Sound Bites & Snap Shots

This weekend was the Spring Camporee, drawing Boy Scout troops from all over, for camping at Angel Mounds.

In preparation for this trip, Walker, being a new and enthusiastic patrol leader, encouraged his friend to sign up to be the grub master.  Davis is fairly new to scouting and just beginning to work toward advancement.  Because Davis’ parents work full-time and have never had any experience with scouting, the actual list making and food shopping fell to Walker (and hence to me).  To make a long story short, picture two 6th graders, one 3rd grader and one mom grocery shopping for twelve after school with an exhaustive list.  At times it was like wrangling cats.  We spent close to 90 minutes in the store and somehow spent more than we should have on the budget.  (That was my fault as I had  never done the shopping for a scout trip either.) In the end, our cart was full and the boys were still by my side but I was a bit harried.  However, it was all worth it when Davis commented that he had a new appreciation for his mom and all the hard work she did to shop for his family. (Be still my heart!)

Saturday the troops competed in a series of physical challenges.  In the station Bill manned, they had to lash poles together to create a chariot and then race across the field.

The part of the camporee that Walker was especially excited about was a cooking competition among the troops.  At a prior scout meeting, Walker brought one of our Dutch oven cookbooks to entice the boys to prepare a meal he had made for us at home.  The troop voted to make a full menu of 40 Cloves Chicken, Cheesy Potatoes and Coca-Cola Cake.  The troop had to work hard to prepare the meal.  They had only about 90 minutes to prepare their meal before judging and some of the dishes took an hour to actually cook. 

There were a few challenges with setting up the fire due to the campsite regulations.  Because they were not allowed to put a fire ring on the ground, they had to improvise.  They ended up leaving the site and coming back with a fire pit from someone’s home and a metal plaque that could rest on cinder blocks.  Once they had a heat source, they stacked the Dutch ovens a few high. 

As the judging time approached, the leaders realized that only the edges of the cake were fully cooked and some of the potatoes were crunchy.  Furthermore, there were other parts of the cake that had burned because baking with charcoal is tricky business. When they dished up a sample for the judges, the leaders cleverly served only from the parts of the Dutch ovens that had cooked appropriately.  To the troop’s great delight, they won first place in the competition.

Furthermore, they won third place for cleanest campsite. 

Due to strong rain predicted late Saturday night and Sunday morning, the troop packed up early.  Bill and Walker were home by 10 pm but flying high from the evening’s events.