January 30th & 31st found yours truly at the bottom of a sink hole, in the middle of a cow pasture, in the lovely town of Valhermosa Springs Alabama. Don't bother Googling it…It ain't there, it's that small. It's near the Tennessee River, south of Huntsville Alabama, which surprisingly enough, is on the map.
This was, as the title suggests, a Royal Ranger event. For those of you not familiar, R.R's are, for lack of a more succinct description, Boy Scouts but with the largest emphasis on the Gospel. Our motto: "Reaching, teaching, & keeping boys for Christ."
This particular outing was *supposed* to be for only the boys above 3rd grade. I am the second grade commander at my church. Five Ranger Kids, R.K.'s we call them, accompanied me and my co-commander.
Do any of you know how much fun it can be camping with five 7 year old boys? The words Woo Hoo come to mind.
All in all it was pretty cool, litterally. 26° cool. I have to hand it to them though, they held up well. Doing trips like this you always expect to have at least one crying jag, one injury, and one kid that wants his momma. I'm proud to say that none of the above occured. Well, ok, one crying jag…but it was a short one, and I think I would have cried myself in the same situation.
The boys compeated in chalenges durring the day Saturday, and were awarded a bead on their snap ring for every challenge done. The little tyke with the tears dropped his. A needle in a haystack search ensued. The up side to this was the charactor demonstrated by the other boys. Banding together, we found the missing trinket. Where the real show of charactor happened was durring the frantic search. One of the boys offered the sad one his own ring of beads. That's when it became hard for me to keep the water shut off.
The most intresting thing for the purpose of this forum would have to be the experiment.
I took this chance to whittle on my gear. Here's a photo to show how we solved the problem of two hammocks, one tarp.
Yep, we made Bunk-Beds! Why not…all the other commanders think I'm crazy already with my lightweight gear. I'm here to tout the properties of Reflectix now too! I used one layer in the sleave of my Tom Claytor hammock and stayed toasty warm underneath…did I mention it was 26°?
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoyed it. Peace, Ritz.
