Scout Philmont/Road trip...they're back.

[JohnnyReb]

They got in at 6:15 PM yesterday(Saturday).

They had called about an hour ahead to let everyone know when they would be in so there was a crowd there to greet them. First van pulled in and the doors flew open and out poured the scouts. There was a lot of hugging and so forth going on. The van with sons crew pulled in and it was a while before the doors opened and they got out...was giving instructions for unloading trailer and cleaning out the van. It was a few minutes before I even got so much as a handshake... Momma was at home cooking for "HER" boy.

He made two very brief calls home during the 22 1/2 days they were gone (less than a minute each). They were encouraged to keep a daily journal of their trip so I was reading it last night... Day 15/16 was his first mention of feeling "a little homesick" then in big letters he wrote "I MISS MY GUITAR"...

A little tech stuff. The staff out there weighed them and their backpacks and loaded them according to size, age, etc.. My son had the biggest load 55/60 pounds and one day at 65 pounds. Their longest one day hike was 17 miles and the total for 10 days on the trail was 97 miles. He lost 18 pounds while they were gone. The last page in his journal was the day they hiked back into base camp and the last lines were.....

"We hiked up to the tooth of time to see the sunrise. It was gorgeous. You could see for miles and miles. Then we hiked down into base camp. We're done. I kindda wanna do it again."


Side note: They went to several museums on the trip. A couple of them had large collections of guns, racks and racks of guns. He must have a hunderd pictures of guns, nothing but guns, guns, guns.

[franksolich]

Damn, John, sir, you make a great father there.

Congratulations.

[Eupher]

He'll never forget that experience. Well done, JR!

[JohnnyReb]

wikipedia is good for something after all....here's a little history of the camp and how it came to be and what the boys do while there.

Make particular note that it was an evil, rich, oil man that donated the place to the Boy Scouts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philmont_Scout_Ranch

...and the biggest disappointment of my sons trip was that because of a severe electrical storm up on the mountain, they wouldn't let them hike up to the WW2 crash site of a B-24 bomber.

I'm proud of the boy. He had cash leftover in his "Philmont Trip" account that he could use on the road for "junk" on this trip. Me and mom gave him $200 more for spending money. They all got $25 a day each on the road for food. He bought a heavy leather "Philmont Belt", a big heavy brass "Philmont" belt buckle and something else...That's all. He brought back $156 without touching the extra money in his trip account.

A story he told this morning. They were supposed to go to the "Texas Steak House"(?). They got in the parking lot of the motel and the old scout master told them to "Wait right here". In a minute, 3 limos pulled up to take them to the steak house. It was a hit with the boys. It's that steak house with the huge "If you can eat it all in one hour" deal, it's free. That's a 72 oz. steak and all the trimmings (I said 32 oz. I think originally) Well, there were 4 Aussies from down under there that tried it. One of them almost made it. Son said he chewed the last bite up and swallowed it.....turned right around and threw it all up in a trash can. They talked with the Aussies for awhile, enjoyed their company a lot. He said they spent a lot of time on the road talking to store clerks, fast food workers, other travelers and (with a big smile) a lot of nice looking girls that thought what they were doing was just great. Well, the boy is like his daddy, never see a stranger, talk to anybody, just doesn't know when to shut up sometimes.  

[bijou]

Sounds like he had a great time, what a wonderful experience.