The Scouting Trip I will never forget...

As several of you know, I have recently been called as an Assistant Scoutmaster. Donna and I have had many conversations about me being in Scouting and I have always said Thanks but no. Now don't get me wrong, I love the Scouting program and am an Eagle Scout myself but to babysit teenage boys is not my cup of tea by any means.

I was called by Bro. Wood to be the Assistant Scoutmaster and the first thought I had was, "What did I do recently to be punished so bad?" The first couple of meetings were bad and I figured it was because I wasn't set apart so I didn't have any patience. I then searched out Bro. Wood to set me apart and he did so and the next week was great. Then came my first camp out with these boys. This camp out was for the Wilderness Survival Merit badge and was a district wide camporee. Our boys actually did all the requirements for this merit badge back in October so there was definitely no real enthusiasm to go on this outing.

The first sign I should have not gone was the fact that when I left work early that afternoon the radio in my truck no longer worked; now I have to drive for 2 hours with several kids in my truck and nothing to drown out their non stop talking.

We were supposed to meet at the church at 4 and leave by 415; at first it wasn't so bad, 5 boys 2 leaders, we can handle it. Well then we had to wait around for about an hour for the other leader to show up, not on time a little frustrating. Next we had to go and pick up some other boys so now we are at 7 boys and 3 leaders. Not that bad until you realize you are leaving the valley at 5pm, have a two hour drive and know it's going to be dark to set up camp. I can still handle that.

After about 45 minutes of listening to these 5 boys talk in my truck and couldn't carry on an intelligent conversation with any of them and no radio to keep my attention; I suddenly hear "Don't move his hand Richard!" And then it happened; stinky, chunky, smelly vomit inside my truck, on the seat on the floor, on the boys clothes, his food, back of my chair. YUCK!!! I called the driver of the other truck and informed him we had to pull over, we found a spot so I could at least clean it up. After I pulled over I saw the real mess was on his clothes, all over his clothes and the food he carried along in a plastic bag.

I helped him out of the truck, got his clothes from the back so he could go change, then I started the nasty task of cleaning up someones vomit from my truck. After a few minutes of that I realized this kid was going to starve if I just pitched his food. I then had to empty out his food sack and wash everything down to put it in another bag for him. As I was doing this, several of the boys decided to go hiking along side the road, no big deal till we were ready and had to wait for them to come back. While they were coming back the other boys decided to run across the two lane highway and dodge cars going at least 65 MPH!!!

We finally safely got everyone back into the vehicles and started to drive again. The smell was awful, I had to drive the rest of the way to Payson with my windows down to keep from everyone else including me from tossing their lunch. As we approach Payson another boy starts complaining that he is going to be sick. I quickly pull over and rush to get him out of my truck so he doesn't toss his cookies in there as well. He ends up sitting down on the curb for about 20 minutes saying he isn't feeling well and then asks for a blessing. I do give him one and he thanks me, the weekend might be saved and all will turn out well.

As we get back on the road it is quickly getting dark and we are still half an hour away from our campsite of Hard Scrabble Mesa. We follow this long line of cars kicking up dust for about a mile and a half then finally find our assigned campsite. Their isn't much room to park so I park on the end of a row just to find out the tail end of my huge suburban is slightly sticking out and I was nervous someone would hit it. I decide to take precautionary action by moving my truck to a different l0cation to protect it. Now remember that it is dark, I'm at a place called Hard Scrabble Mesa where there are tons and tons and tons of rocks all over the place, not just small ones but soccer ball sized ones. As I'm moving my truck I turn a corner and then it happens Pissshhhh, I hit a rock with the side of my tire and popped my tire. I'm upset, tired, still smell the vomit and now I have a flat tire and need to go set up camp in the dark, GREAT.

I leave my truck where it is, in the middle of a driving path, can't move it because of all the big rocks and I don't want to ruin my rim. Have the boys come get their things from it and then we start setting up camp. I do have to admit that it took longer than I thought it would. For a bunch of Scouts they sure as heck didn't know what they were doing. After we got it all set up, three tents, three boys in a two man tent, two leaders in a 6 man tent and 4 boys in a 10 person tent it was time for dinner. My dinner was a nice cold piece of meat and rice that was even colder. We then were told the campfire would be starting at 9pm.

We all went to the campfire, heard a few good speakers but overall the program was long and drawn out. Even leaders were starting to heckle the people putting on the program. One of my boys didn't have a coat, only short sleeve shirt and thin pants and he was freezing, so I let him borrow my jacket to stay warm. After about an hour and a half the program was over and we got to go back to our camps. We were able to get the boys into their tents, then the leaders went to theirs; I decided to sleep in my truck because my allergies were really acting up with all the dust. I was just falling asleep around 1130 when I heard this tapping on my window, I looked around couldn't see anyone and then it happened again. I decided to open my door and see who it was and there was one of the other leaders. He asked me if I had the paper towels in my truck and I said yes, why do you need them? He then told me that the same boy who was sick in Payson and whom I blessed just threw up in the tent with all the other boys. I gladly handed him the paper towels, asked if he needed help and he said nope, I'll get this one. As they explained it to me in the morning I'm surprised no one actually got anything on them because it was really runny and nasty.

I do have to admit that Saturday went a lot better. I had the boys cook breakfast, we did some of the tasks we were supposed to do during the camporee, ended up with 34 points out of a possible 140 but surprisingly came in 2nd place out of our Stake. Oh there was only one other ward from our Stake that showed up and they received 100 something points, so we came in second out of two, that's not too bad is it?

I managed to get my tire changed, we had an enjoyable lunch, played games and then went home. Kids were tired, fell asleep no one got sick on the way home and we were actually dropping off the boys a lot sooner than I realized. Oh what joys and memories I have of that first outing. I can hardly wait to see what surprised come with the next one; I think we are going to try water skiing...