Little Sahara Sand Dunes 2013

We made it to Little Sahara Sand Dunes again this year and had a blast!  I was able to take my "new" Suburban, and pull the scout trailer as can be seen below.  I got 13 mpg pulling the trailer.  Not as good as I had hoped, but pretty good when you consider I can have 9 people inside.

Once we got there and set up tents we played some football on the sand for awhile then had dinner.  Our typical dinner is to have everyone bring a can of stew, mix it all together and heat it up.  The troop provides rolls and something to roast over the fire for dessert.  The boys (on their own) have decided that Dinty Moore stew is the best, with the biggest chunks of meat, and it usually comes with a handy pop top so they don't have to use a can opener.

We had to deviate from the usual fire roasting dessert this time.  We have in the past brought Twinkies and roasted them over the fire.  They get carmelly and crispy on the outside and it's really quite good!  But since we couldn't get Twinkies right now, we decided to try Cloud Cakes from Little Debbie:

They were actually just about the same as a Hostess Twinkie, so our dessert tradition is preserved!
We didn't bring hot dog sticks, and there aren't any trees or sticks out there, so we got creative with our sticks, carving them out of slices of wood from the firewood:

They worked pretty well as long as you switched hands often so you didn't burn your hand.

We played capture the flag out in the dunes at night, and this time we moved the flags further away from each other and had the guards move further away from the flags and jails.  Sometimes we're too close together and people just stand around looking at each other instead of trying to get the flag.  This time there was a lot of sneaking around around sand hills and such to get to the flags.  It was a lot of fun!

Unfortunately the 4-wheelers thought that they owned the sand and kept driving right through the "field" even though they knew we were there, and there was tons of other places they could go.  Next time we'll try to go somewhere that is less of a 4-wheeler haven.

Suburban

For the longest time my biggest challenge has been to find drivers for campouts that require a truck and four wheel drive. One campout we borrowed 3 vehicles for the trip! I've wanted to get me a 4 door truck so I could haul 5-6 boys and haul a bunch of stuff in the back.
Last Fall we bought a scout trailer, and built shelves inside and stocked it up with our equipment, so now we mainly need something to haul boys and pull a trailer (4x4 required of course)
I finally bought myself a "scout mobile"! I bought a 2000 Chevy Suburban that seats 9 people! Is four wheel drive, and has the trailer hitch! Now I can haul nine people and a trailer! I've just simplified my camping tenfold!