Entertained

Sometimes I laugh at myself.

This weekend was a huge campout for scouts in this area.  The Candy Bomber was going to make an appearance.  So I made sure all the camping gear was ready and we headed to the church.

I didn't recognize anyone but that didn't surprise me as they just called all new leaders in our ward.  We loaded all the gear in someone's car and it wasn't until the boys complained that none of their friends were there that I started to doubt myself.

There are two churches on this road so when the email said meet at the church on G I assumed it was the building we meet in.   Turns out it wasn't.  So we hurried to unload the car and raced over to the other building. We made it just as they were about to pray and pull out.

Except we were missing a ground pad.

So I tore back to the other building only to find that they were at the stoplight heading away from the building. I flipped around and followed them to the next light. They saw me and rolled down the window. I thought maybe they could pass it to me but they had moved things around and it was in one of the other vehicles.

So I figured I'd follow them and get it when they arrived AND then I could hand it off to my son.  Everyone was going to the same place anyway.  It was perfect. 

Except that 5 minutes later they pulled over on the side of the freeway.  So I pulled over in front of them too.  They piled out of their cars and I got out and went back to find out what was going on.  A seatbelt had broken in one of the vehicles and so they had to move some kids around.

In the meantime I recovered the ground pad and began jogging back across the gravel and rocks to my car with it tucked under my arm.  I laughed to myself and said "this is nothing like jogging on the beach".

Back in the car I decided to follow them to the campsite (I didn't actually know where it was) and then an unknown caller called. 

It was An Heritage #4.

"Mom?  Are you all right?"

"Sure"

"Was that you running on the freeway?"

I had to laugh again. All the scouts and leaders had seen me running down the side of the freeway.

Then I got to the campsite.  There was a long line of at least 50 cars waiting to get in.  And it was now dark.  I decided I wasn't waiting around and so I pulled over and parked.  I began walking past all the cars.   I finally passed the last one who was at the checkpoint getting directions and continued on. That truck pulled up and the driver rolled down the window and asked "do you want me to take that to your son?"

I responded "do you know who my son is?"

"Yes Sister.  I'm his scout master".

Sure enough, when I was close enough to see, it was indeed our ward's scoutmaster with all the gear and I laughed to myself again that they had witnessed me trudging down the road with a ground pad under my arm.

The next day when An Heritage #4 came home he hugged me and said "when I saw how much you did just to get me a ground pad I cried".