout — he’ll move on to be a boy scout…
Painting the Car
The Boy is going on his first overnight field trip this week: Tuesday morning the fifth-grade class leaves for Chattanooga and they don’t return until Thursday evening. And the derby is on Saturday, so we had to get things finished up today.
Pinewood Derby Car
This will be the last year E participates in the pinewood derby. The first time was five years ago, with a pack that we left because the Boy never really felt like he fit in there.
I don’t even know how he did in that first derby, but he enjoyed it and was eager for the next derby.
The second pinewood derby was his last with that first pack. We took a year off from scouting and then returned in time for the first Covid-era pinewood derby:
I don’t remember how well we did, but I know one of E’s closest friends won that year. We tried our best, though, using all the tricks we could find:
- polishing the axels;
- bending the axles to make the wheels point outward at the bottom to minimize friction;
- mounting one front wheel high so that it didn’t touch the track;
- making sure we’d put the weight in the perfect location relative to the car’s center of gravity.
All that stuff is illegal now.
Last year, we went for a different strategy: amusement instead of performance. Our car was the Butter-mobile.
“I was hoping to win an originality award,” the Boy confessed afterward, but we didn’t even get that despite the laughs and positive comments from everyone.
This year we’re going back to a performance idea. But we’re trying to keep it simple as well.
Today we got the shape roughed in and the first bit of sanding done.
We’ll see how things go, I guess, but I’m trying to get him simply to appreciate and to enjoy the fact that this is the last time we do this.
That made it a bittersweet activity for me…
Looking for a New Home
E’s Cub Scout adventure is nearing its end. He and the other boys in his pack who are interested in moving on to Boy Scouts are checking out various troops. Tonight, they visited one about a mile from our house.
It’s his top pick at the moment.
Lighting the Tree
The mayor of Simpsonville invited the Boy’s scout pack to come and participate in the Christmas tree lighting. They got to do the countdown.