As a member of the Order of the Arrow, W helped out at Camporee for the at Camp Trask on April 21.
The next day, he was Confirmed — finally! Dan flew in to be his Confirmation Sponsor, and we had a very nice dinner the night before at Roy’s.
Apparently, WWI trenches were slightly curved, so that shrapnel from grenades dropped into them would eventually hit walls rather than travel far.
W, J, and I spent the weekend of April 13-15 at Jalama Beach with their Boy Scout Troop. It’s the official end-of-year camping trip with no scheduled activities — just have fun camping out at the beach. It’s a county park, so there were tons of families there enjoying the weekend, having barbecues, surfing. There’s a convenience store and a small burger restaurant, plus there are restrooms and coin-operated hot showers. They even have WiFi, though it never worked for me. (It would have been nice; there was no cell reception there.)
W spent some time reading and hanging out with friends. J and his friends decided to dig a WWI-style trench on the beach. I mainly hung out and even took a couple of naps.
Pools and waterfalls like these are what make the Bear Canyon backpacking trip my favorite.
Although Jalama Beach was our official “end of year” campout, we did have a backpacking trip on May 5-6 to Bear Canyon, which had been postponed from an earlier date due to rain. (Normally, we’d be fine with rain, but Bear Canyon is a box canyon, so the risk of flash flooding can be serious.) W and I had done the trip a few years ago, and it’s my favorite, because, although the final destination is no more scenic than our other trips, the hike itself is the most beautiful and interesting: We trek through several miles of canyon forest, crossing multiple streams and passing by pools and waterfalls.
W, J, and I went with the troop, and because of my weight loss, I had more energy than in the past to do the hike. We passed one rattlesnake on the trail there, and when we arrived at our campsite, we found one of our scouts and two of our adult leaders, who had left earlier. It’s good they went ahead to scout out the campsite — they were able to warn us of a bear in the area and of a huge rattlesnake in the campsite. I saw the video taken on a smartphone.
It made going to relieve myself in the woods a bit scary.
W and the senior scout patrol making breakfast
Lake Ida at Camp Whitsett
My six Ad Altare Dei scouts this year
This past weekend was our last campout of the school year but the introductory campout for the new scouts coming into the troop. Every year on Memorial Day weekend, we bring the new scouts — or as many as sign up, plus older scouts who want to go on the trip — to Kernville for whitewater rafting, and then to Camp Whitsett for camping, hikes, learning scout skills, and a flag retirement ceremony. The flag retirement ceremony is my favorite camping event of the year, and I wanted to see it, and W — as a senior scout — wanted to be on hand to participate.
Unfortunately, the Presentation Mass for the religious emblem medals, which is usually scheduled a couple of weeks before Memorial Day weekend, was scheduled on May 27 on Memorial Day weekend this year. Since this is a very special occasion for him, J didn’t want to skip the Mass.
So, on Saturday, I drove W to the campout. He was skipping the rafting, having done it for three years already. Unfortunately, after leaving at 1:30 PM, we hit a traffic jam on the I-5 due to some teenage girls apparently getting into a car accident. The jam took us almost two hours to get through. When we got to Bakersfield, our Odyssey broke down. Since we have AAA Gold, we decided not to take a risk and have it towed to our mechanic shop in Pasadena. That was another two hours back — no traffic jam heading south. We had dinner back home, and then I drove W to Camp Whitsett, where we arrived at 1:30 AM (!!!) and finished setting up the tent and unloading the car by 2:30 AM. I decided to sleep over.
In the morning, after telling our car-trip tale to various people and making sure W was awake, having breakfast, and ready for the day, I left around 9 AM for the drive back to Pasadena. This time, I drove through the Mojave desert along the 14 highway, as an alternate to the I-5. It was about the same time driving as along the I-5 without traffic, but there was definitely less traffic. I arrived exhausted in Pasadena, texting Hsuan to leave some high school graduation party at her friends’ house. I was in no shape to drive me and J to the Presentation Mass. I got dressed up in my Class A uniform, and we went to the LA Cathedral, where I realized that J hadn’t read my e-mail to our Ad Altare Dei class, telling them not only to wear their Class A uniforms with white neckerchief but also to wear their merit badge sashes and any previously-earned religious emblem medals. You can see J in our group photo above, taken before the Mass. My photos during the Mass were kind of crappy, probably because I had turned off the flash. Oh, well. (About 80 scouts received their Ad Altare Dei medal, including my six, and a smaller number earned the Pope Pius XII medal.)
After the Mass, we hung around to take photos and for me to shake hands with my scouts.
After going home, I drove back up to Camp Whitsett, arriving at 11 PM to find the camp dead-asleep. Although lights-out is at 10 PM, I usually expect to find older scouts and adults sitting around a campfire, chatting long into the night. Not this time. I guess everyone was too tired.
We got up around 6:30 AM on Monday, Memorial Day, packed up, had some bagels for breakfast, and departed between 8 and 9 AM. We took along N, one of W’s patrol-mates and current Senior Patrol Leader, and we arrived at his house to drop him off around 12:20 PM.
All in all, I spent about 22 hours on the road this weekend.
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I got a call from the mechanic this morning. When we dropped off the car on Saturday, the tow truck driver noticed a belt hanging below. He thought it was the timing belt (which had previously been flagged by our mechanic as possibly needing replacement), but the mechanic this morning told me it was the serpentine belt. A tensioner bolt had broken, and it was in a difficult-to-reach place which would require removing the engine. I checked the old statements I had received from them, and it looks like there were a lot of old items I had had them skip in the past — the timing belt, as mentioned, plus a leaky steering fluid pump, and some other major maintenance items. All told, somewhere between $2500 and $3000, including the current repair. I spoke briefly with Hsuan, and we decided to give him the painful go-ahead to do everything. Hopefully, this will get us at least another couple of years of use out of this car.