"Where's The Nearest Hospital?" BSA Bike Hike on Cape Cod

I just got back from a nice, long weekend with my son's Boy Scout Troop.

Geoff doesn't do winter camping, or cold weather/snow activities, so this is the first trip he's been on since a weekender in October. One of the other moms in the troop has a condo down the Cape a few towns away from where the boys were camping, so she suggested we go and stay there and still have fun with the boys but have our own Castle away from them.

So I took her up on the offer.

Geoff and I went down with her and 3 other boys on Friday night so we didn't have to meet up with the troop at 6 am on Saturday to make the 2 to 3 hour trip. We had a wonderful time with the boys, watched the "Tron" sequel, and everyone was fast asleep by 11pm.

In the morning, we made a great breakfast, had more great fellowship, and met the troop at the campsite to unload camp stuff and get things ready for a day of biking.

At that point, I split.

I had a date with a long time internet friend, Jess of "Cool Librarian." Fellow Geocacher, BNL fan, Guster fan, Flickr friend and Facebook buddy.

We met up at her house where her dog lovingly humped my arm, and we hit several Geocaches that she either has hidden or had recollection of so we could quickly get them. It was a brutally windy day, which made for no fun for any actual nice, real hiking.

We ate lunch in Chatham, had a GREAT time, and I headed back to the Boys. I spent the evening playing Uno and hanging out getting to know one of the new dads and a bunch of little wee new Scouts. The troop did a total of 17.5 miles on the Rail Trails. Geoff had a great day biking, and loves his new bike. So he told me all about it, and Debbie told me that he only had to be reprimanded once on the trail for doing something incorrectly.

Dinner was served, beef barley stew cheffed up by the Scoutmaster's wife. The boys cooked for the boys, and we all had a great time. Everyone was beat, so Debbie and I split and went back to the Condo with monkey wine and laughs for the evening.

Next day, we headed back, Debbie was riding with the troop, and I was going to meet up with them somewhere on the rail trail. I ended up hooking up with them at Nickerson State Park, where shortly before they arrived there one of the boys had a head on collision with another biker coming the opposite direction.

Our medical expert parent decided that his arm was most likely broken. We had to do some quick thinking and planning. Were we doing the hospital thing or were we driving him on home? One of the dads was headed home that night anyway, so he opted to cut his trip short and bring the injured boy home. I was all ready to play ambulance and everything, so I was kind of happy to not have to go.

That afternoon I met with another friend.... appetizers and heart to heart. It felt good to be out with humans. I went back to the troop, and Debbie reported that Geoff was 3 miles shy of a 25 mile ride... he opted out of the extra 5 mile loop that a bunch of people did, and stayed with a group of younger, tired scouts because he was tired too. She said he did incredibly well again, and didn't get in any trouble.

Another evening of awesome food, and very silly adult leaders eating whipped cream off of forks without the boys being aware because they were all in the other room playing Risk and other board games. I played a cut-throat game of Uno with 4 scouts and the Scoutmaster, and went home late and laughing.

This morning the boys had to clean up, pack up and get going. The original plan was to ride the Cape Cod Canal, but the boys who did the same trip 3 years ago said the headwinds down the canal were BRUTAL and they didn't want to do it. So we ended up at Myles Standish, where they did an 8 mile ride in the woods, without rail trail rules. They were happy to go nuts and ride fast, side by side, just enjoying the outdoors and each other.

Geoff and I left the troop as they got ready to ride back to the trailhead, and we went to my mom's to hang out for a while. She lives only about 8 hours southwest of where we were. We had a nice visit, but you could tell Geoff was just BEAT. I got him home, he's happy to be here, missed his dogs and his computer.

I feel a little bad about not doing the ride myself. I had put Geoff's old bike into the shop to get some work done and never got around to picking it up. I also am rather out of shape, and didn't want to deal with it. If the trip was a month from now I'd be in better shape. I was happy to play transport vehicle and be support for the 2 moms riding. I had a great time bonding and goofing around with them.

It was a great weekend.