Troop 1513 visited the Little Sahara last weekend. . . well almost. We got to the state park entrance only to find out costs for entry have gone up significantly. It was our intent to camp outside the park anyway so the leaders felt the price per vehicle to be too excessive for the limited time we'd be at the dunes. Before we had a chance to turn around and go in search of our own "off the beaten path" campsite, an ambulance zoomed into the ranger station to transfer an injured person to an approaching Air Med chopper from Mountain View. The whole operation was impressive. I wonder if Brent Jones eventually helped this individual?
Activities that evening included tin foil dinners and hot coco, three rousing rounds of steal the flag, and spooky stories. Best looking meal of the evening went to the Hoschouers who foiled up some breaded chicken breast and french fries smothered in BBQ sauce. Best reaction to a scary story goes to Brandon Wilson and Colin Walker, but admittedly, most of the boys looked like this little feller throughout the night:
The next morning, the boys enjoyed cold cereal and another toasty mug of hot coco (Vince has got the blend down to a science -- no better coco can be had in the upper 48). Our plan after breakfast was to find the "back way" into the state park. Sadly, some ranger spent entirely too much time and entirely too many tax dollers to put this up around the entire state park.
As scouts do, we improvised. We continued with the friendly competition from the night before and played daylight steal the flag. At night, the leaders could use the cover of darkness to compensate for their lack of speed and agility when sprinting after boys. Daylight put the advantage back into the hands our our much younger and spry advasaries. I can't tell the difference between these kids and this critter:
Here are some additional photos from the weekend. Enjoy. Lastly, we'd like to thank John Hoschouer for his commitment and contributions to the SVV scounts and wish him well in his new assignment.
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| Tristen is over joyed that he made it through the night after Tad's terrifying ghost story. |
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| "Hey guys! The tent folds up too! How 'bout that!" says, Colin. Dallas quietly ponders, "who put this guy in charge?" |
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| Austin and Brandon contemplate the benefits of getting out of bed. |
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| The boys suddenly realize if they tear down and move their tent two inches more to the left, they will be slightly less up hill and benefit more from sunlight in the morning. |
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| Brandon contemplates Einstein's theory of relativity and concludes he must be wrong. |
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| As a last hoorah (payback from the miseries of scout camp), John Hoschouer adds a secret ingredient to the hot coco. Tristen says, "that's suppose to make the coco more chocolatie?". In reply Brother Hoschouer matter-of-factly says, "yes, Tristen, it is". |
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| Throughout the campout, we had to tell the boys to tone down their spontaneous proclivity to dance an Irish jig. |
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| The Three Amigos of not so famous acclaim. We lost the Fourth Amigo somewhere between Eureka and Santaquin. |
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| Vince is about to demonstrate how to make an airplane out of a large blue tarp. "It has to be blue" he says. "The grey and red ones are too flimsy!". |
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| Still at it, Brother Hoschouer adds one more ingredient to the coco and says, "This ought to do it". At which Austin replies, "he said it was marshmellow syrup! Yum. . . " |
