The amazing race

Yesterday was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Making the car was a Daddy-Son project, which was fun for me to watch. It's hard for a Dad to not take over, and Ben did an admirable job of helping but not controlling. Paul's finished car was not aerodynamic, but it was his design and he liked it.



Considering that they had all come from the same kit, it was amazing how many different designs there were.



I especially liked this one, made by a friend of Paul who is a year younger. Do you think maybe Dad got carried away with that cool painting? Well, in any case, they were having fun at the Derby together, and that was neat.



The Pack had a very modern race track with nifty electronics that calculated race times and averages. Sometimes it didn't work right and the operators would have to get on the phone to tech support --overseas? someone joked -- and during the delays I admired the blue and gold tracks and colorful flags that made everything quite festive.







I'd like to tell you that Paul's car was a winner, or even that it was really fast. But it wasn't. He wasn't heartbroken; the clever adults arranged things so that the slower cars raced against each other and Paul won a heat. All the participants won a small trophy for something; Paul's was for the "Best use of glue" (referring to his use of Gorilla glue to fix his Lego driver to the car). After surveying the other cars, Paul proudly declared that he had "the tallest car."

His friend, Evan knew about aerodynamics and his car reflected it. Evan really wanted to win and Paul unselfishly cheered him on. Evan won the heat that they are cheering for in the above photo and right after I got this shot Paul gave Evan a big victory hug. There's no trophy that reflects the generosity of that moment.