Okay, here's a story. Thirty years ago yesterday, my expedition group -- 820M, meaning the 13th group to go out on August 20th -- left base camp at Philmont Scout Ranch for a week of hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevadas. Coming from central Indiana, the trip itself was almost as exciting as the destination. Our scoutmaster bought a new-used station wagon, with a camper-trailer, to get us there. The station wagon had an 8-track player, and the previous owner threw in one 8-track cartridge: Glen Campbell Live.
We made it as far as truck stop near Terre Haute, Indiana -- a little over an hour -- before the eight of us rioted. We pooled some of our spare trip money and bought CSNY's Déjà vu -- just released, and also in 8-track. We worked out a deal with our astonishingly patient scoutmaster: Every few re-runs of CSNY, we'd play Glen Campell. For 2500 miles.
Even so, it's a miracle he didn't throttle all of us. And I could be wrong, but I suspect that this might have been the cut, out of the whole album, that irked him most.
But I still love it. Big birds flying across the sky. Philmont was where I saw my first eagle.
1 comment:
I was at Philmont 40 yrs ago this summer. My recollection is that it was the Sangre de Cristo mountains in that area. It's quite a ways to the Sierra Nevada (California). We traveled on a school bus, no A/C or 8 tracks. Quite the experience.
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