Day 4: Carlsbad Caverns
GREETINGS, WECOME IN PEACE! Dopey's here just messing around in the one and only SCORCHING ROSWELL, NM! ROLL CALL: Seth Enzor (Spiderman), Abby McClenathen (Abs), Brynn Laney, Avery McAllister, Benjamin Arnold (Ben aka the Harmonizer), Kallie Abbott, Rhean Smith (ReaRea), Izzy Nishek, Ella Sanders, Sophia McGee, Barrett Huffstetler, Lawson Howser, Tucker Scoggins (Princess #1), Chase Wagoner (Oyster Boy). Today was a very special day because we are celebrating BIRTHDAYS: Christian MacQueen (Ka-Chow) & Evan Tillis. This morning, bright and early at 5:15am, we arose from a deep, deep slumber to Good Morning by Kanye (clean version). Today we began our new inquaries which is why we are now writing the blog! It seemed as if everyone began running to the bathroom to get a spot at the sink. When there are 81 teenagers for only 2 sinks for each boy and girls bathrooms it takes some time to get ready in the morning but somehow we managed to leave within 30 minutes of waking up! Dallas showed her enthusiasm as we were getting packed up faster than usual because we were so excited to get on the road. We boarded the bus and many of us went back to sleep. After our deep deep slumber with calming music in the background. Around 8, we began devouring our huge breakfast of little bites muffins smaller than golfballs with an apple. You know what they say, an apple a day keeps the doctor away! A little after breakfast, we entered what felt like a never ending desert. This means no bathrooms or rest areas...
SLEEP CAM
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| Golden Hour |
Our grand adventure for today was a two mile downhill trek into the Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico. First we got our research for the Carlsbad Caverns, NM (Wesley Bumgarner) and the state of New Mexico (Josie Fent) This was one of the most extraordinary endeavors that we have experienced yet. One of the best parts of this adventure was the temperature drop which was cool and refreshing. This was ALL NATURAL and ORGANIC air conditioning. As the New Mexico heat left us sweaty (we have sweat in places that we didn't even know existed), we were quickly cooled in the caverns. We went through in groups of 10 to see the caverns. In the caverns we could not get above a whisper because you don't want to disturb the Stalactites which cling to the roof. One of the best parts was that we got to ride the elevator up rather than hiking all the way up the switchbacks! (we are practicing for the Grand Canyon) We ended our time at Carlsbad Caverns by visiting the gift shops and taking pictures against the beautiful deserts of New Mexico.
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| We were not joking when we said it was steep! |
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| We love a selfie! |
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| Leah found a new job! |
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| The boys are making fun of the girls poses, we think they did a pretty good job! |
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| Ranger Devan telling us all about the Caverns |
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| Wesley getting us so pumped to go into the caverns! |
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| Josie told us that the breakfast burrito was invented in NM |
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| Sleepy group!!! |
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| Sneezy group!!! |
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| Bashful group!!! |
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| Dopey Group!!! |
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| Happy Group!!! |
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| Grumpy Group!! |
Many of us enjoyed getting back onto the bus and vans to cool down and hydrate before our drive to Roswell, New Mexico!
The highlight of our long road trips are the gas station and Walmart visits. Along with the afternoon talk show we have a new segment: Bathroom Ratings ft. Connor Murray; the worst bathroom so far was Carlsbad Caverns visitors bathroom with a rating of 4.1 due to the moss and dirtiness, and didn't do anything for him in the space. The highest rated bathroom so far was the Rest Area in Texas closely betting BUC-EE'S due to the nice stone walls and architecture of the bathroom. The only downfall was the toilet would flush randomly and not having enough overall paper towels. The final rating is a 8.6! We will give updates if the rankings change!
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We take our bathrooms very serious!
Today at Walmart, many of us bought snacks for the Grand Canyon hike in two days. Our friends, Cade and Wesley devoured an entire rotisserie chicken in a matter of less than 2 minutes. (Which they were quite proud and announced it to everyone) Ben ended up finishing off what was left over on each individual bone. (and said they were finger licking good!) Many of us also bought supplies to make friendship bracelets which has become a hot commodity (along with fairy hair). |
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| Charlie was extra hungry |
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| Ava was so excited about counting bread! |
After our Walmart trip, we drove a good 4 minutes to our camp for tonight. (OUR LONGEST DRIVE OF THE DAY) Tonight we are staying at the amazing New Mexico Military Institute, this is one of the biggest fields we have stayed in so far, with plenty of room to play soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, and spike ball! We finished our research from the day with: The UFO's of Roswell New Mexico (Cullen Polk), and The New Mexico Military Institute (Faye Shellhorn)
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| Mr. Cullen telling us all about the aliens around us! |
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| Faye is letting us know who is going to be enrolled in the military academy |
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| Setting up for dinner! |
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| How many pounds of ground beef do you think we have? |
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| Some of the boys needed to get in a quick workout |
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| The Cooks are so hard at work! |
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| Birthday boy helping Ian fix the shelves in the cooks trailer |
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| So excited for dinner |
Tonight we are setting up our Enos and our sleeping bags, this is actually much more difficult than we thought. We found many pull up bars in which we used to hang our Enos. Tonight, we were able to enjoy a beautiful painted sky. The sunset tonight was a cotton candy pink. This made many of us feel right at home. For dinner, we got to enjoy an amazing dinner of tacos OR Nachos and pink lemonade. This was by far a favorite meal for many of us! In order to determine who was eating first we did the human pyramid!
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| We are ready!! |
We had the best sing-a-long YET! We dances and sung as loud as possible for the aliens to hear us in the sky. We have a lot of people that are losing their voices so it added a little raspy flare to the chorus. Tomorrow we have an early wake up call but it is all worth it if we get to see the Grand Canyon at sunset! We are logging off for today, we will see you guys from the GRAND CANYON!!!!!!
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| Our music is sponsored by our great friends! |
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Madi and Laityn are so happy for the sing-a-long
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| We finished the sing along not even 10 minutes ago.... |
(More Pictures to come later!)
