Once we found our campsite, we set up our tent. Once nighttime was upon us, we popped popcorn, and did some planning before it was time to turn in. Poor Duncan fell asleep in his camping chair while waiting for me to finish talking to some other scout leaders. He must have slept fine once I got him in his sleeping bag, because he was excited and ready for the day!
After having breakfast burritos for breakfast, Duncan got his uniform on, and was ready to go!
Here is a picture of just a small number of the scouts and people that were there for this event. This was taken while we waited for the opening ceremony to start.
The first thing we participated in was an attempt to break a world record for the world's largest marbles tournament. I think they had about 840 participants for this tournament. All who participated got a patch. The marble game they played was called Warstone. (They played a very simplified version.)
After the marble tournament, we made our way to the world record attempt at the longest pinewood derby track. It was advertised as being 250 feet long. But apparently, other groups were attempting to break the old record, too. So the people in charge of ours went to 510 feet! That is over 100 feet longer than the next closest attempt. We were excited to run our cars on that track. Here's a shot of our cars with many of the other ones waiting too.
Once we entered our cars, there was a looooong (that should have about 20 "o"s) wait. They ran council finals with the regulation track. There were 18 cars in 18 heats. Then they went on to the long track, to get it ready. The timing equipment would not cooperate, and they tried to get it going for WAY too long. We were probably there for about 3 hours before they started putting cars down the track. Then is took about an hour for them to get to our cars, which happen to be near the end.
After the marble tournament, we made our way to the world record attempt at the longest pinewood derby track. It was advertised as being 250 feet long. But apparently, other groups were attempting to break the old record, too. So the people in charge of ours went to 510 feet! That is over 100 feet longer than the next closest attempt. We were excited to run our cars on that track. Here's a shot of our cars with many of the other ones waiting too.
Once we entered our cars, there was a looooong (that should have about 20 "o"s) wait. They ran council finals with the regulation track. There were 18 cars in 18 heats. Then they went on to the long track, to get it ready. The timing equipment would not cooperate, and they tried to get it going for WAY too long. We were probably there for about 3 hours before they started putting cars down the track. Then is took about an hour for them to get to our cars, which happen to be near the end.
While we were waiting, there were some cub scouts that found some snails, and they were playing with them. Duncan showed an interest in the snails and they gave him one of them to play with. Here's Duncan sitting in the shade of the water cooler, with the snail.
Here's a shot from near the top of the track, down to the finish line. That's Duncan near the middle.
Finally, Duncan's and Anna's cars are up and ready to go... (I had to move the weights to the tops of the cars because there wasn't enough clearance underneath.)
... and they're off... Unfortunately, both cars did not make it to the finish line. The axles were a little loose on both cars. I tried securing them in the wood as best I could, but they loosened up while on the run, and the tires rubbed on the sides of the cars too much, and caused them to stop. Such a bummer to wait that long, only to have them go about half way. But they still ran on the world's longest track!
There's my car finally up and ready to go! It did make it all the way down, but only clocked an average time.
Duncan was pretty sad that his car didn't go the whole way down. But one thing that helped him get his smile back, was everyone, and I mean EVERYONE that saw his Wii car, REALLY liked it. All the scouts thought it was awesome. Duncan was pretty proud of that.
After spending way too much time at the pinewood track, we found some other fun things to do. Here's Duncan on an obstacle course. He raced against a boy in my troop named Paul.
There's he is "leaping" through the course, just a second behind Paul... They ended up finishing in a tie!
We looked around for more stuff. This was called "scouts hiking".
This was called "goofy golf". There were 6 holes. They hit the softballs with those clubs, till they got in the holes. It was open field miniature golf, and the scouts really liked it.
Duncan putting a puzzle together. His puzzle had a picture of merit badges.
We did a few other fun things, and even made time to have some snow cones. Here we are after a long day of activities and dinner (and pudding cups)! After this, we took that tent down, cleaned up our campsite, and went to the closing ceremony.
There were some cool things at the closing ceremony, but there were some others that took too long. There was a local band that played for about 45 minutes. Their music was pretty good, but I think they should have been at the end. Duncan tried to stay awake, but eventually fell asleep.
All in all, it was a really fun day. We were glad we did the things we did. Duncan had a great time. I hope this event is something he'll remember for a long time. I hope he remembers he celebrated the BSA's 100th anniversary. Scouting is fun stuff.
Here's a shot from near the top of the track, down to the finish line. That's Duncan near the middle.
Finally, Duncan's and Anna's cars are up and ready to go... (I had to move the weights to the tops of the cars because there wasn't enough clearance underneath.)
... and they're off... Unfortunately, both cars did not make it to the finish line. The axles were a little loose on both cars. I tried securing them in the wood as best I could, but they loosened up while on the run, and the tires rubbed on the sides of the cars too much, and caused them to stop. Such a bummer to wait that long, only to have them go about half way. But they still ran on the world's longest track!
There's my car finally up and ready to go! It did make it all the way down, but only clocked an average time.
Duncan was pretty sad that his car didn't go the whole way down. But one thing that helped him get his smile back, was everyone, and I mean EVERYONE that saw his Wii car, REALLY liked it. All the scouts thought it was awesome. Duncan was pretty proud of that.
After spending way too much time at the pinewood track, we found some other fun things to do. Here's Duncan on an obstacle course. He raced against a boy in my troop named Paul.
There's he is "leaping" through the course, just a second behind Paul... They ended up finishing in a tie!
We looked around for more stuff. This was called "scouts hiking".
This was called "goofy golf". There were 6 holes. They hit the softballs with those clubs, till they got in the holes. It was open field miniature golf, and the scouts really liked it.
Duncan putting a puzzle together. His puzzle had a picture of merit badges.
We did a few other fun things, and even made time to have some snow cones. Here we are after a long day of activities and dinner (and pudding cups)! After this, we took that tent down, cleaned up our campsite, and went to the closing ceremony.
There were some cool things at the closing ceremony, but there were some others that took too long. There was a local band that played for about 45 minutes. Their music was pretty good, but I think they should have been at the end. Duncan tried to stay awake, but eventually fell asleep.
All in all, it was a really fun day. We were glad we did the things we did. Duncan had a great time. I hope this event is something he'll remember for a long time. I hope he remembers he celebrated the BSA's 100th anniversary. Scouting is fun stuff.
3 comments:
Loved the pictures and the story...as always...thanks for sharing!!
John Hernandez posted on facebook that he went with one of his sons to a BSA event this weekend too, I wonder if he was at the same event.
Loved the pictures and the story...as always...thanks for sharing!!
John Hernandez posted on facebook that he went with one of his sons to a BSA event this weekend too, I wonder if he was at the same event.
Thank you for participating in our world record event with WarStone and Duncan Toys. The official number was 876 scouts-new record. You can see more photos on facebook warstone.
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