Rocket camp

I think one of the biggest changes about life since graduation is that I've learned to really appreciate weekends--even during the summer. The last two especially have been full of grand adventure.

On Friday the 3rd, some of the young men in my ward went out to Five Mile Pass to shoot off the rockets we'd been working on since May (mine is still unfinished. . . .). Being good Boy Scouts, we were well prepared for a night in the wild with sleeping bags, tents, and firewood.



I love that kid. ^_^

For nearly every campout I've been on to date, everyone has been wide awake on the trip there, goofing off in whoever's truck was driving us. It's rare that anyone falls asleep so early, so this time I knew I had to get pictures. ;-)





The drive felt longer than it was, but eventually we found a spot in the middle of nowhere to set up camp. It was so out of the way that we didn't even park off the road; we just stopped, hopped out, and built our tents right there. We were pretty lonely:





Of many benefits of getting away from civilization, our view of the desert sunset was uninterrupted in its beauty. We could barely keep our eyes off it while we set up the tents.


And of course, we also had our privacy with the insects of the area. Catching a glimpse of a stinkbug in a nearby sand splotch, I couldn't resist snapping a couple shots of the thing. Spencer, this one's for you. ;-)


Yeah, so basically I barely helped at all with camp construction. I held some rods in a few places, but I kept escaping for seconds at a time to take pictures before Gary could notice and chew me out. I don't think the guys needed my help too much, though; just look at their handiwork! :-P


Proud of our shelter, we then gathered for some group photos in the sunset.

Left to right: Robbie Daniels, Aaron Hart, Richard Moore, Mark Moore, Scott Daniels, Richard Lyon, Andrew Schultz, Gordon Daniels, Lance Nebeker, Gary Nebeker

And for good measure, one with me. ;-)

Then the real fun began with the launch of Gary's rocket, The Heavy Hauler.



Soon we were all gathered around the launch site, and with Scott's rocket came a usual opportunity for my airheadedness. ;-)



Thankfully I quickly discovered a smudge on my screen as the root of my problems (or at least a believable excuse ;-)).



With the success of their summer project proven, the guys each prepared their rockets for second, third, and fourth launches. Among us there was pride . . .


. . . and celebration.


Then finally, the reason I took so much video: an explosion! ^_^



It actually wasn't that great of an explosion; Lance's rocket survived to fly again. But I continued waiting, hoping for something better to come along. It never came; the boys had built their rockets too solidly! I gave up on capturing the explosion and took a quick break to urinate.

As luck would have it, I was in the middle of taking a pee with my back turned to everything when I finally heard a loud boom and raucous cheering. Richard Moore's rocket had exploded before even leaving the launch pad, and I missed it! Phooey. . . .

I stayed diligent after that, but the only eventful thing that happened was a race between Schultz and Aaron.




I became content with the lack of explosions, though. As darkness fell, the brightness of the boosters were what captivated me.



[off topic] You see those lights in the background? Those belong to a government munitions facility, or something. All I know is that they burn nerve gas there. 8-) [/off topic]

The Dutch oven master Gordon Daniels prepared us a hearty dinner of beef stew and rolls. Mmm . . . delicious! ^_^

Scott began building up a fart so powerful that it could only be known by one name: the Baron of Beef. We actually started a documentary on it. . . .



Unfortunately my battery became too low to take any more video after that. The conversation took a really interesting turn, too; I wish I'd gotten the footage! Basically Scott described that the fart was so strong that it would wipe out everyone in a hundred-year radius, to which I responded, "Whoa, so that could get all the kings of Egypt, huh? Like Abraham Lincoln, and Cleopatra, and Pocahontas, and. . . ." I went on for a few more seconds before we grabbed some raspberry and spice cake cobbler and joined the rest of our group around the fire.


Nothing ever beats sitting with the guys around a campfire. It's always been a favorite thing of mine, and always will be. We played balancing and slapping games, and in the more quiet moments we stared into the cosmos and pondered them aloud. With no city nearby, everything was clear; it was the first time I'd seen the Milky Way in a while, along with thousands of other stars we just can't see in the Valley. As we gazed at the heavens and watched countless shooting stars pass overhead, among many things we talked about eternity, and God's children on other worlds, and how they might be looking up at their own skies and wondering if we were out there. The stars and the campfire brought out all our deepest thoughts on numerous topics. If you ever want an incredibly engaging conversation, those are the only ingredients you'll need.

At length the time came for us to go to bed, and we made our way to our tents. The absence of the moon was our main item of discussion as we went; at midnight we still hadn't seen it. But that would change soon, for as we were settling down Lance looked out the window of our tent and stirred us up again with exclamation of a blood red moonrise. It was something that all of us had seen a few times in the past, but still caused great awe and wonder. Rising over the horizon and shadowed in a fashion that resembled a descending meteor behind the wispy clouds, an angry red moon finally greeted us in the desert. We continued an earlier conversation about the Second Coming over it, half joking, half serious.

"Gentlemen, tomorrow we are twinkled," I joked as I resettled in my sleeping bag. "Good night, my mortal friends!"

The photo doesn't even nearly do it justice, but it at least gives you an idea of the shade of red the moon wore.

Schultz and I stayed up a while longer watching funny videos on his iPod. Meanwhile the younger boys talked about who-knows-what, and before long the moon had become its friendly self again.

We had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon, and while we ate I played some chess against Aaron and Richard Lyon. Aaron toppled fairly easily, but Richard played a tougher game and nearly defeated me. My favorite victory has always been a close one.

We launched some more rockets, and since Scott's fuel cavity had been damaged the night before, he decided to take it all the way and stick three engines in the fins (they seemed to be built for engines) at once. It didn't explode like we hoped, but it flew pretty high and was still accelerating when it turned for the ground. The rocket survived, though . . . well, except for being bent at the middle. 8-)

As fun as the outing was, eventually we had to get home. We rolled Robbie in one of the tents, but since we couldn't get the dang thing into the bag with him in there, we had to let him come in the truck with us.


;-)

Rocket camp gallery

* * *

Now what would two weekends of adventure be without a second weekend? This past Saturday we drove up to Burley, Idaho, for our Frost family reunion. We changed venues this year, and for the first time I laid eyes on the peaceful Harris Pond. I was content just to sit by it and work on my writing, but I didn't get past the opening paragraph of Fugue before I finally started getting comfortable with all the relatives I never talked to any other time of the year.

As I was introduced to Aunt Lorna, she (like everyone else) asked me, "You graduated this year, didn't you?" I gave her my usual positive response to the question, not expecting to have to go into any detail. But then: "Top of your class, I'm sure!"

The extended family has always viewed me as a prime specimen of the Frost intelligence, plus cousin Ben had been his class valedictorian and therefore another Frost should have been. So I didn't know how to answer other than with laughter. "No," I played. "Actually, it was a close call."

Lorna, and those nearby who heard, gave a little, surprised laugh, thinking I was joking. But then I mentioned the fact that I was lazy and graduated on a loophole. They knew I wasn't joking now, but I didn't want to go into any more details; I'd enjoyed their praise of my intellect my whole life, and I didn't want to disappoint them. Thankfully my mom came to the rescue, saying, "Nathan's problem with school was that he focused so much on his extracurricular writing, which was better for him but he didn't get graded for. He's a great writer; he's worked on several books, and we hope for them to be published someday."

It worked. Aunt Lorna replied by saying she looked forward to seeing my writing published, and I escaped having to explain the conditions of my diploma.

Much to my comfort, Isaac showed up just before lunch, and he and I ate quickly so we could pilot a pedal boat. It was the first time for each of us, so we couldn't miss the opportunity. The boat was disappointingly slow and hard to steer, though. Still fun, but we preferred rowing a canoe.

We made a few adult onlookers laugh pretty hard when we tried pushing off and ended up tipping the canoe. Isaac ended up drenched by the incident, but somehow I escaped with the only wetness being below my knees. Talk about lucky! But Isaac got me back for it by steering my part of the boat into a fountain then keeping it there while I struggled to row away in the cold water. It was . . . invigorating, to say the least. ;-)

Isaac and I got to rowing strong and fast, and when I attempted to get video of us, my camera person couldn't keep up. So you don't get video of me canoeing. . . . I think you'll live. ;-) It was surprising to finally see how fast a canoe can actually go compared to someone running. But in our speed, my camera did manage to capture a still picture of us just before we got too far away:

As soon as we finished with the canoe, we went for the zip line that crossed the pond. At first Isaac and I rode together so he could drop into the water from above. It was pretty cool:



Then after another drop and a heroic photo, I flew solo.


The rest of the time, it was hard for me to actually get hooked onto the line. Because I knew what I was doing and was older than most of the second cousins, everyone kept thinking I was only on the tower to help people get strapped in. So every time I got to the top, someone would cut in front of me and ask for assistance. It was pretty annoying, but I kept my patience and gladly helped them, and they got to know me a little better through it.

After I finally succeeded in getting a flight in, a younger second cousin got stuck several feet away from shore. She struggled to get herself over land, but because she was so light, her progress was slow. Yet again playing the role of zip line assistant, I threw my harness to her. She caught it on the first throw, and with the other end in my hand, I ran with it and she flew to the end of the line faster than possibly anyone else had on their own. It was fun for both of us. :-D

I made several more trips up the tower, and on my last run another second cousin wanted to go with me so she could drop into the water. So I prepared the harness for two, but at the last moment my cousin decided to wait for her sister. I actually preferred going solo, so I wasn't bothered at all by it. Still, I hadn't taken into account that my preparation of the line had been for two riders, and my descent was the slowest it had ever been. I even got stuck near the end, but was able to get to shore with some effort.



Getting the pulley off the line was an adventure in itself, as it had detached and switched places with the carabiner. But I eventually got it off and got a good laugh out of it.

Near the end I became acquainted with my second cousins Tom and Ben. Tom reminded me strongly of Daniel Higham; it was crazy how close the two were, in both appearance and interests! And Ben had just graduated from Malta High, and had played violin in the orchestra there. So we had something to talk about. ;-)

At the end of the traditional raffle, we started home. Realizing that I don't get enough pictures of Utah's own beauty, when I go nuts with other places, I decided to snap a few shots of the Wasatch as we came closer to home.


I even got that fire in Farmington Canyon:


And of course, my "home" mountains, with Mount Olympus, Lone Peak, and the others (I forget their names :-P) standing high above the Valley:





So yeah . . . sorry I didn't really go into a whole lot of detail in this last part of the post. I'm really tired. But needless to say, the past couple of weekends have been a total blast. I've looked at the stars, run barefoot in the grass, played with explosives, and flown over a pond. Whether it's with friends or relatives, there's always a good time to be had. :-D