Atypical April:
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On Tuesday, just before the candlelight vigil, we were trying to figure out what to do with our week. Many suggestions were made, and many of them were eventually used. But when I suggested that we go camping, the unanimous and synchronous response was "OOOOoooh!" Mallory took these pictures, and she also came up with the name. Props to her for that. |
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I should back up a bit. Actually, I'll go back to Wednesday. Or maybe it was Tuesday. So, now for the long story part. Anyways, Res Life decided to have a meeting for all of the RAs, so there were no RAs anywhere on campus. Yeah, great idea, guys. We had talked to our RA people and decided that we would meet up with them to go off campus to eat some food sometime after their meeting finished up. On the way over, we were trying to figure out what we'd do for the rest of the week. Lots of suggestions came up, like DDR, cards, movies, and that sort of thing, but generally just the usual stuff until I said "Let's go camping." Everybody, almost simultaneously, replied "OOOOoooh." So that had kind of been in the back of my mind as we went on ahead and watched movies and went to eat and played DDR and that kind of thing. Then, on Thursday, I was talking to Jeremy about what kind of things he had to do for the next couple of days. I had known that Erin Rubin was volunteering to do duty in Ambler Johnston, and wanted to see if he had commitments that would prevent him from going camping. Around 3pm, he found out that that evening was the only day he could go. So I immediately snapped into crisis planning mode. I alerted the usual suspects that we'd be leaving in at four. I found a place (several, in fact) that we could go, and made sure that everybody had at least suitable equipment. Getting a car was kind of tricky, logistically, as none of the five of us who went had a vehicle. However, after moving some junk out of Erin Rubin's car's trunk, we were set to go. So it's been an hour, and we're going to Walmart for some supplies. Jeremy bought dinner (hot dogs) and breakfast (bagels and such), Mallory and Kevin bought snacks (S'mores and whatnot), and Julia and I went to go pick up nonconsumables. We got a tarp, a firestarter thing for 33 cents, stakes for Jeremy's tent, and some disposable ponchos. It was probably going to rain all evening, and I could tell that 60% of us had no rain gear, hence the 3 plastic ponchos. Also, we didn't have a stove so we had to be sure that we could start a fire in the rain for cooking, so that was what the firestarters were for. |
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We drove over to Mountain Lake, which was closer, though only by about 10 minutes. This venue was also in a position to make us come back and shower before visiting the Homeplace the next day. It was about a 1/4 mile hike to a good campsite. We set up our tarp to store our gear. Here, the guys come up with a plan of attack for the fire. and to slightly dry out the firewood, got a fire going, set up tents, and cooked hot dogs. It was an enjoyable evening. |
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You can see it starting! | |
| At the same time, the girls collected some firewood. Jeremy contemplated the great mysteries of life while Julia worked hard at breaking tree ribs. |  |
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The guys were called in to get a gigantic piece of wood from off in the distance, and returned triumphantly through the fog. | |
| And Julia promptly broke it in half, baseball style. |  |
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But in practically no time at all, we had a fire going and our tents set up. We cooked some surprisingly delicious hot dogs. | |
| The people who had decided to forego raincoats for the majority of the hike in dried out their stuff near/in the fire. Some people had crunchy socks after trying this. |  |
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S'MORES! | |
| It was best to not get too far away from the fire, partially because it was cold and partially because things like this would be waiting for you when you returned. |  |
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After it started getting late and raining again, we went inside and played cards. Fuzzy cards. | |
| Look, Kevin is almost smiling. What a remarkable occurance. |  |
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The generally agreed caption for this picture: "Fifth Wheel." Poor Jeremy. | |
| So he decided to become a mummy. |  |
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The fog really rolled in later in the evening. Flash photography was not particularly advisable. | |
| But hey, the next day was positively gorgeous. We hiked the remaining two miles to the War Spur Overlook. |  |
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There, we ate breakfast. | |
| Group photo! Yay. |  |
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