DaddyDoc and I got our oatmeal water warming but before we got far, another Scout came through announcing that his father was cooking up pancakes for anyone and everyone who cared to share. Our boys grabbed paper plates from my supplies and ran over to Leader Dan's RV to collect some pancakes. They returned later with a stack for DaddyDoc as well. They still ate oatmeal but we were plenty full!
After breakfast, I sliced up a Hebrew National salami and a hunk of Trader Joe's dill havarti. By 10:45, with my baseball cap again in place, we packed ourselves into the CuteandPerkyMommyMobile and lined up with the rest of the Scout families. The pack caravaned out to Fort Irwin, about 30 miles from our campsite, for our day's adventures.
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Our very good friend who planned this weekend for the Pack had made a very special arrangement. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Center within Fort Irwin offers guided tours but usually only on weekdays. The contact at Goldstone arranged to come in on Sunday of President's Day weekend, Valentine's Day, to give our Pack families a tour! We first passed through security at the Fort Irwin main gate and then stopped further within the base to check-in with Goldstone's security office. Along the way we munched on our "picnic" of salami, dry salami, turkey, dill havarti, muenster, Triscuits, Wheat Thins and Trader Joe's Multi-grain crackers. I may have eaten some homemade macaroni salad that another family traded for some red velvet mini-cupcakes, but I'll never tell...
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One of Grandpa Rocket Scientist's projects that we know about.
Within Goldstone we saw several radio antenna sites which track (and have tracked,) spacecraft such as the Pioneer and Voyager, among many others such as an infrared telescope and the Mars landers. Our guide, Karla, showed us a presentation about how the antennae are built and showing some of the images the radio antennae have collected. We were able to purchase some souvenirs, too. On our last stop, we saw the control room which is monitored 24-hours a day.
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I could spend days posting about all the things we saw and learned, both about Goldstone and even some interesting stories about some of the Army training occurring at Fort Irwin.
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This is the Mars Station. This antenna is the biggest they have at 70 meters. On this day it was receiving data from an infrared telescope. That dish can rotate down completely perpendicular to the ground! The base rotates on an insanely thin layer of oil.
We returned to our campsite in the late afternoon. The boys begged to be spared showers. Once again VeryGoodFriends (the same friends who organized the campout,) offered me the use of their private, clean shower and I accepted. They extended the offer to Doc who also accepted.
Another friend (soon to be renamed the Enablers but I'm getting ahead of myself) came to me to make an offer. If he went to the nearby grocery store and purchased the missing ingredients, would I be willing to make the Dump Cake planned for the night before? Sure thing!
That night VeryGoodFriends, the Enablers and my families shared dinner. I made chicken enchilada casserole which DaddyDoc baked in our Dutch oven. DaddyDoc assembled the dump cake in the Enablers' Dutch oven. VeryGoodFriends grilled a brisket. The Enablers created amazing vegetable packets and also grilled steaks. And we shared dinner. We invited the rest of the Pack (those who had not already returned home anyway,) to join us around around a fire circle and share the dump cake... and s'mores.
As he had the night before, Doc briefly set up his telescope. Captain Stubborn fell asleep on my lap as I sat by the fire. But. It was getting really really cold. Again. We got everyone back to the tent and in our sleeping bags. It was much more humid on Sunday night and I think the thermarest pads must have rusted much faster than the previous nights because they were actually too hot against my body.
The next morning we started to pack when we woke up. I really wanted to keep packing so we agreed to skip oatmeal and just grab something from a drive-through on our way home. All weekend Mrs. VeryGoodFriend had offered us coffee which I never took but this morning I took our cups over to her trailer and said "Hey, do you have any coffee made?" I took coffee back to DaddyDoc and packed as much of the kitchen supplies as I could.
I don't like taking camp down. I have no patience for it. DaddyDoc and the boys generally do a pretty good job together. I took CS out of their hair and went back to Mrs.VeryGoodFriend's trailer. CS and his BFF (VeryGoodFriends' son,) got to play together while I sat in the trailer and talked to MrsVGF. She started one of several batches of French toast. Soon Mrs.Enabler was in the trailer with us. Mrs.Enabler and I supervised Mrs.VeryGood Friend and told her what a great job she was doing. In no time the Enablers, their children, all three of my kids and Mr.VGF, chowed down on French toast. DaddyDoc arrived, announcing that our car was packed and ready to go. Mrs.VGF presented us both with plates of French toast, too!!
Somewhere over the course of the weekend I realized, not that this was a new realization, but I have a village. You know - it takes a village to raise a child?
I already had villages in my life. We have the friends we met 12 years ago before we had Mr. Genius. They have been an amazing part of our village and continue to be. But now we have an even bigger village. Our village is expanding in wonderful ways. In more and more ways, our church family and Scouting friends are enhancing our lives.
That said, there's a reason they're called "The Enablers." And make no mistake, while "The Enablers" are also becoming our good friends, those "VeryGoodFriends" enable quite well themselves.
It's a tad scary how well our friends conspired. Even friends from that neighborhood of the village that does not camp...
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