2007 Scout Show

The 2007 Connecticut Rivers Council Scout Show was held on June 1-3. There were about 8,000 Scouts, Scouters and visitors at the Hebron Fairgrounds during that time, and Troop 29 was among them. It was oppressively hot and there was constant threat of thunderstorms, but the weather stayed good for us!

On Friday night Jeff and I wandered around to see what we could find. We bumped into my Dad, who was setting up the amateur radio tent. He mentioned my Mom was around, so we found her and pilfered some snacks for the evening.

As I said, it was hot on Saturday. In fact--as hard as it may be to believe--our campsite was hotter than the rest of the fairgrounds! That made it easy to stay out and walk around to see things.

Troop 29's Scoutmaster and I were walking around when we came upon the New England Orienteering Club's display and were asked if we'd like to try a route. We decided it'd be fun, so filled out the time card, took a map, and were on our way. We had to find six points and write down the letter at that point. Along the way we stopped to see and do other things, as well as talk with a few people. We completed the course and walked back to turn the card in and get our time: 29 minutes. The letters we collected spelled out "MAPFUN."

Afterwards, I suggesting challenging the rest of the Troop to beat our time--a competition. With a prize of some sort. We brought the idea up and two Scouts decided to try it: they went off, did a course, and came back to tell us they completed it in 25 minutes. Not wanting to be outdone, we decided to inspect their time card and challenge them to a rematch. After all, we weren't even trying!

Round two began. We decided it would be most fair to add up the two times for each of us to determine the winners. The Scoutmaster and I thought a brisk walk would be enough to win the race; we didn't need to run. As we approached our third point, however, we crossed paths with the Scouts, running to their fourth point! We started running, hoping to gain the lead we needed. We finished collecting our letters, headed back to the NEOC station, and checked in! Phew, we beat the Scouts! Just a few seconds later, however, they whipped around the corner and slapped their completed timecard down! We both completed our courses in 10 minutes, give or take a few seconds.

We combined the times, and could see the Scouts had held onto a nearly four-minute lead over us. We regained some time in round two, but nowhere near enough. As an added bonus, 10 minutes was the best time for the two courses we each ran--so we all set records!

At the following Troop meeting, during the opening ceremony, there was a little discussion on the Scout Show and the two Scouts who beat the adults at an orienteering course. Their prize was a Ben & Jerry's S'mores ice cream treat. They got to eat it right there, in front of all the other Scouts, rubbing it in that they had beat the adults and nobody else even tried.

There will be a rematch.