Well, an explorer scout - explorers are affiliated with the Boy Scouts but are co-ed and limited to 14- to 20-year-olds [when you turn 21, you become an adult leader]. Our group [called a "post" in explorer scouts] is partners with a scouting group in Germany, where all scouts are co-ed but are separated instead by religion [you don't have to be, say, Catholic to be in a Catholic group, of course, but most are]. Every two summers, either the American scouts go to Germany or the Germans head to the US for about three and a half weeks of summer camp, hiking, host family stays, and, in Germany, a couple days each in three major cities [in the US, our major cities aren't close enough to do that, and we spend more time going out west for the hiking component].
This group has been a huge part of my life since I was about 13, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make any of the trip this summer, when the Germans came to the US - but the timing just worked out so I could meet them in Montana for the last couple days and then take the Amtrak back to Minnesota with them. It was, of course, a wonderful experience, like always, making new friends and seeing new ones again, speaking German for the first time in a while, constantly joking around, singing familiar campfire songs...
When I thought I wouldn't be able to be a part of the trip at all, I consoled myself by thinking, "Oh, that's okay, I'm getting to be a lot older than most of the kids, anyway, and I don't even live in Wisconsin or Germany anymore, so maybe it's time to end my affiliation." But, of course, just those few days reminded me of why it's been such a big part of my life and how much I love everyone involved, and I hope to be involved in some capacity for a long time still.
The view from the campfire at base camp.
Later that evening.
Preparing for the long journey to the Midwest [about 20 hours].
Watching the flatness go by from the observation car. I was really lucky, coming from Oregon/Washington - I got to see all the beautiful mountains. Between Montana and the Midwest, however, it's all just flat, so the rest of the group had seen flat flat flat on their outbound trip and were now seeing it again on the return trip.
For part of the trip, national park rangers rode along in the observation car to talk a little about what we were seeing.
Dane had decided ahead of time that he wanted to stage a rave on the train and bought glowsticks ahead of time. He didn't have speakers, though, and wasn't sure what to do about music - just have everyone listen to the same song on their individual mp3 players or something? Not ideal. Luckily, they didn't have it on the outbound trip, and I had just happened to buy a little travel speaker in Portland, so conditions were perfect on the return trip. Once night had fallen, we broke the glowsticks and turned the music on really low and raved quietly in our own car for a bit before raving on to the observation car and getting rowdy there. One or two of the other passengers even joined us. Oh, it was fantastic.
When we weren't raving, we killed time in a number of ways - reading, singing, sharing headphones to listen to music together, sleeping, playing cards, making bracelets, shootin' the breeze. A few of us had dinner in the dining car [another difference from Europe - you can't just show up, you have to make a reservation and wait your turn] and tried to convince the waiter that two of the guys [both about 17-19] were under twelve and Brian and I were their parents. He wasn't convinced, but he still let them order off the kids' menu. Good enough.
One of the other passengers in the observation car was going all the way to Washington, D.C., for Glenn Beck's rally. It was the first time I had actually heard a real live person spout bullshit Tea Party rhetoric, and it was just as gross as I'd expected.
From the Amtrak station in St. Paul, Minnesota, a few of us headed directly to the Mall of America, the second-largest mall in North America. It even includes the largest indoor amusement park in the US - known to us old-timers as Camp Snoopy, featuring Peanuts characters [complete with a kite-eating tree ride!], but it's now been bastardized into some Nickelodeon monstrosity - but it's still fun!
Patrick running for his life from one of our Germans.
Afterwards, we stopped in a park with a beautiful view of...um...some river. Probably the St. Croix?
Of course, we had to stop at that great American institution, WalMart, so Marie could load up on high fructose corn syrup-injected foodlike substances before the group returned to Germany the next day. [Disclaimer: I totally despise WalMart, of course, but sometimes it's just unavoidable.]
That evening we all gathered at Cheryal's to watch slideshows.
The most exciting stop at the Mall of America had been the Build-a-Bear workshop, where you choose, stuff, and dress your own stuffed animal. Here's the product, Preston, Jr. - they still need to get a car seat for him. [Please note his outfit. The Build-a-Bear clothes are relatively expensive, so we bought him clothes at WalMart. CLOTHES WITH BEARS ON THEM. We're so clever.]
The next day, we loaded up the car to head to the airport. I mean, really loaded. We had two Americans and three Germans, and all of us but Theresa had a lot of luggage [I still had everything I had been lugging all around the world]. We all had stuff under our feet and on our laps, and every once in a while we would have to make sure that Marie was still alive under her huge bag. It was a tearful goodbye, but it's also always heartwarming to see what strong bonds can be created between people from different parts of the world in such a short time.
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