"Little ol' lady who?"
Last weekend was one of the craziest in a long time.
It was the Second Year Spring Outing for Y-Guides and the Yodeling Squirrels were headed for Arapahoe, NC for a weekend of activities, games, bonding, and general mayhem. This year's theme was "Magic". Y-Guides is a three year long, father/child program built on values, community, service, and building a stronger bond between father and son/daughter. The Yodeling Squirrels is our tribe name.
This weekend was also one of the coldest of early spring with an Arctic Blast out of Canada that dropped temperatures into the low 20's over night. Keep in mind that while were not necessarily "camping", per se, but we were sleeping in unheated cabins with nothing but wood shutters between us and the elements. The entire trip down to Arapahoe it rained. Within minutes of getting there, TJ was soaked, cold, and had no way to warm up inside. Even before we got there the other dads has already planned their early departure from the weekend, plotting where in the Saturday program they could escape.
Friday night was also the ice cream social - not hot chocolate, clearly no one thought this through - a wild 30 or 40 minutes of 7, 8, and 9 year olds dancing, chasing, yelling, and getting their boys genes out (proper spelling).
We occupied our cabin and by 12:30am I was being tortured by grown men with deviated septums and sleep apnea issues. The snoring lasted until 6:30am with no relief. Thank goodness there was hot coffee at 7:00am as my son and I bundled in fleece and layers and hats to go out into the brisk morning air. Saturday morning would alternate between clear and cloudy, windy or calm, cold or hints of warmth.
We had breakfast and hit the challenges; archery, tennis, BB guns, and canoeing right away. For each activity you earned a punch on your punchcard that looked like the ace of hearts with icons on them. I hit the archery balloon on my target and TJ hit the shaken can of soda at riflery, sending a stream of fizzy soda arching into the ground! But, at the canoe lake, TJ saw that the zip line was open. The zip line is a 40' tall, 500' long trip down a cable on a cable trolley attached to a seat harness into the water. Water. At this point you can refer back to paragraph three and re-read the description of the weather.
The rule was, as long as the air temperature and water temperature equalled over 100* combined then people would be allowed to go down the zip line. I'm pretty sure the combined temperature was 101*.
Now, you had to go down the zip line AND go down the blue zoom water slide in order to ALL the icon punched on your card. Then, and only then, did you earn a special trophy AND a special bear claw for display. TJ wanted to go down. I mulled it over. You only get to do this once. You only get to be cool for a short period of time. You only get to impress your son in a big way while they are young. But holy shit - not one of the dads who were trying it looked at all happy with their decision - kids character be damned.
Yet, there I was, 40' on top of the tower, already freezing in just shorts next to TJ who showed no hesitation whatsoever. The water was so cold that it went beyond taking your breath away. It was like millions of pins and needles all over your body - but oddly it was hot, like a burning sensation. We ran back to the towels and shirts we had and headed over to the zoom, 1, 2, 3, GO - then right to the shower. Fifteen minutes of trying to bring my core body temperature back to 98.6*. It didn't work. I was cold for the rest of day despite layers and layers.
The rest of the day was used to filled out our card; shark tooth pile, "magic" tricks, and obstacle course. We even went to the snake show. I am not fond of snakes at all. At. All. This gentleman brought a truck full. TJ was a little tentative but then helped hold a 14', 120lb yellow python that took seven dads to help pull out of it's box. Guess who helped put it back in. Yep, this guy. I faced my fear and held this massive creature like it was a heavy log or a toddler being put to bed. Then someone handed TJ a 12" long hog nosed snake and his tolerance lasted about 43 seconds...and then he handed it to me. And so there is video of me holding a small, harmless snake for 21 seconds before finding a willing and competent adult to take it from me.
We all had dinner but the exodus was on. Clearly there were less dads and kids than at lunch or breakfast. I told TJ who was dejected but went along with it. There was no way I was going to spend another night freezing while listening to grown men snore just feet away from me so we packed up and trekked back to Fuquay-Varina.
And as crazy as that sounds it wasn't all! I also had Reserves this weekend and drove to Greensboro on Friday morning, met with my staff, drove to Fuquay to pick up TJ by 2pm and then drove down to camp. On Sunday morning? I drove back to Greensboro to finish out the weekend with my Soldiers.
I hope to leave my sons with good memories of a dad who wasn't afraid to get hypothermia or hold a massive snake - or go on roller coasters or play in the surf. I want them to know that at the times it would have been easier to say something was too hard, that their dad put them first as often as possible.
That is the kind of dad I want them to be someday.
Last weekend was one of the craziest in a long time.
It was the Second Year Spring Outing for Y-Guides and the Yodeling Squirrels were headed for Arapahoe, NC for a weekend of activities, games, bonding, and general mayhem. This year's theme was "Magic". Y-Guides is a three year long, father/child program built on values, community, service, and building a stronger bond between father and son/daughter. The Yodeling Squirrels is our tribe name.
This weekend was also one of the coldest of early spring with an Arctic Blast out of Canada that dropped temperatures into the low 20's over night. Keep in mind that while were not necessarily "camping", per se, but we were sleeping in unheated cabins with nothing but wood shutters between us and the elements. The entire trip down to Arapahoe it rained. Within minutes of getting there, TJ was soaked, cold, and had no way to warm up inside. Even before we got there the other dads has already planned their early departure from the weekend, plotting where in the Saturday program they could escape.
Friday night was also the ice cream social - not hot chocolate, clearly no one thought this through - a wild 30 or 40 minutes of 7, 8, and 9 year olds dancing, chasing, yelling, and getting their boys genes out (proper spelling).
We occupied our cabin and by 12:30am I was being tortured by grown men with deviated septums and sleep apnea issues. The snoring lasted until 6:30am with no relief. Thank goodness there was hot coffee at 7:00am as my son and I bundled in fleece and layers and hats to go out into the brisk morning air. Saturday morning would alternate between clear and cloudy, windy or calm, cold or hints of warmth. We had breakfast and hit the challenges; archery, tennis, BB guns, and canoeing right away. For each activity you earned a punch on your punchcard that looked like the ace of hearts with icons on them. I hit the archery balloon on my target and TJ hit the shaken can of soda at riflery, sending a stream of fizzy soda arching into the ground! But, at the canoe lake, TJ saw that the zip line was open. The zip line is a 40' tall, 500' long trip down a cable on a cable trolley attached to a seat harness into the water. Water. At this point you can refer back to paragraph three and re-read the description of the weather.
The rule was, as long as the air temperature and water temperature equalled over 100* combined then people would be allowed to go down the zip line. I'm pretty sure the combined temperature was 101*.
Now, you had to go down the zip line AND go down the blue zoom water slide in order to ALL the icon punched on your card. Then, and only then, did you earn a special trophy AND a special bear claw for display. TJ wanted to go down. I mulled it over. You only get to do this once. You only get to be cool for a short period of time. You only get to impress your son in a big way while they are young. But holy shit - not one of the dads who were trying it looked at all happy with their decision - kids character be damned.
Yet, there I was, 40' on top of the tower, already freezing in just shorts next to TJ who showed no hesitation whatsoever. The water was so cold that it went beyond taking your breath away. It was like millions of pins and needles all over your body - but oddly it was hot, like a burning sensation. We ran back to the towels and shirts we had and headed over to the zoom, 1, 2, 3, GO - then right to the shower. Fifteen minutes of trying to bring my core body temperature back to 98.6*. It didn't work. I was cold for the rest of day despite layers and layers.
The rest of the day was used to filled out our card; shark tooth pile, "magic" tricks, and obstacle course. We even went to the snake show. I am not fond of snakes at all. At. All. This gentleman brought a truck full. TJ was a little tentative but then helped hold a 14', 120lb yellow python that took seven dads to help pull out of it's box. Guess who helped put it back in. Yep, this guy. I faced my fear and held this massive creature like it was a heavy log or a toddler being put to bed. Then someone handed TJ a 12" long hog nosed snake and his tolerance lasted about 43 seconds...and then he handed it to me. And so there is video of me holding a small, harmless snake for 21 seconds before finding a willing and competent adult to take it from me.
We all had dinner but the exodus was on. Clearly there were less dads and kids than at lunch or breakfast. I told TJ who was dejected but went along with it. There was no way I was going to spend another night freezing while listening to grown men snore just feet away from me so we packed up and trekked back to Fuquay-Varina.
And as crazy as that sounds it wasn't all! I also had Reserves this weekend and drove to Greensboro on Friday morning, met with my staff, drove to Fuquay to pick up TJ by 2pm and then drove down to camp. On Sunday morning? I drove back to Greensboro to finish out the weekend with my Soldiers.
I hope to leave my sons with good memories of a dad who wasn't afraid to get hypothermia or hold a massive snake - or go on roller coasters or play in the surf. I want them to know that at the times it would have been easier to say something was too hard, that their dad put them first as often as possible.
That is the kind of dad I want them to be someday.
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