Dirt, dust and grime.
My calling at church involves planning activities for the Elders quorum. The first one that I planned was the Summer kick off camp out. It was to be held out at the mud caves. We planned for the last weekend in June, and it happened to be the start of all the hot days this summer. The camp out was for the elders and their sons if they had any. What a perfect opportunity to get Frank to the great outdoors. He has been to little places for camping before but never like this. I didn't bother to bring a tent. We slept in the back of my truck instead. Frank was so excited. He couldn't wait to get to the caves.
We have hit some bumps in the past with the truck, but have never been off-roading. The road to the caves was dirt and rutted. I think Frank is hooked. He loved every second of it. He got to stay up late, and finally asked to go to bed at 10:15. It was so hot that he slept in his underwear. Bight and early the next morning my mountain man was up and begging to see the caves. After breakfast, we all headed up. I started with an easy hike to see how he would do. Curiousity took control and fueled his body for the whole day. We had to bring in our own light so Frank and I strapped on head lamps and headed for the good ones. You would think the boy grew up in the caves the way he would just run around. I couldn't keep up with him. The narrow spots didn't slow him down one bit. It didn't hurt the they were above his head and he never really came close to a narrow spot. Dad, on the other hand, was squeezing though and trailing far behind. Frank even wanted to scale the rope at the end of the cave.
"let's do another cave!" he exclaimed.
Our camp out ended after one more cave and lunch. The road back was clear, and our speed was a little faster leaving than coming in. That didn't stop us from doing a couple of doughnuts in the dirt (see the video). After we were all funned out, we headed home. To my surprise Frank was passed out while driving down the dirt road.
The kicker was when he woke up about 30 min later and said
"Dad what is this? It's gross."
I said "Where did you get it from?"
Frank replied, with a dead pan face, "my nose."
"Oh" I replied "its a camp booger"
"Okay." he said.
It was a great trip for this father and son, and I look forward to many more like it.
The little prince in his royal bed.
Ready for the caves
Made it to the top all by himself, and had a cool light to boot.
