7/10/17

Currently my laptop is spazzing out. It does not like scrolling of any kind. Which I suppose may be God answering my prayer to keep me from bad Facebook habits. It is 9:30 PM now and it’s beginning to get dark. We’re all sitting around blogging. I’m supposed to tell you everything since we last posted. Wow. How?

I think it got up to about 85 today which was pretty warm but then it cooled off tonight.

We went to Lava Butte and a off-highway vehicle program director, civil engineer, fire ecologist, public relations official, and recreation manager. After that, they ran us to the top of the volcano. We had a total of ten minutes so we rushed very quickly. Me, Christy, and Mike got permission to stay up for another while. We walked the loop and it was really nice to get a view that no one else from our crew got.  We got back and saw the lunch that they provided. They made us hot dogs but what was really special was the cookies. That shows effort and closeness and I just really appreciate that demonstration of affection from the forest service. They were great.

              We got back and did some “geo-cashing”. It was a GPS race. We tied for second with two bags of candy. They got some pictures of me deep in concentration trying to find them before anyone else could. Mike, Jose, and Robyn were on my team.

After that we ate dinner. I think I fit a phone call in to grandma before that. And before that we went to take showers somewhere nearby. Me and Diana jumped off the dock that said “no swimming”. It was glorious. We got some good pictures. I’m happy that people are taking pictures of me without my attention. I like spontaneous pictures.

While we were eating, I sat with the high schoolers. I hadn’t bonded with them much at all by that point so it was uncomfortable. Christy stood up and said, “Our table was talking about this idea. “And so now we’re all standing up at dinner and sharing about our day.” Jay, sitting next to me said, “I am not standing up to talk.” She hoped that our table wouldn’t have to do it. Joel, I think is more confident and even he didn’t seem entirely game to do so. It came to our table, I briefly encouraged them. I see a light in each of the high schoolers. They are all so unique. I don’t think they’ll read this but I’m not going to share further until later in the trip.