Soap Box Derby

At the end of summer I took my boys to the Valley Wide Recreation Center for a treasure hunt. Daniel won the grand prize, a $150 Soap Box Derby car kit and the $50 entry fee. We of course were so excited and I immediately called my Dad to see if he could step in for Johnny (since he is working in Nevada right now) and build the car. I figured it was no big deal to put the kit together. Boy was I naive! The kit included many building materials, but not nearly everything we needed. We had to get tires, seat, all parts for the outer body, etc. on our own.

My Dad worked with Daniel almost every evening and went to building clinics with him every Saturday for over a month. Once the body, breaks, steering mechanisms and roll bar were all installed we paper mached it over Labor Day weekend when Johnny was home.

Once the paper mache dried it was sealed with a few coats of fiberglass resin and wallpaper mud to make it smooth. Lots of love and patience plus a little heartbreak went into this baby!

 On Friday there was a car inspection and Saturday my Dad picked Daniel up at 5:20am. I loaded up the other kids, grabbed my mom, and headed to the races.

 All the different cars were awesome. Every one was different. Some were made with tin or cardboard, others with wheel barrels, one was made from an elderly person's walker! Some were professionally finished with custom paint jobs, yikes! The nicest were not necessarily the fastest.

 
Daniel was in the second race, went tearing down the hill, lost control, flew across the track and hit a hay bale! It was thrilling and terrifying at the same time. I have a video but for some reason it won't load. Bummer! I knew he would be safe because the car was well built, had a roll bar, and a solid frame. He had done a break test on a smaller hill but this hill was large and fast. His helmet was not tight enough and went over his eyes. After his crash he was perfectly fine but very scared. After two hours waiting in the blazing heat and convincing him to try again we loaded his car on the starting block and he had a complete melt down. He was too scared to try again.

At first I was completely frustrated. I couldn't get past all the time and effort (and $$$) we put into this for him. I didn't want him to quit. It was one of those times when I wanted him to have courage, be brave, and rise above his fear. He was not inspired and was in no mood to be brave.

I was so disappointed in him until my parents reminded me of my ski accident. They paid for me to have a snow ski lesson when I was a little older than Daniel, I was maybe 9 or 10. They rented all the gear and paid for my lesson with my sisters. I went down the slop once, completely panicked, crashed into a tree, and have never been on snow skis again my entire life. I talked to Daniel about my experience and how I could relate to the way he must have felt. He didn't have any other practice runs besides his break test. I understand now and hope that he and I can both grow from this experience. He now wants to practice and try again next year.