Scout Patch Collectors

Friday Scouting Hot Finds Newsletter July 29, 2016

All week I’ve been at the Twin Rivers Campground up in the mountains of NC. We’ve been tubbing down the river, swimming in the river and cooking up a storm. My kids have been in heaven and the real fun is this weekend when they expect more than 100 VW buses to be in for the finale of the High Country Bus Festival.

I’ve sorta had en epiphany up here that many of you can relate to. I have spent all week in the midst of a “tribe” of people. They have their own traditions, common memories, and ways of doing things. I spend about a half dozen weekends every year camping with the Scouts and they do the same with there VW community. It’s kinda of a fascinating anthropology experience to be in the middle of it.

Last night we walked down through the primitive area of the campground where the true believers camp out. I saw plenty of laughter around the campfire and at least one bottle of homemade spirits but didn’t smell anything funny in the air. It was a pretty family friendly crowd and my kids were passing out glow stick bracelets to the little ones in the campground.

So far I’ve retold the story of my 1967 VW Bus a few times. That doesn’t make me part of the club but at least I can fit in a bit. You can only have so many hobbies in life and maintaining a notoriously unreliable VW bus is an expensive one. I probably spent $6000 all together in my bus and sadly sold it on eBay in the end for about $900. We’ll see if I ever dip my toes in again but my rule of thumb for things like this is that sorta like the pets in our family. All of them have “found us” rather than us going and looking for them. So I figure that a bus will do the same if it’s meant to be. I could see myself trading Boy Scout patches for a bus if anybody on this planet is game for that deal.

CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE JULY 29, 2016 ISSUE OF THE SCOUTING HOT FINDS NEWSLETTER