Still getting ready

April 25, 2011

Today we met for the first day of training as the Challenge Course missionaries. The training will last several weeks. We studied the rules and proceedures as an overview today. Then we went into Provo to get fitted for our harnesses. We will spend most of the day tied to ropes once the campers arrive so it is important these harnesses fit well.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. Our first Easter as missionaries and the first Sunday meeting as our own ward group. In between Sacrament and Sunday School, the Stake President called Dale to be in the High Priest Group leadership. He will serve as the secretary. All the rest of the group are 2nd year missionaries. He is the greenie. They went into priesthood meeting, were set apart, and conducted the meeting. Isn't it amazing that the church organization can make order out of chaos immediately. The church is true. Now this group will organize our mission into Districts through which all our assignments will come. There is no such thing as VT and Home teaching. The Districts will be how we will be organized as far as church assignments and teaching. It will be interesting to see how all this works.

This weekend was our ATV training. I learned how to make sharp turns without tipping over. I drove winding around the cones without tipping the cones over. I drove over logs. (Actually I failed this part and had to do it again. I went too slow and the log just rolled in front of the tires pushing them along instead of going over them.) I did pass....finally.

Inside the cabin

We arrived at the Camp Thursday and started cleaning out 6 months worth of dust, dead flies,etc. Friday we had our interviews and got our camp shirts, jackets, hoodies and name tags. We have spent the weekend moving in and buying the few things we needed to settle in. We have already met the nicest people. Our neighbors in the cabin by ours is a couple named Randall. He is from Cedar City originally. He taught music at BYU, then retired after being the dept. head of Music there. He was a mission President in Canada. Really nice people. When he was a missionary, his mission president was President Monson.
Our first visitors. Todd and his brother John Blickenstaff helped us get an antennae for the TV set up. Dean and Lana came for dinner. (Todd and John had already eaten and we couldn't tempt them join us.) As you can see, I've already gained 10 pounds. The missionaries that are here year round made homemade bread and cookies, and are feeding us way too much. It is yummy, but it has got to stop. Starting Tuesday we have training all day, everyday. We won't get our assignments until the end of this week.

More Cabin Pictures

The loft is about 1/2 the size of the cabin. We use it for storage. The table is like a folding long church dining table. The bathroom is part of the bedroom area. The shower is in the area behind the wall the towels are on, but it is a nice sized bathroom and shower.

We both have a dresser and nightstand. Dale stacked his. I'm too short to see in the top drawer, if I did that to mine.

As you can see, the washer and dryer are in the bedroom, which is reall very handy. The closet isn't too small either. So you see we are set.

Heber Valley Camp

This is the Welcome Center at the Heber Valley Camp. Our cabin is located just past the Welcome Center and to the right. Great views from our cabin.


There's about 3 feet of snow on the level. It is melting, but there is so much more snow than normal, that we have been asked to pray for temperance in the weather...NO MORE SNOW, PLEASE.

This is home. There are 2 duplexes, ours is the first (closest to the dumpsters. Not a problem now, but come summer we will be hoping the breeze goes in the other direction.)
We are almost moved in, so tomorrow we will post pictures of the inside of the cabin. We had our interview today, and I think we passed. We also got our name tags and official camp shirts, jackets, and hoodies. We are so excited. We love it. We've met missionaries from Boise, St. George, and a lot from the Wasatch Front.

Dale and I both have new 4-Wheelers.

He gets around very quickly in his and is having a lot of fun.

This is my new 4-Wheeler.I get around very well with it. Not quite as much fun. I had surgery on my foot January 7th. I will be off my foot for a month-then I will be in a walking boot for another month. It sure beats crutches.

Back in the Carlsbad Caverns

We couldn't help ourselves, we had to go back inside the caves today. We walked down inside the main entrance instead of using the elevator. It was over a mile down, and we went down 850 feet to the Kings Palace. We toured with a Ranger through the Kings and Queens Rooms, the most beautiful part of the cave.

We were inside the cave from 8:30 this morning until almost 2:00 pm. It was awesome.

More pictures inside the cave.


In just a few thousand years these two may hook up.

Can you see the "Bashful Elephant"? He is faacing the wall, but you can see his rump, tail and hind legs. Of the 2 white bumps, the elephant is on the right.

On our travels westward today we stopped at Guadalupe National Park and checked out "El Capitan".

We found a tiny little LDS branch in the town we stayed in last night. There were only 5 or 6 small families, the missionaries, and us. Really a friendly branch. We loved it.
Then we went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. This is the natural entrance to the cave. At dusk we watched about a million bats fly out of here so thick it looked like smoke rising up into the sky. Once the bats start flying out of the cave, Park Rangers would not allow any electronic devices or cameras because of it interfering with the sonar navigation systems of bats. (The bats are protected-it's a National Park.)

Click on this picture if you can't read it. This cave isn't as big as Mammoth, but it is more beautiful. This is our favorite cave so far. The formations are so spectacular and massive, we were awe struck.


The camera just wouldn't take in the huge rooms with all the delicate formations.

Heading Back West

We drove through Dallas, Texas on a game day. Big mistake! Arkansas Razorback playing Texas A&M in the new Cowboys stadium.

The traffic was horrible. This makes the spaghetti bowl in Vegas look like rush hour traffic in Cedar City.

On the way to Mammoth Caves, we passed this clever fall decoration on a rural farm in Kentucky. Scenes like this make you stop and take a picture when you least expect to. That is the fun of a road trip.

Today we went on two tours of Mammoth caves, the largest caves in the world. Here are some of the pictures. None of the pictures in the large cavern rooms turned out well. Sorry.



What an amazing cave. Some of the cave passages were small and narrow,then opening into sometimes really large rooms.

This passage was called "Fat Mans Misery".

Cades Cove in the Smokeys

We wondered if Echo and Larry recognized this building? It is the Cades Cove visitors center. Very rustic.

On the grounds by the visitors center there are historical houses, barns, and Mill. This was a working mill. The water is turning the wheel.

Inside view of the Mill. See the bags of flour to the right of the picture? The park employee had ground that flour today.

We took the hike from the visitors center to Abrahm FAlls. We had the garmin watch, so we ended up walking almost 7 miles. Dale took this picture, but it was supposed to have the Falls in the background.

Ah, there's the Falls. Pretty aren't they.

The hike followed a little stream most of the way.

Some of the leaves were starting to change.

View of the Smokeys

Today we had snow on the top, with cold wind gusts and temperatures in the low 30's.

Dale and I walked a little on the Appalachain trail, just to say we did it.

The mill is in Pigeon Forge, a fun little town outside the Park. (Dolly Parton country).

We are staying in a town called Maggie Valley. The town is decorated in Fall pumpkins and scarecrows on bails of hay all up and down main street.

The Smokeys were one of the destinations we were most excited to see. We're Here!

We drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Spectacular drive!

We took a hike for a couple of miles up a trail, crosssing the stream on these little log bridges. Fun.

The Smokies are really beautiful.