(I was having trouble with my laptop yesterday, and didn't get this post up like I wanted to. The darn piece of technology has decided to cooperate with me today.)
Every year right after Christmas, David and Joshua get to work right after on the Pinewood Derby car. For those of you who are not Scout savvy, most Cub Scout Packs have Pinewood Derby every year. Basically, it's a race with wooden cars. All the boys get an official Pinewood Derby car kit that includes a block of wood, 4 wheels, and 2 axles. The wood is cut, sanded and painted to look anyway you'd like. The wheels are sprinkled with powdered graphite to make it run as fast as possible on a long wooden track. Sometimes lead weighs are strategically placed in the underside to make it go faster, but the overall weight of the car cannot exceed 5 ounces.
The biggest decision to make is the design. Joshua is a Pokemon freak, so he had a Pokeball on his car (as did last year's car). The "boys" spend a good number of hours out in the garage working on the car. Not to be outdone, David helped Rebecca make one too. Siblings are allowed to race a car, but they're not awarded any trophies.
The race was this past Sunday at a neighborhood clubhouse. We had a lot of great looking cars this year; there were several hot rods, a batmobile, a police car, a transformer car, a tank, and a speed racer. Check 'em out!
This year, the Derby got off to a slow start. The whole race is run by computer software and so are the timers. Well, the grownups couldn't get the software to run properly, and David had to make a run to Walmart to by stopwatches. Thankfully, the finish line clock was running fine, otherwise the times would have been calculated manually as well. But finally, the heats got started, and I got plenty of great pictures.
At one point, Gabriel found himself surrounded by some female admirers...he didn't seem to mind :-)
READY...SET...
After the rank placements were announced (Joshua won first place in the Bear's rank!), the last heats were run for the Grand Champion. David hurried outside to brush more graphite on the wheels of Joshua's car (this is the only time you're allowed to do maintenance on your car unless you have a major repair to fix).
BTW, I think David looks awesome in his Scout uniform (he's on the left). Did I mention he's an Eagle Scout (and both of his brothers are too?) No wonder his whole family is Boy Scout crazy...
Everyone held their breath while David and 2 other Den Leaders calculated the times.
Here's a picture of Joshua getting his trophies :-) He got one for first place in the Bear Rank, and one for Grand Champion (first place overall).

Congrats Josh - that is awesome!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Joshua!
ReplyDeleteI love the pokemon ball on back! Super cute! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteHow did you get the pokeball to sit down in there? Did the car have any weights on it?
ReplyDelete