Day 4: Carlsbad Caverns
Hey Family and Friends, we have done group changes and your
bloggers are now the Dopey family, which includes, Ava G., Brice M., Carter C.,
Sawyer M., Abby J., Reece G., Ford G., Kayley S., Grace B. Mackenzie B., and Toula
L.
We woke up to the wonderful sound of the Kidz Bop version of
Taylor Swifts 22, in honor of our counselor, Julia’s, 22nd birthday.
Dallas was kind enough to let us sleep in till 5:15 am this morning because we
got out of Fountaineblue State Park early, wahoo! Today we drove through Texas
to New Mexico. This trip took a total of
9 long hours. Along the way, the new cooks, the Grumpys, served us two great on
the go meals and the bus got to listen to Luke S.’s new podcast (Luke's Lowkey
Logic or L.L.L. for short) for over half the trip. He told the bus a ton of crazy
life stories about himself and his friends. The whole bus now believes Luke
could be a stand up comedian because of how long he stood at the front of the
bus making every one laugh.
After the bus ride was over, we had arrived at the Carlsbad
Caverns and got to see these absolutely stunning caves full of stalagmites and stalactites.
Before we went into the Caverns through the natural entrance, Scout S. and
Madaline F. gave their research on the Caverns and the state of New
Mexico. As soon as we entered, we had to
be extremely quiet due to the echoing of the caverns. This was harder for some of us more than the
others. The sights of the Caverns were
so amazing that the counselor Madi accidentally took two groups on a longer
tour of the Caverns (even though Carter C. tried to correct her and let her
know that Dallas clearly told us “Don’t take the long version!”). In the end
two groups may have walked an extra .2 miles but it was absolutely worth every
second. We all made it out safe and
sound to the gift shop where a few of us bought some souveniers!
We are staying at the New Mexico Military institute and finally getting to sleep outside (yay!). We learned a lot about NMMI from Corbin A. who had this as his research. Piper S. also presented her research after we arrived on the UFO’s of Roswell, NM. Once we got to our campsite for the night, we split into our groups to knock out our duties for the night. As soon as those were finished, some of us played soccer while others just hung around until dinner was ready. Tonight we get to hang our Enos for the very first time and the whole trip is very excited not to be sleeping on hard gym floors. While some prefer the hammocks, others slept on the ground. The new cooks served a wonderful meal of Mac & Cheese and hotdogs along with some watermelon for their first time cooking dinner. Abbi and Harlee’s favorite part about dinner was the amazing sugar cookies that we got for dessert. To end the night, we ended up doing another beautiful sing along with the whole group. Trust us when we say our screeching, I mean singing, is truly something spectacular! Due to a quick sprinkle of rain, we had to move this indoors so the guitars would be safe, but as soon as we came out to go to bed the rain had stopped, the wind had picked up and it had cooled down. We finally settled in to bed and most of us got a great night’s sleep despite being woken up at 1 am by a nearby train. Tomorrow will be a long driving day, but it will all be worth it because we get to see the Grand Canyon for the first time!!!
That’s all for now.
Snooze Cam Vol. 3:
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| Piper S., Kayley S., Mackenzie B., and Lindy N. |
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| Kenna M. snoozes away |
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| Caleb B. |
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| Kennedy M., Allison D., and Kathryn C. pose with Abbi J. |
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| Lauren H. snoozing outside the Caverns |
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| Luke's Lowkey Logic (L.L.L.) |
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| Riley H., Ava G. and Kayley S. |
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| We made it! |
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| We were told to pretend to be bats |
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| The park ranger explaining the ecosystems of the Caverns to us |
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| Scout S. telling us about Carlsbad Caverns |
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| Madaline F. sharing her research on the state of New Mexico |
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| The natural entrance to the caverns |
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| The whole group about to head in! |
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| "The Boneyard" |
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| Trevor P., Jon G., Lyndon G., Landon R., Brice M., Riley H., Grace B., Kayley S., Ford G., and Harlee A. |
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| Riley H. and Ford G. draw some inspiration from Titanic |
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| Mackenzie B., Toula L., Scout S., Adam D., Carter C., Fiona R., Kennedy M., Matt F., Sawyer M., and Miller P. |
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| Scout S. |
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| Piper S. telling us about the UFO's |
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| Corbin A. telling us about the New Mexico Military Institute |
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| Jackson poses in his hammock |
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| Amber and Madelyn hangin' |
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| Katie, Mary Catherine, and Luke |
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| Bryson getting ready for the sing along |
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| The grumpy group cooking up some good dinner |
