Involvement in scouting is one of the more wholesome rites of passage for American boys and their…read moredads. One of the things I most look forward to do with my Cub Scout is to go on camp-outs. These aren't pack it in 10 miles whilst carrying 40 lbs on your back camp-outs. Instead, for the boys 10 years old and younger, it's park your car and carry your tent 50 yards to where you set it up sort of camp-outs. Regardless, it's an excellent introduction to the outdoors and to skills that they'll use when they really go on wilderness hikes in a few years.
Camp Bovay, located an hour from Houston on the way to College Station, is almost too accommodating in this regard. We showed up on a Saturday morning, signed in and went to the designated area for our troop. We set up our tent, and filled it with our sleeping pads, sleeping bags and day packs with all our stuff. We were ready to go. There was the obligatory flag raising ceremony (this is the scouts, you realize) and then lunch was served in air-conditioned comfort in a big cafeteria.
Afterward, the kids spent all afternoon going from activity to activity, none of which were particularly nature-oriented. They did get to ride BMX bikes, hit golf balls at a driving range (most of the kids enjoyed picking them up more than hitting them), traverse a rock wall, try their hand a Frisbee golf, play in a swimming pool complex with lots of slides, go paddle-boating, and do some archery (hooray - that finally sounds like scouting!). I found the whole thing a bit staged and "summer-campish".
Right as the last activity ended, the heavens opened and drenched everyone. I hurried back to my tent and found that my Walmart special worked as advertised and kept everything inside dry and snug as a bug. Unfortunately for many of the other boys and parents, this wasn't the case. Wet sleeping bags and other camping accessories were everywhere. I turned to a friend and laughed, "If worst comes to worst, it's only an hour drive back to all the comforts of home." A number of people took that option.
Another too civilized meal preceded the classic campfire, with skits and humor that only pre-teenagers can fully appreciate along with some communal singing and cooking of marshmallows that went into s'mores (if you don't know what a s'more is, you have no business reading this review). Away from the city lights, you could actually see the milky way. As the evening wound down, I began giggling as the sound of battery-operated air compressors became omnipresent as campers inflated their air mattresses (I told my son that that was "cheating" and we don't camp that way).
I slept like a baby, missing the coyote howls, and woke up at 5:30 listening to crickets chirping and the first morning songbirds warbling. I took a deep breath and was confronted with that wonderful smell of stale sweat and sodden clothing. I finally felt that I was having a true camping experience. Then the first ring tone from someone's cell phone went off. Chaucer's Chanticleer couldn't have woken up the troops more effectively. Sigh...
I love lighting up a Coleman stove and cooking up eggs in gobs of bacon grease on mornings like this. Instead, we "hiked" (using the term loosely) over to the cafeteria and had breakfast whilst listening to country western music piped over the sound system. I was crestfallen.
Afterward, we returned to camp, broke everything down and threw it into the trunk of the car. The boys asked, "What are we going to do now? All the activities are closed!" I replied, "We're going to have even more fun!" We picked up the fishing gear and walked through the tall grass, catching grasshoppers as we went. Down at the pond, a school of pretty perch were more than happy to get hooked with every cast as they gorged on grasshoppers. The boys all got to catch numerous fish (or the same ones over and over again), take them off the hook and throw them back.
Things were starting to get good. We found some huge spiders, lots of crickets and more grasshoppers. Of course, all these critters are available in our yards back home, but somehow lack the appeal that they have on a camp-out. Getting hungry again, we went back to our cars and headed home. My son conked out in about 2 minutes and slept most of the way back. I found myself singing along to the Eagle's "Take It Easy" on FM radio as I drove. For a short period of time on Sunday morning, everything was right with the world.
