Back from camp

Trevor arrived back from camp yesterday. He was coated in filth. Streaks of dirt ran down his face. His new navy blue work out pants were a faded shade of brown. He had a huge smile on his face, but even his teeth were brown. I doubt they saw a tooth brush all week.

I had dropped Trevor off a week earlier. As I drove Trevor to the pick up spot to join his troop go to camp, he was a captive audience in the car, I told him how proud I was of him. He is a good citizen. He helps people and steps up as needed. I did tell him that I worry about his going to college. I told him if he didn't go to college he would be the first person on my side of the family to ever not go to college for generations. I told him his Great Great Grandfather was a Judge. Even further back than that we have family that established a famous school on the East Coast. Everyone in the family for generations has been to College and finished. He responded with "Oh, Wow." I think I may have touched a deep nerve, something for him to dwell on. I hope so. He did say he knew his Father was the first in his family to go to College, which I responded with "All the more reason not to break the chain."

We were to meet at a McDonald's by the freeway to connect with the troop. Since Riley had driven us into the forest service resort I had misjudged the time it took to get back to town. We were an hour early. Trevor goes up to the counter to order breakfast. He order four breakfast burritos. I order one breakfast burrito. I laughed as he tells me he thought we would be sharing his meal. I knew better. He ate all four without missing a beat. We wondered down to the river nearby while we waited. It was a lovely day. I saw a place where you could rent wave runners. I would love to bring Tom up for boating. He would do boating if it had a motor. There were only row boats and paddle boats on the lake where we had been vacationing. One of the reasons we like it. The children can swim without fear of being run over. 

As we are loading Trevor's gear into the trunk of the car and I am trying hard not to breath standing close to the unbathed body, I ask how the week went. As we got into the car I rolled down all the windows. Trevor tells me he had a blast. He got his merit badges for horsemanship and riflery and swimming. He wasn't sure he will get his environmental badge. He did the overnight trip riding out on horseback camping out.


For the Environmental merit badge There was a 500 word essay he was supposed to do. His essay was half that length. I asked what his topic he chose. He said he chose the polar bear and with their growing population in Alaska, and adaptability to scavenging and that their fur was slowly becoming more brown to match new forage areas, he argued that they might not need to be on the endangered species list anymore. I laughed, and mentioned how an environmental geek might have trouble with that essay, but that I was proud of his thinking for himself and looking at the evidence. I asked how he got the information. He said they had an Internet access with a room of computers to use for research. So much with being out in the wilds with no communication.

When the boys started the trip one of the rules is no electronics, including cell phones and electronic games. Trevor handed his phone over to one of the adult leaders. I had to explain to Tom several times this week, not to expect Trevor to check in. Trevor was having a good time at camp. We would only hear from Trevor if it were serious.

 The first day Trevor put together the chore roster for the week. He is slowly being groomed and taught leadership skills. The leadership spots in the troop will be available in a year, once he passes the next two levels. With these merit badges he now can move up a rank. He is no longer a beginning scout. He just has to do the recitations, which they practiced at camp, and explain what certain terms mean in his own words to prove he understands what it means to be a scout and a good citizen and how he lives out these obligations in his every day life.



He did the overnight horse trip. He said his gear was so filthy afterwards and itchy, that he accidentally on purpose dropped his sleeping bag in the lake for a rinsing. The weather was so hot and dry that the sleeping bag was dry before nightfall. 

He said in swimming he won his race in his group of 10. He was the only one who knew a proper racing dive and got a good head start. Those days on the swim team finally paid off. Trevor is not fast but he is a solid swimmer. He said one boy almost caught him but the rest were way behind.

Trevor said he learned how to clean his weapon and worked on accuracy in riflery. He said he was a pretty good shot. I forgot to ask at what distance.

 He has been wanting a blade, three inches is the limit allowed. They sell them at the trading post on site. He saved up his money and chose the blade over a T-shirt for his souvenir. The blade is a fold over three inch blade with a wooden handle. He wont be allowed to carry it except to camping trips. I will add it to his mess kit and put it in storage. I found it sitting in the office where he had shown Riley his new accessory. Nice thing about leaving your stuff lying around is Mom gets to put it away where dangerous toys  can stay hidden.       

Trevor said his group was one of the few that got hot meals as the area was  on an open fire ban. His troop has a big trailer with all sorts of gear in it, including two propane cook stoves. He guessed there were around 250 scouts or more. He said his troop had him on cooking once they realized he had some experience. Another boy under cooked the burgers and made another scout throw up from food poisoning. After that Trevor said he did most of the cooking.

Clean up involved a hollowed out stump that chlorinated water was poured into. Trevor said the bottom drain hole got clogged and he had to reach in and clean out all the dumped food before continuing to wash dishes. Forgot that detail of no disposal in the sink.

Not all was glowing fun.He said the out house was disgusting and almost full. There was a plan to dig another hole next month, but from the boy's discription, one was due much sooner. Some one pooped on the path in front of the outhouse rather than use it.  A couple of the scouts in the troop got a little stupid. Two boys used their new scout knives to slice a sleeping tent, probably just testing out the blade's sharpness on fabric, who knows what they were thinking, but the destruction was done. They were caught and all knives were confiscated until the end of the week, so no one else could misuse their blade. The story makes me want to read Lord of the Flies again. Trevor was at the shooting range with a friend at the time so they had an alibi and were totally uninvolved. There will probably been a review of the chapter on safe blade use coming up for everyone.

Once home, Trevor wanted to get right on the computer to catch up on his missed programs. Riley wanted him to come straight up and play Minecraft with him. I yelled at Trevor not to sit down on anything, but to go straight up to the shower, toss everything into the wash. I could smell Trevor's trail, where he had been before he got into the shower. It took a few minutes to fumigate the the house with open doors. He and Riley played for a while then Trevor did get to watch is missed programs.  At bed time he came into our room and sat on the bed to watch the Olymics until Tom started snoring and I turned the TV off. He is growing into a solid citizen and a handsome young man. I just hope that he can keep up the grades in school.  We missed him this week.