First Boy Scout Camping Trip --- Shortarmguy.com update for April 18, 2010

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April 18, 2010

The Shortarmguy Family's First Boy Scout Camping Trip

It was a beautiful week and we took every chance we could to get outside including going on a 3 mile bike ride around Cleary Lake. We could have gone longer, but the boys wanted to stop every five minutes to either go to the bathroom, get a drink, or just do something to get us all to stop pedaling.

On Friday night, we drove to Cannon Falls, Minnesota to go camping at the Phillippo Scout Reservation.

We had 40 Boy Scouts and 15 adults go on the two night camp-out. On the first night, Luke's group was trying to set a new record for the "Loudest Tent at Boy Scout Camp." Finally, at about 1am one of the other parents went up there to quiet them down. I'm not exactly sure what he said, but it worked. I'm hoping to have that parent come stay with us for a few months.

I doubt we would have gone to camp had it not been for our old friend, Karl Z, telling us how much fun it would be. I have to admit, he was kind of right.

We hadn't spent much time with Troy since his son had graduated from Cub Scouts a year before ours did, but it's been nice seeing him again. He's been teaching us the ropes about Boy Scouts. He also acted as this weekend's Head Chef for the adults and he spoiled us with all sorts of good food that could be made in a metal pot over an open flame.

All the food was good, but this Bucket of Meat stole the show!

The sons of Avery's basketball coaches are in the troop so we had fun getting a chance to spend more time with Coach John & Coach Tom. We went for a long walk in the woods that admittedly made me pretty tired and kind of knocked me on my butt. I worried that they were going to want me to do some basketball drills before we finished, but luckily for me, they didn't.

The coolest part of our Boy Scout Troop is that it's "Boy Led". Meaning the boys are supposed to do absolutely everything for themselves including their own cooking, cleaning up, and basically taking care of themselves for the entire time we're there. This is such a foreign concept for my boys that they started speaking in Spanish and French to try to get us to start doing things for them again, but it didn't work!

Avery decided he really wanted to buy a new carving knife while we were there and he became a little bit overzealous with the whittling. This gave him the chance to get a little pre-training for his First Aid Merit badge from some of the leaders. That Avery. Always trying to think of ways to stay ahead of the other boys!

We had a great time, but man, did it get cold at night! I didn't pull out my thermometer, but I heard it was down in the upper thirties. My shrinkage meter confirmed it was somewhere down there as well. I guess camping in Minnesota in April creates that possibility. Who would have thunk it?