Busy day with Scouts

Today was a jam-packed day with Camp Ed and Scout activities. Emma went to Camp Ocankusa in Mandan to start her 3-day Daisy/Brownie Day Camp. It goes from 2-8p T-Th. She was pretty excited about it and I think she had a pretty good time. We didn't have too much time to talk about it tonight because we all got home so late. After I dropped her and her friend, IsaBelle, off at camp Gage and I came home to rest a while before his Family Scout Oath Bike Ride. I have had a migraine headache the past 2 days and needed to lay down awhile before we went on this extended bike ride. It was a 10-mile ride around the biking paths in south Bismarck. They had 4 stations set up where people talked about the different parts of the Scout Oath and what they meant. There were 3 groups of about 50 bikers each. Gage and I were in the first group. Registration and a quick bike check/tune-up at Barry's Bikes started at 4:30 and continued until 6. Then the ride was to last from 6-8p. I was a little worried because I have never ridden 10 miles at one time before and wasn't sure if I could do it. It started out pretty darned slow and I thought if it continued at that pace, I would be okay. I did end up being okay. The pace did pick up a bit, but it wasn't too bad. I had some issues with Gage at first because he wanted to ride with another boy from our den, but this boy is always ill-behaved and I hate for Gage to spend any time with him because he starts acting that way himself. Gage finally discovered that it was probably a better idea to ride with Mom after the 2nd stop. After the 3rd stop it seemed that there was getting to be quite a bit of distance between different groups of riders within our group of 50. At one point the people ahead of us weren't sure which direction to go when the path split into 2 different directions. Then one older lady who I remember from Day Camp whizzed right by and said she knew where to go. I assumed she did and continued to follow her. Well, she apparently didn't get the memo which had the correct bike route. Or else she just followed the people in front of her who also didn't know where they were going. We ended up at a dead end and the group ahead of us was just starting out into a different direction when we reached the same point they had when they discovered they took the wrong trail. We finally made it to the last station and I was starting to panic a little since it was 7:50 and we hadn't even eaten supper yet! The bike ride was to end with the hot dog roast at 8p and Emma was also to get out of camp at 8pm. Thankfully she was riding home with IsaBelle and I had already planned for them to drop Emma off at Dave and Maggie's (our neighbors house), if we weren't home yet. After we left the last station, Gage was right with me and I thought he was behind me and when I looked back, he was WAY BACK THERE. I slowed way down trying to wait for him to catch up with me, but he wasn't gaining on me too much. There were others that he was riding with, so at least he wasn't back there alone. Finally I stopped to wait for him and when he caught up to me he said he had a flat tire. Sure enough, he blew out his back tire. GREAT! Well, everyone that was ahead of us was all out of site and I thought there should be some still coming, but there weren't. Apparently the group I was following got on the wrong trail AGAIN! UGH! We did find where they all were at the park and I was a little irritated with the whole scene. I shouldn't be too surprised that it wasn't completely organized; however. I should be used to that! I am going to make some suggestions for next year though. Like maybe there should be MORE people who know what the heck is going on and know the CORRECT route we were supposed to take. It also might be a wise idea to make t-shirts a part of the registration packet and make everyone who is participating wear it so you know who is in the group and who isn't. We obviously weren't the only people in Bismarck using the bike trails, so it was very easy to mistake people who weren't in the group with people who were and vice versa. We ended up having to walk our bikes the last little bit and discovered that Barry, the owner of Barry's Bikes, was still at the shop and he changed Gage's tire for us. He was the NICEST person! I will certainly go there for all of my future biking needs. He showed Gage and I how to change the tire and how to figure out what caused the hole in the first place. Of course I didn't have any money on me because I had nowhere to carry it and when I asked him how much he said we didn't owe him anything. I of course would not accept that and he said it was $6. I promised him I would stop by tomorrow or mail him a check but he wasn't too worried about it. I will be sending him more than $6 and telling everyone I know to patronize his business. What a nice man. I also mentioned to him that I knew in our Scout book for next year one of the requirements is to learn how to change a bike tire and change one. He said they have Scout groups come in occasionally to do those requirements and I will certainly be calling on him to set up a time for our den to do that. I just love it when I find someone who is passionate about what they are doing and are such terrific people....................................I know that's exactly how all those donors feel about Scott and his passion for waterfowl after they come to those waterfowl workshops. It's just so rare to find people that are so passionate about what they do. Barry is one of those people and you should definitely look him up for all your future biking needs. :-)