Thursday

Pinewood Derby Dream Car
Last night was the big PineWood Derby for our church Cub Scout troop.
I am not directly involved in the cub scout program, but I am trying to be supportive, so our family went to watch the excitement. And wow! was it exciting. The dads seemed every bit as nervous as the boys. They raced those little cars all evening. Most of the boys in Nathan's Boy Scout troop have little brothers in cub scouts, so they helped keep score for a while. I have never been to a pinewood derby before, and I had no idea it was such a big deal.

A couple of weeks ago we handed out these little wooden cars to the boys. They shaped them, and painted them until their cars looked just right. Last night the boys registered their cars - the cars were weighed, and given a number, then they raced them two at a time down a long track. Over and over again. One of the dads has an auto body shop, so his boys' cars were very shiny. The dad said that the paint is so heavy that he had to really carve down the cars to keep them in the right weight range.

I was most impressed by all the families there to watch. We had a gym full of people there just to watch some little cars roll down a track. And they stayed (and cheered) all evening. Nathan says his mom still has his grand champion pinewood derby car. It will be John's turn soon.