The End of an Era--Pinewood Derby

The last Pinewood Derby--Garrett's car is in the red lane

I have four sons that have gone through Cub Scouts.  Four sons means a whole lot of Pinewood Derby cars.  Tyler and Haydn I think both got to race two times, but Rhys and Garrett both got to race three times.  That means somewhere between ten and eleven cars over the years. 

As a Cub Scout Father, I've tried to make fast cars.  Tried and failed.  Sometimes our cars win heats, but we've never won or placed in the overall meet.  So we default to cool cars instead.  We tend to have the coolest car in the meet.

Garrett wasn't going to be able to have a third Pinewood Derby, except that my trip to Milwaukee last month meant they put off his Arrow of Light ceremony until this month so he was still able to compete.

I asked him to design a car, then we went over his design and made some refinements.  He initially wanted a car with a single central fin on it.  I had seen a small cliplight at the Dollar Store and thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a car with headlamps?"  I pitched the idea to Garrett and he said, "What about rocket boosters too?"

We went over to my office where I have some tools and some access to other tools and crafted the Pinewood Derby.  I allowed Garrett to use some of the tools, and when Rhys found out, he was a bit indignant because I had never allowed him to use the bigger tools.  I was very careful and taught him proper safety protocols before letting him use the tools.

Garrett at the bandsaw.  Note the safety glasses

Garrett shaping with the Dremel Tool.  Note the safety glasses

We got the car shaped and the ports ready for the headlamps and rocket boosters (which turned out to be cool beads) then we went home for the night.

Since Garrett was still in school and I had the week off in between semesters, I worked on the car during the day and had Garrett come and help me finish when he got home from school.

My office is about a hundred yards away from the US Post Office and periodically through the day I'd go and weigh the car.  We had a 5 ounce limit and no matter what I'd do, it seemed like the car was too heavy.  I'd cut and sand and drill until I came just under weight.  This was the first time in the history of the Benson boys and their Pinewood Derby's that we didn't have to add weight.  By the time we were done, we weighed in at 4.9 ounces, fully loaded.  That was enough.

When Garrett came to help me, the car was still too heavy and I drilled and chiseled a little more and he sanded.  Finally, when we knew we were under weight, we glued in all the pieces, added the wheels and painted the rig.

I cut the end off a clear plastic spoon and used the bowl part as a domed windshield.  It just looked cooler that way.  Here are a few pics of the finished car.

The Steampunk Pinewood Derby

With headlamps

The evolution of Garrett's Pinewood Derby's--The left was built for speed, the center was built for cool and the right was built for over the top!

As you can see, ours was the coolest car of the bunch

We have a man who is a Pinewood Derby enthusiast in the area and he has a really hi-tech track.  This one has sensors at the end that are hooked up to a computer and he can tell several things at the end of the race.  He can tell who won, he can tell how fast the cars were going (in scale).  His computer also ranks the cars and establishes heats based on speeds and times which makes each race more exciting rather than having one car outpace all the others, he groups them based on performance after the first heat.  It makes for a much more enjoyable night.  Each racer got to race eight times and each racer got to run twice on each track.  Just to make sure that the track wasn't corrupted I guess.

He runs Pinewood Derby events from Pocatello to Ashton.  He has quite an investment in equipment and he doesn't do it for free, but he is well worth whatever it is he charges.  This year he added sound effects.  He has the system down and it's well organized.  Pleasant time all around.  Makes me kind of sad that I won't have to be building anymore Pinewood Derby cars with my boys.

Garrett didn't win any heats and didn't place in the overall event, but his car did max out at 172 mph (in scale).  The record for that track was 194 mph, by the way.

When the race was over, the exhibition race began.  He put his loop the loops in the track and anyone with a car was allowed to run.  They call it the legends race.  Several of the boys brought some of their previous Pinewood Derby cars with them and ran them down the track.  We take the Pinewood Derby very seriously here in Idaho.

Giving instructions to the racers

I like this picture.  Garrett at the races

Heading to the finish line

"Gentlemen, start your engines"

The race begins--Lane yellow

The home stretch

Streaking to the finish line

Crash and burn at the exhibition race

After the races and awards were given, Pack Night became more serious and the scouting awards were given.  This was Garrett's last pack night and he was ushered into the Boy Scouts.  We have a ceremony called the Arrow of Light where the boy is given an arrow in blue and yellow, the Cub Scout colors and commits to living a clean and productive life.  We then exchange the neckerchief from the Weblos to the Boy Scouts.  I got to change the neckerchief.  It was a great honor for me.  Then the boy crosses over a symbolic bridge from Cub Scouts to the Boy Scouts.  At that time, the Scoutmaster then instructs the boy as to what is expected of him as a Boy Scout.

It's really a grand event.  I was really proud of my son.

I wasn't blogging when my other sons went through all this, and so I wish to dedicate this blog post to all my sons.  Know that I felt the same feelings for each of you when you advanced.

Garrett being presented with his last Cub Scout awards

The neckerchief ceremony

Crossing over the bridge

Being inducted into the Boy Scouts

This was a great night.  The passing of an era.  I'm kind of sad that I won't have anymore Pinewood Derby's to build.  I didn't think I would be, but I am.  I got a little choked up last night.

For me, I think I was looking backward but Garrett is looking forward.  I'm proud of him.

Halloween is my Busiest Month of the Year

In 2012, I started the month of Halloween out with a bang.  The first weekend of the month I was invited to present at the ISATA conference which is the Idaho Speech Arts Teachers Association.  I had presented to them the year before and was invited back.  The conference was in Sun Valley, Idaho and I presented how to make "Magical Tomes". 

I did it as a "cooking show" style of presentation where I had several books in various stages of completion and performed the next step on them so they could see the entire process and I didn't have to wait for dry time.

Crafting a book at Sun Valley, Idaho

One of the finished books from the conference

When we were done with the conference, my wife and brother and I visited Craters of the Moon National Monument since it was on the way home.  It's only natural.  I have always been a geology groupie.

Spatter cones at Craters of the Moon

The next week I spent in Washington DC and Virginia with a couple of colleagues, doing research for an upcoming play.  We were going to do an original play called "First Freedom", but the playwright was too possessive of the script and wouldn't allow adaptations we wanted to make to evolve the show beyond it's current form.  We viewed it as a workshop piece, he viewed it as a finished piece.  We are doing "She Stoops to Conquer" in that slot instead.  The research wasn't in vain, as both shows take place in the same time period, albeit one in England and the other in America.

Historic Williamsburg, Virginia

Cool shadows in Washington DC

While we were at the National Archives I happened to see a "Green Man" in the bark of a tree.

The Green Man

I obsessed about the Green Man on the way home and decided to make a book cover about him.  I did this the next week after I returned home.

The Green Man Book

I returned home just in time to host my annual Zombie Walk

Thriller at the Zombie Walk

Brrraaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnsssssssssss

We gave out Zombie Awards that I had made.  They were zombified Barbies, Kens and GI Joes attached to some old fence wood.

Award for the Best Thriller Zombie

The next week we opened a show called "Bielzy and Gottfried" which I had been the scene designer for.

Scene design for Bielzy and Gottfried

The Devil, entering from the Hellmouth in Bielzy and Gottfried

Then I opened the Halloween Concert, for which I have no pictures, sadly.  We did it as "A Halloween Carol".  You can fill in the rest.  I was the costume coordinator and the properties master for that show.

The Saturday before Halloween, I assisted my wife in hosting our annual Halloween party.  We rent a ballroom in town and decorate it for Halloween, then we dance, talk and eat.  What else is there to do at a party?

Our friend Laurent at the Halloween party

Throughout the month of Halloween, in-between all the other things I was doing, I finished my wife's Witches Kitchen set which was set up inside our home for the trick or treaters.

Witches Kitchen set

The Hot Chick in costume on the Witches Kitchen set

Like I say, Halloween is the busiest month of the year.

Heisey, Athena--Double Branch Candlesticks

Pair of Heisey, Athena Double Branch Candlesticks

About a year ago I was in a thrift store and came across this pair of candlesticks.  Each one selling for $1.50.  I knew they were special and picked them up immediately.

I went home and researched them online.  I have a few sources for research which include Replacements LTD, Ebay and the ever faithful Google.

On Google, I used an image search for the terms double branch candlestick, and double light candlestick.  Searching in this way leads to hundreds of thumbnail pictures of anything that has the entire search phrase or parts of it.  Typically the image I am looking for will appear within the first hundred thumbnails.  I click on the image links and follow them to the page to learn about the pattern and the manufacturer.

Most often these picture links will lead to people who are trying to sell the glass online and so there's a starting place to assess the value of the items.

From there I go to Replacements LTD to assess the real value.  Replacements LTD is a company that specializes in glass and tableware for the collector and have perhaps the largest inventory of original glass on the planet.  I believe them to be the best indicator of the real value of the pieces.  Of course assessing the value is all academic to me because I'm a collector, not a seller.  Still, it's nice to know.

This pair of candlesticks were made by the A. H. Heisey Glass Company in the Athena pattern between 1943 and 1948.  This pattern was made for sale through Montgomery Ward stores and catalogs. They measure 4 3/4" tall, 7 1/2" wide, with a base that is 5 3/4" in diameter.  The cups are ribbed to hold the candle in place better and there are no maker's marks on them. 

I am an enthusiast, not an expert on glass so I don't pretend to be able to assess the quality or condition of the pieces, but my layman's eye only finds two small scratches on the base of one of the pieces.  When I run my fingertips over the edges of the piece and the mold seams I find no irregularities or chips or nicks.  Whoever donated them to the thrift store had used them but not heavily because there is a little wax residue left in the cups and small bits of melted wax here and there.  Otherwise they seem perfect to me

.Replacements LTD places the value of a pair of these candlesticks at $149.95.

Housekeeping

Friends, I've been away from the blog for quite awhile.  I'm ready to get back on the horse.  I'm not going to elaborate except to say that life got in the way of blogging for awhile.

While I was actively blogging the last go around, it became apparent to me that my hobby blog was becoming overwhelmed with travel posts, so I spun that off with a separate blog which you can link to here:

http://bascombestravelblogue.blogspot.com/

On the travelblogue I created an archives tab where I linked all the travel posts from this blog to that.

It also became apparent that I was going to have some career stuff to blog about that didn't really fit with my main blog and so I spun off two others, one for my theatrical designs and the other for theatrical props.  Those can be found here:

http://garycbenson.blogspot.com/

http://proprageous.blogspot.com/

There are a few posts among these two that will be appropriate for this blog and vice versa.  I will link them together as they occur.

It is my hope that this blog will continue to be a hobby blog, not that I treat it as a hobby, but use it to chronicle my many hobbies.

My major hobbies are Halloween, gardening, rock collecting and glass collecting. I have many minor hobbies and sometimes they become major hobbies for awhile and then go back to being minor hobbies.  I'll chronicle those when they start consuming my time again.

In the near future, I'll be using this blog to catalog my depression glass and other types of glass collection.  Thought you should know.

Notice: Spinoff Blog

When I began the Bascombe Mania blog, it was my intention to discuss my hobbies, and especially my addiction to all things Halloween.  Recently, it has become more of a travel blog rather than a hobby blog.

For this reason I am spinning off Bascombe's Travelblogue where I will dedicate the entire site to my outdoor adventures.  Here's the link:  http://bascombestravelblogue.blogspot.com/

I will begin posting more Halloween items and other hobby things on this site very soon.  I'm working on a skeleton hand how to that I hope turns out well.

Thanks,
Gary

How I Spent My Summer, 2012 Part V: Travelogue, Darby Canyon and the Wind Cave

Rhys and me at the Wind Cave

My son Rhys spent a week up at Treasure Mountain Boy Scout Camp.  Last year, when he was there, we hiked Table Rock together.  This year, the hike was to be the Wind Cave in Darby Canyon.  Darby Canyon is a glacial valley in the greater Teton area.  I don't know if it is actually in the Teton Range, but it's a next door neighbor if it isn't.  The Wind Cave is a water carved cave through dolomite.  Somewhere in the miles of cavern is another entrance which allows a brisk wind to blow through.

In 1951, a group of girls from Iona, Lincoln and Idaho Falls were camping at the Darby Canyon Girls Camp and chose to hike to the Wind Cave.  It was an overcast day and after playing in the cave for awhile, they came back to where they had stashed their lunches and began to eat.  As they were eating, lightning struck nearby and some of the camp leaders shouted for the girls to go to the open field and lie down while others told them it would be safer for them to hide in the trees.  Before anyone could really move, another lightning bolt crashed into a tree that some of the girls were huddled under.  Accounts say that girls were flung through the air up to a hundred feet.  Two of my aunties were there and one was knocked unconcious and the other was badly burned.  Four girls and one leader lost their lives that day.  A memorial was placed near the site where the unfortunate incident happened.

Memorial to the ones lost

When my boys go to camp, I like to take a day and spend with them if I'm available.  Lately I've tried to go with them on their hikes.  I was excited to go to Darby Canyon with them.  I had only been there once before and had only gone as far as the memorial.

We met at the trailhead at about 7 AM which meant I had to leave home no later than 5:30.  I drove through the Teton Valley and arrived a little early.  When the boys arrived, we spent a few moments getting ready and then we embarked.  I've discovered that each hike I go on takes on a different characteristic.  This one ended up being all about wildflowers.  I was absolutely amazed at the abundance of wildflowers in the canyon and the many different varieties.  There were many varieties I don't believe I have ever seen before.

Leaving the house at first light

The Teton Valley at first light

The trailhead

Images at the trailhead

Images at the trailhead

Images at the trailhead

Images at the trailhead

Our troop at the trailhead

The trailhead lies at 7069 feet above sea level and over the course of 2.6 miles gains about 1800 feet in elevation.  The elevation gain is masked by the fact that the trail switches back and forth frequently so even though there is significant gain, it is really a moderate hike.  It is a very pleasant hike, even for someone like me who is out of shape and has bad knees.

At 8940 feet above sea level, the hike isn't quite alpine, but close.  The trail is forested for most of the way but further up the trail, it breaks out into sub-alpine meadows strewn with wildflowers.  There is evidence of glaciation everywhere, from the U-shaped valley to glacial outwash and deposits to striations on the rocks. 

The valley is fairly narrow where the trailhead begins and there is a giant boulder that has either fallen from above or dragged into place by the advancing glaciers.  Rhys called it the "tent rock" because of it's shape.  The vegetation and thick undergrowth everywhere reminded me at once of the Jenny Lake Trail we went on last summer in Grand Teton National Park.

The "Tent Rock"

The "Tent Rock" from above

Cool rock in the canyon wall

Lush undergrowth

Rhys is usually a very fast hiker and last year he summitted Table Rock a full two hours ahead of me.  This year, he hung back and hiked with me.  Also in our group was my dear friend, Christan Airth and Rhys' friend Kyle. 

Along the way, there are a few huge boulders still clinging to the side of the valley, left over from the periods of glaciation.  There is great water erosion marks on the tops of the boulders.  Those flat boulders offer great views of the valley and the first views of the Wind Cave.  On one of the boulders, one of the boys spotted what he thought was a wild turkey, but as I looked at it, I thought is was a sage grouse.  I photographed it and identified it online when I returned home and found we were both wrong.  It was a "dusky grouse" male, which is a species I had never heard of before.  When I got close, the bird fanned it's tail, inflated it's body to make it look bigger and thumped it's air bladders and made a 'threatening' sound.  It was very cool.

Rhys and Christian on the trail

Boulder on the side of the canyon

Erosion patterns in the top of the boulder

First view of the Wind Cave

The "wild turkey" on the boulder

Closeup of the dusky grouse

We crossed a beautiful sub-alpine meadow filled with wildflowers before we reached to last part of the forested trail to the Wind Cave.  The last hundred yards or so are the toughest of the hike, the elevation gain is quite steep.  There are stairs there, however but I'm not sure if they were placed or naturally occuring in the rock.  At the base of the summit, the trail splits off to the bottom of a waterfall and the other side goes to the brink of the falls and finally the Wind Cave.  We played around at the base of the waterfall then we hiked into the cave.  It is quite a cavern.  The ceiling has collapsed over time and coverd over the creek that flows under the rubble.  Rhys thought that was extremely cool to be walking over the scree and hear the water flow underneath.

We spelunked back into the cave to the point where it narrows and I stayed there and let Rhys and his friends explore beyond.  It felt too small for me to get through with my camera.  Next time, however I will go deeper into the cavern.  Right at the narrows, the wind is the strongest and very cold.  Next time I go, I will definitely take a jacket for this part of the hike.

The sub-alpine meadow just before the summit

Christian, Rhys and Kyle just before the summit trail

Glacial striations in dolomite on the trail

Sub-alpine meadow

View of waterfall and Wind Cave just before the summit

This picture makes me feel peaceful

The valley from the base of the falls

Rhys and Kyle

Rhys and Kyle under the falls for a sense of scale

Waterfall through scree going up to the cave

Lots of moss

I just liked this picture

Rhys and chums at the narrows

Rhys in the cave

The troop at the waterfall

When we were done with the hike, we went back to the scout camp.  This is the same scout camp I attended when I was a boy.  There is a giant boulder in the center of the camp that is now called Chief Rock.  When I was at scout camp it was called Eagle Rock.  When I was there, only people who had attained the rank of Eagle Scout were allowed to stand on it.  I hadn't been an Eagle when I was at scout camp so I never did.  Some of my troop mates did stand on it without getting their rank however.  Today, the requirements for standing on Chief Rock are different than when I was a scout.  They aren't tougher, by the way but more reasonable for someone attending.  I went to the camp counsellors and asked them if I could stand on Chief Rock under the old standards and they agreed.  This has been something on my bucket list for 36 years.  I scratched it off.

Me standing on Chief Rock, scratch an item off the bucket list

This post has become too long and I still have more material, namely all the wildflowers to show, so I am going to add a part II to this blog post that will be dedicated to the wildflowers I saw on this hike.  There were so many and they were so pretty that they deserve their own blog post.  I will add it at a future date.

This was a great day, from spending the day with Rhys and our friends to hiking up to the Wind Cave, to standing on Chief Rock.  I very much enjoyed my time in Darby Canyon.  Christian said that we needed to find a time when we could take our wives up to this cave.  I agree.  I will hike here again.  Now I'll leave with a parting shot of the Tetons in the afternoon from the same position I photographed them that morning.  Enjoy

The Teton Range in the afternoon from the same vantage point