“Be Prepared.”    BSA Scout Motto

One Friday afternoon in January the thermometer was dipping below ten degrees Fahrenheit and Scott was loading his pack with long underwear, fire starters and matches.  He was going on his first Polar Bear campout!   I am half convinced the reason boys like to camp and endure the elements is so that they can play with fire.  Excuse me…build fires.

We did not have proper camping equipment for such a night, but his brother Greg was too young to go so Scott took his sleeping bag and planned to sleep with one bag inside of the other.   There were Coleman lanterns, camp stoves, cooking equipment, etc.  Water was packed in a thermos for the middle of the night cornstarch ritual.

On Saturday afternoon the campers returned.  When they came into the house they smelled of sweet wood smoke and looked a shade darker then when they left.  The brothers and I were eager to hear the stories.  Yes, it was bone-chilling, their feet were cold, but they took turns keeping the fire going all night.  The unanticipated hitch was that, “The lid to the thermos with my water for my cornstarch was frozen shut in the middle of the night.  Dad had to breath on it to get it to thaw.”  Wow!  Awesome.

Lesson Learned: You can’t think of everything.