I Survived A Campout

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going on an overnight campout with my 5th grade son, Pedro Tulo (and that I would not survive a zombie apocalypse). Well, that campout happened. And this post is proof that I survived. A lot happened to get to this point/post. 

Pedro Tulo and his Cub Scout den recently graduated (bridged is the technical term) and the leaders organized a campout as a celebration of this accomplishment. In the days leading up to the event, I received "helpful" text messages such as:

The forecast is calling for the temperature to go down to 32 Saturday night...I have worn my down puffer in my sleeping bag in a pinch.

And

While this isn't THAT cold for camping, it's possible that water in your bottles may begin to freeze in the early hours tomorrow. For this reason, it is preferable to have bottles that can be tightly sealed so that you can keep them in your sleeping bag to stay warm.

There were supposed to be 10 kids on the campout. The numbers on Saturday quickly dwindled. One kid had the flu. Another was out due to allergies/lack of energy. Another didn't give a reason (at least in the text chain). One dad wrote that they were having plumbing issues at their home and would arrive late. But would they? After meeting at the campground parking lot, we (6 kids and 6 adults) started our hike up to the site with all of our gear. About 2/3rds of the way there, one kid who had been sick but really wanted to attend vomited. They turned around and went home. It was starting to turn into Hunger Games! (Without the whole districts and teenage death thing. Oh, sorry. Spoiler!) 

Once we got to the site, things were fine. There was a nice space for the tent. 

We used pit toilets.

We boiled and filtered water.

We ate, um, gourmet meals.

Oh, a big one. We didn't see any bears.

The family with plumbing problems joined us. All was good. Except for the sleep part. I fell asleep before 10:00 and woke up in the middle of the night. When I checked my phone to see the time, I discovered that it was only 11:05 PM. That was it?!? I woke up several more times to put on more clothing layers, to use the bathroom, because my back hurt, or from Pedro Tulo waking me up. I finally got up around 7:30. 10:00-7:30 would be an incredible night of sleep except for the whole waking up at least a half dozen times. 

Oh, this was Pedro Tulo just before he woke up.

Overall, we had a great time. At night, we had clear skies to see beautiful views of stars and satellites. I really do enjoy hikes and eating by a campfire. I can just do without tents and sleeping on the ground.

Sean Vs. Zombies

I recently watched The Last of Us which aired on HBO. If you're not familiar with the show, it's based on a video game where a mass fungal infection causes people to turn into zombies. I mean, it's slightly more complicated, but that's the general premise. The show starts with the beginning of the pandemic and mostly focuses on several years later in a post-apocalyptic world where Pedro Pascal's character transports a teenage girl across the country. Hilarity ensues! (Spoiler: While there are some amusing scenes and the chemistry between Pascal and Bella Ramsey is fantastic, hilarity does not ensue.) I was really disappointed by the show's ending until I found out that there's a season two coming out. Knowing that the show didn't end where it did makes more sense.

Pedro Tulo is about to finish his time as a Cub Scout. Boy Scouts is right around the corner, and while the kids are largely responsible for their own activities there, parents really do the bulk of the planning in Cub Scouts. This helps explain my work in adding the wheels to Pedro Tulo's pinewood derby car.

Amazingly, the wheels stayed intact during the three heats of the race. Pedro Tulo didn't win (or place or show), but the car didn't fall apart on the track. I count that as a win.

In the next few weeks, Pedro Tulo's Cub Scouts den is going to go on one final campout. I wrote about our previous camping experiences here and here. For this one, we don't have the luxury of a car nearby. After parking, we will walk a mile with all of our gear to the campsite. That's not really a problem depending on how much we need to carry. We also won't have the luxury of plumbing and potable water. The campsite has pit toilets, which I don't believe I ever used. Regarding water, one of the parents mentioned that we'll simply have to boil water or use iodine tablets. Sure. I just have a bag of iodine tablets sitting around. Look, I don't need a fancy hotel, but potable water and plumbing doesn't seem like an extravagant ask.

What it comes down to is that I'm not very handy and have little to no outdoor/camping/survival skills. If there is a zombie apocalypse, I will not turn into Pedro Pascal's character. I'll be one of the first ones eaten or bit or whatever.

Campout Lockout

I recently celebrated my birthday by going on a Cub Scouts camping trip with Pedro Tulo. If I got to choose what I wanted to do on my birthday, attending a rainy campout and sleeping on the ground inside a tent probably wouldn't make my top 10. Or top 100. As I wrote in the fall, camping really isn't my thing. My son likes his Cub Scout pack, and everyone is nice and helpful, which is fantastic as I have very little to offer in terms of cooking, setting up a tent, etc.

On Saturday night, the rain finally stopped and the activities (and smores) concluded, so it was time to settle down for the night. Pedro Tulo and a friend ran ahead to use the campground restrooms. The campground has about 6-8 individual restrooms with sinks and showers. While I feel like most of the people with RVs don't necessarily need showers, they are nice if you just show up with a car and a tent. You can also get away from the dozens of Scouts for a minute or two to use the restroom in peace. 

Anyway, I found Pedro Tulo as he finished brushing his teeth, and I took his restroom after he departed. I placed my things down and apparently locked the door while I held it open. I hoped that Pedro Tulo would wait for me, but he decided that he wanted to head back by himself without a flashlight. As I tried to convince him to wait a few minutes to walk back with me, the door closed behind me. I attempted to open the restroom, but I managed to lock myself out. Not great, Bob.

Here are the items stuck inside the restroom: A lantern, a towel, my toothbrush, toothpaste, my contact lens case, contact lens solution, and my multifocal prescription glasses that I just bought last fall. Some other scouts/parents we knew tried to reopen the door by using a library card. (I didn't want to mess up a credit card.) That didn't work, so we went back to the campsite and found one of the scout leaders. I left Pedro Tulo with some friends, and a scout leader and I found the campground hosts.I was not familiar with the campground host position. Apparently, you get to stay at the campsite for free (and some places offer a small salary) in exchange for greeting and assisting campers, performing janitorial duties, and being available for late night emergencies. In my case, it was a 9:00PM emergency. I had another flashlight in the tent, and I could skip brushing my teeth, but I kind of needed my glasses.

The first host didn't have extra restroom keys, so he found the second host. This host had keys, which worked on the other bathroom doors but not at the one with my stuff. I found out later that some teenagers damaged the door last fall by setting fire to toilet paper in the bathroom. If I ever get a bill for my kids causing damage by lighting toilet paper on fire, they're going to be grounded for a year. The park replaced the door, but the master key didn't work on this particular bathroom. Despite being an amateur locksmith (I'm not sure I want to know what that means, but I'm picturing an Ocean's Eleven heist), the host could not open the door. The only option was to wait for park staff the next morning. I went back to our tent and went to sleep wearing my contacts.

That's pretty much the end of the story. I found park staff early Sunday morning, and his keys didn't work either. Fortunately, he called one of the managers on site and did have a key. I guess that Pedro Tulo and I helped the staff and campground hosts learn that they need a new key for the one particular bathroom.

Pinewood Derby

When I was in Cub Scouts, I only remember participating in the Pinewood Derby once. I was in a head-to-head race against a kid a grade behind me. I lost. To this day, I’m convinced that he either pushed his car or started early which would have led to a disqualification or at least a do-over.* It did not. He was declared the winner, and I never really thought about the Pinewood Derby again…until several months ago.

When Pedro Tulo joined Cub Scouts this school year, the Pinewood Derby was listed as one of the featured activities. At a late fall pack meeting, we received a box containing the car. And by car, I mean a block of wood, four tires, and four nails. What was I supposed to do with this?

I have no recollection of making a car as a kid, and I had no idea how to make a car as an adult. There is a wood shop at the local Scouts camp, but we weren’t available during any of the open time slots. Fortunately, the dad of another scout had some equipment, so we went over to their house. We spent at least an hour essentially cutting the block of wood in half and then sanding down the rough edges. So now we had half a block of wood, four tires, and four nails.

I bought a weight specifically used for Pinewood Derby cars, and we screwed it into the top of the wood. I learned that the key to doing well in the Pinewood Derby is to have a car as close as possible to 5 ounces, so we just painted the weight hoping that it would blend in. 

Then, we (well, I) managed to get on the wheels. The night before the race, we took the car to the test track and early check-in. The car weighed 4.95 ounces and successfully crossed the finish line every time. This was a huge win. Not a huge win is that I realized in the middle of writing this post that I don't have a final picture of the car. We were unable to participate in the race itself due to a prior engagement/celebration, so the den leader currently has Pedro Tulo's car. With the exception of a few more stickers and some more paint, this is close to the final version.

I have a video of the race, but I feel like I'd need consent by the dozen or so scouts/parents in it in order to share it. You're definitely not missing the most exciting 7-second video in history. Here's a still shot though.

Pedro Tulo's car won! (Assuming that you don't count the other car not pictured that finished before his car.) While I'm glad that I was able to spend time with Pedro Tulo building the car, and I think he enjoyed the experience (especially going shopping for stickers), like the overnight campout, this is another Cub Scout activity that is certainly out of my comfort zone.

* While it's quite possible that the Pinewood Derby race track in 2023 is the same as it was when I was I kid, I don't remember an automatic start. I feel like we were supposed to just let the car go at the same time, and that's why I think I lost from the other kid cheating. Now, you just put your car in position, and someone essentially flips the switch to start. 

Random Ramblings: Family Edition

* For his latest Cub Scouts meeting, Pedro Tulo learned about knife safety and how to effectively use a pocket knife. I consider it a huge win that he only cut himself and drew blood once during the evening.

* Pedro Tulo also got to carry out the American flag and hold it on court during the national anthem before Sunday's George Mason-Saint Joseph's basketball game. As a tangent, attending Mason basketball games is a very easy and fun family activity. General admission tickets for the men's team are $10, there's free parking, and it's easy to get into and out of the parking lots.

* When talking with a neighbor recently, The Moose said that he doesn't want to play baseball this spring because he doesn't think he has a chance of being a professional player. Of course, he wants to play flag football instead since I guess he thinks he's going to make the NFL. I’m 5’ 7” and could never come close to running a 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds, so it seems unlikely that he’ll have the size or speed to play sports professionally. Anyway, I tried to explain that you play sports for fun and to be part of a team. Selfishly though, I'm enjoying the current basketball season so much more than the baseball season. While he usually has basketball practice once a week with two weekly games, they rarely last more than an hour. During baseball season, he would also have games or practices three days a week, but The Moose would need to arrive at his 6:30 game by 5:15, and we wouldn't leave the field until around 8:45. That made for some very long days.

* Luigi did something to the web browser on my phone which reset all of my stats on Wordle, Quordle, etc. My Wordle stats showing only 4 games played looks really sad.

* Luigi’s kindergarten teacher told us that he is one of her easiest kids. He has the teacher fooled! Yes, Luigi is adorable and can be sweet, but he has regular meltdowns at home for various reasons where he screams like he’s being tortured in The Princess Bride. His most recent meltdown was because he wanted to make Valentines Day cards for his classmates and was told no since 1. it’s still two weeks away, 2. it was bedtime, and 3. most importantly, we don’t have the cards yet.

* It seems like the lead story almost every other day on national newscasts is winter weather. There have been deadly and crippling storms throughout the county the last few months. While the DC area has been fairly lucky so far, I have three flights coming up over the next few months going to Wichita (through Atlanta), Denver, and Florida. Really hoping for no or minimal delays.

* Finally, Costco is dangerous. If I see any type of snacks on sale, I’m buying them. Do I really need two monster bags of Chex Mix? No. Did I buy two monster bags? Of course!

Sean Goes Camping

Pedro Tulo joined Cub Scouts this fall, and he recently had his first camp out. Now my idea of “camping” is staying at a Hilton-brand hotel. Since a Hilton credit card is the one I primarily use, I somehow managed to reach Hilton Honors’ diamond status despite rarely staying at hotels. My theory is that the Hilton rewards program upgraded me and many other members during the start of the pandemic. While my diamond status is nice, I’ll probably revert back to being a Gold Member again soon.

I got off topic. That happens. Anyway, we borrowed a tent from the father of one of members of Pedro Tulo's den and borrowed pads to put under the sleeping bags from our friends. Yes, we actually own a few sleeping bags. We packed way too many supplies for only being away for one night and arrived at the campsite. We found the Cub Scout pack and started to unpack. See what I did there. Pack and unpack in the same sentence. Clever! Then we put the tent together. And when I say "we," it was mostly the dad who had the tent. I have no idea how to pitch a tent. 

We (again he) finished just in time for a pack hike/service project, which consisted of the kids picking up litter along the way. By the conclusion of the hike, I was exhausted and ended up with over 15,000 steps for the day. However, this didn't include the thousands of steps I walked and ran being a soccer referee in the morning. Maybe not the best decision to do both except for my theory that I would be so tired that I would sleep really well that night. That plan worked perfectly from about 9:30PM to 2:00AM. The last 4-5 hours of attempting to sleep were miserable. I was cold and/or couldn't get comfortable. Mattresses are definitely not overrated! Around 5:00, Pedro Tulo woke up and seemingly asked me every 20 minutes about the time. We woke up for good around 6:45 and left after breakfast.

Overall, Pedro Tulo had a great time though this experience confirmed that camping out is not for me. I mean, I'm sure that I'll do it again when there's another pack overnight in the spring, and both the hike and campfire program by the scouts were nice, but I'm not a fan of sleeping in tents. And on the ground. And in 40-degree weather. A bed with a working HVAC unit is fine by me!