Autumn sunshine. A Friday off from school. We needed no further enticement to spend the afternoon on Whidbey Island.
After a short ferry ride and drive we stopped in Coupeville to explore the waterfront, pay a visit to Rosie, the gray whale skeleton at the wharf, and enjoy an ice cream break.
The last time we have to get to do this: see a complete photo album from our summer vacation in the Gimlet Gallery. We hope you enjoyed following along our route!
On the drive north to the GrandGimlets, we saw a billboard which read, “Moab: Where Adventure Begins“. We would add another billboard, “Logan: Where Adventure Ends“, which we really do mean as a good thing, even if it doesn’t sound so great. The Things were happy to have two days without driving where they could relax and play with their cousins, and we ran a few errands around town.
Peaceful, scenic photos in the Gimlet Gallery.
The final hotel on our Southwest odyssey was Ruby’s Inn, which has been welcoming guests to Bryce Canyon since 1916. Team Gimlet had mostly good experiences with their lodging along the way, and Ruby’s Inn was a highlight; with plenty of shops, entertainment, and activities, it was a fun place to stay. As with Moab at the beginning of our journey, we’d like to return to Ruby’s Inn and stay a little longer.
Unfortunately that evening a few of us experienced a touch of altitude sickness (Bryce Canyon is at 8000 feet, and most of the viewpoints are well above that) but a good night’s sleep and our faithful water bottles helped prepare us for the next day’s tour of the canyon.
It’s like being forced to watch vacation slides! See all the photos in the Gimlet Gallery.
We had decided to stay inside Grand Canyon National Park to give ourselves the most visiting time; our budget, family size, and room availability sent us to the Yavapai Lodge complex on the outskirts of the Grand Canyon Village. It wasn’t the El Tovar in looks or proximity to the South Rim, but it was clean and comfortable and suited Team Gimlet just fine. Still running on Philmont time, we woke up at sunrise (who would have guessed that a scout camp would be populated by lunatics, a.k.a. unbelievably cheerful morning people? But out of necessity we got used to it, and by way of disclosure we must admit that Your Humble Narrator is the only non-morning member of Team Gimlet.).
After a relatively quiet weekend, we left Albuquerque to drive to the Grand Canyon. We would spend nearly the entire day driving on Interstate 40, which has largely replaced the historic Route 66 through New Mexico and Arizona. We could see remnants of 66 as a frontage road along the interstate, disappearing as the two roads merged, then reappearing again.
The billboards advertising roadside attractions helped keep the drive interesting. Sometimes it seemed like the smaller the town or souvenir stand, more and larger billboards announced its impending appearance. (Who wouldn’t want to visit Jackrabbit, Arizona with its promised photo opportunity astride a giant jackrabbit?)
Thing One’s bus arrived just as we were finishing our breakfast Saturday morning. After a photo to commemorate his dirt, we isolated Thing One’s laundry in a sturdy plastic bag, and sent him to the showers with a bottle of soap and instructions to return the bottle empty. Now he was ready to rejoin Team Gimlet. A final trip to the Trading Post was in order to collect patches from the various camps he’d visited, buy some souvenirs (he was a bit overwhelmed by all the Trading Post had to offer; the rest of Team Gimlet has had all week to get used to it) and stock up on some much-missed snacks and soda. By 10:00 we were on our way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Editor’s Note: Every afternoon after the programs ended for the day, Team Gimlet would go to the Trading Post for ice cream. While there, we watched Boy Scout troops from all over the nation arriving for their two weeks of hiking, or arriving from the backcountry, having successfully completed their trek. It was easy to tell the two groups apart: incoming groups were a little nervous and overwhelmed by the immensity that is Philmont. On the other hand, if we were downwind of a returning group, it was an olfactory experience not soon forgotten; but it was also apparent in their feeling of accomplishment and newfound unity as a group.
The accumulated layers of dirt were not necessarily something the young men would want to bring home with them (especially not in an enclosed vehicle for hundreds of miles) and a shower and change of clothes would take care of that. But the lessons of teamwork, brotherhood, and an expanded sense of what they were capable can be brought out of the backcountry and remembered for a lifetime.
Pictures. Gimlet Gallery. You know the drill.
Thing Two spent the week attending the Small Fry program, or as he called it, “Camp School.” The program is for children under age five and offers play time, nap and snack time, and a special activity each day. The children made T-shirts in the Handicraft Center, toured the Villa Philmonte greenhouse and planted seeds, and had two opportunities to ride ponies. (Thing Two, however, decided that the ponies were too large and preferred to sit on the sidelines and watch.) Thing Two eagerly ran up the hill to the Small Fry Center every morning and afternoon, and played with his new friends at the Tent City playground and Dining Hall as well. One day an adult Scout leader “of a certain age” visited the Small Fry Center and reported, “I’m supposed to tell you that I was a Small Fry in 1962.” It’s fun to think that today’s Small Fry may be tomorrow’s group of young men heading off on a two-week trek, or even future Scoutmasters.
The week began with a picture: 30 Scoutmasters. Later in the week, our wives kept having a hard time identifying their husbands. Their middle-aged guy in the Scout uniform was hard to identify among all the other middle-aged guys in Scout uniforms.
As my experience was mostly a classroom there is little that is specifically exciting to report. I enjoyed discussing how to make Scouting work with Scoutmasters from all over the world. We had three BSA units from Europe (Trans-Atlantic council) represented. We saw slides about Kandersteg scout reservation in Switzerland and camping at Normandy. The discussion from Scoutmasters from all around the United States from every kind of troop helped us all to think of ways to improve our programs at home.
The vision of scouting is a great one. I sometimes refer to the program as a “bait and switch”: the boys come for camping and adventure, and come out with character and virtue. We have to have the camping and adventure or we, as adults, lose the chance to teach them the principles they need to become great men.
Philmont is uniquely able to provide the opportunity to meet a diverse group of men and women who have common goals. We come from different religious, racial, and economic backgrounds, but all want the boys we work with, and our sons, to become men of character and virtue. The good men of Lutheran, Catholic, and Methodist background attending the program with me equal the best men of my tradition in their hopes and ability to train their boys to become men of honor. A scout is a friend to all other scouts, and Philmont is a place where you get to see that at work. It was a unique experience and I am better for it. Anybody who has the opportunity to go should seize it. You and your family will be better for it.
We’re slowly catching up with photo uploads: watch Philmont gradually appear in the Gimlet Gallery.
After spending a night in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, we were up early so we could check in to Philmont by 2:00 pm. Most of the drive was through winding, mountainous terrain. We stopped at the visitor’s center in Chama to get our bearings (and make a souvenir penny), but after that we didn’t stop until Taos. As we approached the Rio Grande Bridge we were stopped by a police roadblock. The officer was friendly and we soon realized that a movie shoot was taking place: a large, old, boxy RV drove back and forth over the bridge, swerving in and out of its lane, as a helicopter equipped with a movie camera swooped and dove around it to capture the shot. After a few back-and-forth passes with the RV and helicopter, we were permitted to drive over the bridge ourselves; the bridge was scenic, but our passage over it was nowhere as exciting as the RV.
After a quick stop for gasoline the Gimletmobile crawled along the very picturesque (but very narrow and congested) road through Taos to begin a corkscrew journey of about fifty miles along the Enchanted Circle to Cimarron. The narrow, winding road was beautiful, but not very forgiving to the easily motion-sick. Luckily Thing Two slept through most of the drive. At 1:30 pm, a woozy Team Gimlet pulled in to Philmont Scout Ranch and the fun of settling in began.
How do you tell the story of a week at Philmont? We’ll try to give you an idea by giving each Team Gimlet member’s perspective on the week. First, The Gimlet will share his Strictly For Scoutmasters program, followed by Thing Two and Your Humble Narrator’s experiences. Thing One’s Mountain Trek will finish out the Philmont blog posts. After that, it’s time to get back on the road again and turn west to Santa Fe and Albuquerque, the Grand Canyon, and points beyond.
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