Like the Hos, most Jamboreers accepted me into their midst like one of the family, prods and jabs being part of some new member

The next morning the parking lot was almost as full as the cafeteria style restaurant. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

hazing ritual, and wished me well as I picked up my dirty mongrels, smiled at my new friends and found my way back to the lodge.

The next morning the parking lot was almost as full as the cafeteria style restaurant, sequestered by the Jamboree officials for stuffing silly a couple hundred hungry adventurers. After a thoroughly engrossing meal my partner, Kaden, and I, wandered downstairs for a route briefing and some tread lightly talk - "Tread Lightly" is a global program designed to motivateoff-roaders to stay on the trail and respect the surrounding foliage and wildlife... kind of a boy scout approach to bushwhacking. It's a good idea though, so we all vow to adhere to the rules of the road... or should I say trail.

Those who had shown up the previous day had the opportunity to take part

Those who had shown up the previous day had the opportunity to take part in Jeep 101, a remedial class for novice off-roaders. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

in Jeep 101, a remedial class for off-roaders. I was late as usual, choosing instead to take my family to Dinotown, a Fred Flintstone-like cartoon dinosaur park just outside of Chilliwack, BC, where the kids could frolic to their hearts content and mom and dad could enjoy paddling flat bottomed scows around a shallow makeshift river, pushing four-passenger fiberglass pedal cars that were too heavy and cumbersome to pedal round a rail-guided roadway, climb giant, multi-coloured fiberglass dinosaurs, dig in heat-soaked burning sand for metal dinosaur bones, take the tractor-powered dino-train four or five times around the facility, and eat hamburgers and fries on the grass in 80 degree heat among other beleaguered looking parents. But really, it was fun to see the kids having so much fun, so the day at Dinotown and being late for the Jamboree was all worth it.