I Win!

We have been taught a game similar to badminton called badtommy. We named after Mr. Tom, who we met while staying in the Tetons. You use rackets and a shuttle cock to try and get points and the first person to get to eleven points, or two more points than your opponent, whichever is more. Instead of a net you use a stick on the ground, and you have to volley before anyone can score after each serve. One of our old rackets broke and our shuttlecock is falling apart, so we just bought some new ones. We used to use cheap plastic beach rackets, but now we use cheap metal badminton rackets. Aleah greatly prefers the old rackets, but only one is unbroken and we don’t expect it to last long, so she’ll have to get used to it.

Normally we play in the road, but in this spot there is a nice grass lawn to play on. It’s not really big enough to run around in, but it’s a nice size for badtommy. We also used to have a really nice stick we stole from the Tetons, but someone in the Yellowstone campground stole it because Aleah and I forgot to put it back in the truck, so now we use a broom handle. If you spike it in front of your opponents feet there’s no points, and if you hit it out of bounds your opponent gets a point.

Aleah often tries using her left hand against me to practice, but she always gets crushed, of course even when she uses her right hand I usually beat her. Badtommy is definitely one of the best things to do around the campground.