On October 17th and 18th, Josh and I went camping with his Scout leaders, the other 11-year-old scout and his father. We went to an area about 20 miles south of Boulder City that had lots of boulders. Pictured above is our tent, next to some of the rocks.
When we arrived, it was already dark. We ate chili dogs and s'mores, and then we started exploring the rocks nearby. As Josh and I were coming down from the rocks, my flashlight caught something on the ground, just before I jumped down next to it. It was a full-sized tarantula, and it did not appear to appreciate our presence. It arched up, and looked ready to spring, so I didn't want to get too close to the tarantula, even though I needed to get close to get a picture. I didn't have my camera, so I had to use my cell phone to take this (grainy) picture.
This was the main part of our campsite, where we had our campfire and cooked. Josh is in the white shirt.
Here is another view of the campsite.
The first order of business in the morning was to rebuild the fire from the previous night. After the coals got going, we prepared a Dutch oven farmer's omelet, with bacon, sausage, eggs and hash browns.
After we ate and cleaned up breakfast, we did some scrambling on the boulders. Josh started low . . .
and finished high.
After some practice, we set our sights on some larger rocks. Our tent is in the foreground. You can see another party's tent at the base of the large rocks, which gives some sense of scale.
Here is a zoomed picture of the same rocks. From where we stood, it looked like an easy walk up to the top.
However, it turned out to be much more complex, as many of the boulders were just too large to climb without jamming. Since we were not comfortable with making 11-year-olds learn jamming into wedges without more safety gear, we had to search for ways up that they could do, or that we could help them get over.
Eventually, Josh and I made it to the top with one of his Scout leaders.
I tried to get Josh to jump high, to make it look like he was flying. I can't quite understand why he wasn't very enthused about leaving the ground.
Above is the view of our campsite (we took down the tents before climbing).
Behind Josh and to the left is the next set boulders that we climbed. It is actually much further away than it appears in the picture.
On top on those boulders were large tubs that had been hollowed out by rain water.
Josh was hiding in his tub.
Even though our second climb was much easier, it still proved to be a bit sticky in places. However, we had a lot of fun and nobody got hurt -- my definition of a successful campout.
Joseph is a happy boy in the new Corvette.
This is the 2010 Camaro. I don't know how true it is, but we were told that this is only the second auto show at which the new Camaro has been displayed.
Another angle of the new 2010 Camaro.
Josh looked like a good fit behind the wheel of the new Hummer H3T.
As if Hummer's don't stand out enough, they went with a bright orange on this one.
Josh was ready to take this Cadillac XLR home.
Joseph and Josh in front of a Rolls Royce Phantom.
From one of the most incredible cars in the world to the glorified Go-Kart known as the Smart Car. You know the car is small if these little guys look normal size in it.
This was probably the oddest vehicle of the show. The Jeep Treo is a concept vehicle
The rear of the vehicle tapers so that bicycles can be carried over the rear fenders. Strange!
