Back to Berea

So today i came back to Berea to start my summer job.  Grandpa, Grandma, and Gramma Rose and I loaded up in the truck and took off.  We got to school around 2.  I checked in while everyone was kind enough to haul my junk up into my room.  Then we all, plus Uncle Matt, Ryan, and Brandon went down to the park to have lunch.

Then we parted, and Brandon and I went back to our room.  We worked unpacking.  Then I hung out doing much of nothing while Brandon talked with his girl friend.  However, when he was done it was time.  Earlier Brandon had said he wanted to go caving.  So a little past 9:30 we took off.  We were ready this time.  We had a change of clothes, lights, water, even a little jerky.

We first went to Walmart and I got some drinks, and Brandon got a headlamp.  Then we took off.  When we parked we walked along the railroad tracks until we reached the back entrance on the other side of the mountain.  We were anxious to get into the cave as we were jittery walking out in the woods alone.

We entered into the cave and it was pretty fun.  Since we came in the back we didn't have mud for the first 1/3 of the cave.  However, when we got past the crawl point we began encountering extreme mud.  At one point we got to the spot where there are two ways down.  You can climb along a steep wall which when dry it's pretty easy.  Or you can go down the foot slide.  When it's dry you normally put a little bit of water down it to make it slick.  Well we decided it would be better to go down the foot slide.  So we did.  And at the bottom was a large knee deep mud hole.  Not only did we hit the bottom standing in it, we slipped in it.

On and on we went.  Climbing up mud, sliding down into mud.  Slipping into mud.  And the cool thing is, we discovered where we went last time in the cave.  We didn't even go into the main passage.  So that explains how we made a circle.  Anyway, we made it out pretty good, and covered in mud and wet.  So we washed up a little at the entrance, and then hiked back to the truck.  We got changed, and then came back to school. 

Wednesday Part 2

So... here comes Wednesday Part 2!  Brandon finished up his paper and then me, him, Critter, and Ben decided we needed to do something together and have one last "good time".  That would be our last night that all four of us would be together until fall term.  So we got the random idea to go caving in Sinks of the Roundstone.  It wouldn't be a problem as I had been through several times.  We were going to do a straight run from one entrance and out the other.

So we all pitched in some money for gas and squeezed into Brandon's truck.  There was pretty bad fog.  But we eventually made it and hiked down to the cave entrance (at 11:45 at night).  The entrance had changed a lot.  The flooding had really changed the cave area.  It even looked like it moved some huge boulders.

We entered into the cave and we soon realized that we had not thought of something.  The flooding had left the cave very wet.  Normally, the hard clay/dirt floors and mounds are easy to climb.  However, it was all one giant cave full of very slippery mud.  Up and down we struggled to climb.  We seemed to be making good progress.  However, it was hard to go fast because of the mud and we did not take the normal ways of climbing through the passages because they were steep and now hard to climb due to the mud.  We finally reached a large open room where there was a huge tree that was washed back inside the cave.  We used it, and a bunch of organic matter to help climb up the mud.

However, a little while later we dropped back down to the stream and Ben announced that he had seen a shoe earlier, that had been washed in.  So we had made a circle. That wasn't hard to believe.  In a good majority of that part of the cave there is a huge mound (like a spine) running through the middle with the stream on one side, and another route on the other side.  So it appeared that we had missed out exit to go further on into the cave because we were always looking for an easy route through the mud.  So then I decided that we should just go back to the entrance.  It was clear we weren't going to have a "quick" shot through the cave.

So we began making our way back to the entrance.  Then Brandon said we should just wade through the stream back to the entrance (as the creek flows into the mouth of the cave).  That way we wouldn't have to struggle through the mud and we could clean our shoes off a bit.  So we began following the stream.  And probably 30 minutes later I stopped.  I knew something was not right.  We were in a passage that I had never been in before.  There was no dry ground to talk on.  The walls of the cavern came straight down to the water.  I told the guys that we were heading in a direction I had never been in.  Evidently there are a couple streams and somehow we began following a branch stream, not the one that flows into the cave from the main entrance.  So we turned around.

We retraced our steps and then turned left at the next passage.  I believed it was the main passage that would take us back to the entrance.  So we continued on this second passage for a while and then soon our lights shown upon a huge cave in.  Our path was totally blocked.  There was no way around it.  So we retraced our steps yet again.  We got back to the large passage again and I began to recognize it.  So I knew we had finally picked the right path.

Along the way on our "getting lost" we had found this little hole near the wall.  I climb down into it and discovered some water going through a small passage.  You could crawl through it.  I want to go back and check it out.

Soon, we suddenly found ourselves at the entrance, without really realizing it.  So we hiked back to Brandon's truck and it was there that we discovered really how filthy we were.

So we stripped off our shoes and socks, and threw them in the back of the truth.  And then, since we had not even prepared, we had no change of clothes (cause we weren't expecting it to be muddy).  So we were forced to strip down to our underwear so we would not get Brandon's seat filthy.  Needless to say, it was a little uncomfortable.  As Brandon said, if there was a man law we hadn't broke, we might as well get it over with and break it as we'd broken all the others.

So we rode back through thick fog in our underwear with our filthy clothes in the back of the truck.  Our greatest fear was what if a cop happened to pull us over and we would have to explain ourselves.  At one point, we though our nightmare had come true.  Brandon was getting ready to pass a truck when we saw sirens and lights behind us.  However, to our relief, it turned out to be an ambulance.

So we made it back to campus and Brandon parked his truck back in Student Parking.  So we spilled out of his truck and got dressed before walking back to our dorm to go to bed.  It was almost 2.

So we certainly had our last good time.  I think it's been one of the funnest times I've had in Sinks of the Roundstone, despite our unfortunate events.  But we definitely won't forget it.  And we were whippersnappers.  We didn't even think to tell anyone else on campus where we went.  It was only us 4 that knew.  But I guess that's what being young is about.  The rest of yall who are reading this might be thinking "You dumb guys" but I can tell you right now that you did the same kinda stuff so.... :P

But it was good times....  Looking forward to the next chance I get to crawl underneath the earth.  It's my favorite place to be...

Virgin Falls!

Well I am back from my trip.  And it was unbelievable.  We met at food service Tuesday morning at 8:00.  We had a little breakfast, and loaded up our lunches and ourselves.  We got under way about 8:40.  It was cold and sort of rainy.  But we all knew it would clear up, it was just a matter of when.

The ride down consisted of us starting to get used to each other and know each other.  Most of us knew each other existed, but we had never been together like this so it was a learning experience.  Soon after we left Berea a game was started by Brian.  Ben and Johnathan joined in and were the main competitors.  You look for horses.  And you call "zip" for every horse you see.  If you beat the other people for the horses you get a point for each one.  Then, if you see a church you call "Double my horses!" and you double the amount of points you have.  And if you see a grave yard you call "Bury your horses!" and everyone but your horses are all gone and they go back to zero.  It was a very intense game at times.

I don't remember where, but after we were in Tennessee for a while they pulled onto a side road and told us our first surprise was approaching.  And this was the view we saw.

Johnathan said it is one of the world's tallest tree houses.  And the neat thing is, the guy is a Christian.  He built it in Christ's honor.  He actually showed up while we were there and we got a chance to meet him.  I don't even remember how many stories it is, but there are a lot.  There is even a chapel inside it with pews, a cross, and a pulpit.  And from the top you can see this view in one of the fields.

So we finished eating our lunches and then we continued on.  Around an hour later we finally reached our destination.  A parking lot!  And there was nobody there.  Now came the fun part.  We unloaded our backpacks, got them all adjusted, and took off down the trail.  For a while it wasn't all that pretty.  Most of the trees hadn't bloomed yet.  But after a while along a small creek greenery began to show.  Our first stop was at a waterfall.

I thought this waterfall was impressive, but I was to soon be surprised.  During the hike I twisted my ankle twice so for a while it gave me problems, but then for the next couple days it was only sporadic trouble.  Anyway, we continued on and came down to a bigger creek.  We eventually cross it and then followed it down.  At some points we were along some pretty steep trail.  And then, when we were about halfway to our camp site we began to hear a roar.  As we drew closer we discovered it was a waterfall.

This is Big Laurel Falls.  It drops off into a cave.  Well, it's sort of a cave.  There is a huge room behind the waterfall.  The creek flows into this room and then gets sucked down to who knows where.  So in a sense, there is a cave as the water is going somewhere, but a human can't go anyfarther than that big room.  We had some fun behind there and we rest up.  Then it was time to continue on.

Two miles later we finally reached our camp site.  It was next to a river (I was never told the name).  We set up our camp.  Nick and I were sleeping in a tent.  It was pretty small.  Then Nathan and Shaun were in a tent as well.  Johnathan, Brian, Ben, Jacob, and Josh Best were in hammocks.

                                                        (Jacob relaxing in his hammock)
After we got our camp set up there was a little time for rest but then dinner was calling.  Nathan and I were assigned with Ben for our trip.  Each group was responsible for a different chore every day.  For Tuesday, we were in charge of cooking dinner.  So we whipped up the meal of Chili-joes.  It was chili mixed with ground turkey.  We threw in a chopped (more like hacked as all I had to cut it was a pocket knife and a small pot) and we ate it on buns.  It was pretty good stuff.

                                                    (Ben, stirring our dinner)
After dinner we waited a little while and then had caramel and apples around the fire.  The rest of the evening consisted of just chatting around the fire and getting comfortable around each other.  We were all in bed by 9:00.  We were tired, it was dark, and since you don't have things like electricity there wasn't much point of staying up late.  So to bed we went.

It was a long night.  Nights on camping trips are always long.  I woke up several times, and it was the coldest night of the week.  Around 6, most of the group woke up and talked for a while and then went back to sleep.  We all got up around 9.  Josh Best got a fire going and then we all ate what we had brought for breakfast.  Then there was a race for the shovel!  I'm sure I don't need to explain that.

Then we all split up and went off by ourselves to do devotions.  When that was done, we met back at camp and got ready for a long and exciting day. We loaded up two backpacks with each others lunch stuff and rappelling gear.  Our first stop was Virgin Falls.  It was a short hike, maybe 30 minutes.  Virgin Falls is a creek that comes from who knows where.  It flows out of Virgin Falls Cave and then drops out over a cliff and down into another cave below.  Most of the year that cave below is not accessible.

We did some exploring above the falls, and stood on the edge up high next to it.  And Ben tried to shove a big log over the falls.  He almost succeeded, but it got stuck right near the edge.

               (Jacob took this picture when he was on the other side of the top of the falls.  That is Nick and I)
We left Virgin Falls and continued on, climbing higher.  We stopped momentarily at Sheep's Falls.  The creek falls out of Sheep's Cave and down into another one.  We hiked back to Big Laurel Falls and had lunch, and then we had a long haul as we got higher and higher until we reached a huge cliff over look.  The view was incredible.

This is where we did rappelling.  I had never done it before.  And when my turn came it didn't seem too bad until I was hooked up and slowly backing up to take that first jump backwards.  I finally did it and after that first jump and that ledge it wasn't so bad.  You had faith in the rope.  On the way down I banged my left leg on the cliff so I had some nice bloody spots and a bruised leg bone.   I finally reached the bottom (There is a video of me) and then I unhooked, filmed some other people, and then hiked back up to the top.  Ben and Johnathan went down Auzzie style, which takes some major guts.

After everyone was done we packed the gear up and hiked back down to camp.  However, we stopped at a pool a ways above Big Laurel Falls.  No cameras were allowed.  We all stripped down to our undershorts and most of us took a flying leap into the ice cold water.  It was fun to watch everyone's facial expressions as they came to the surface and swam to the edge.  But after a minute or so of being out and your nerves calmed down, it felt good from the hot and sweaty day.

We were starving.  Ben, Nathan, and I were in charge of water for the day.  So we filtered water from the river and filled up a big collapsible storage container and then everyone's nalgenes.  While we were waiting for dinner to be ready, Johnathan had an urge to chop down a tree with a hatchet.  So he did.  Unfortunately for him, it didn't fall like he wanted to.  It merely slid onto the ground upright, hung up on another tree.

Brian's group was in charge of dinner.  And what was on the menu?  Gumbo!

It was pretty good.... until we were 3/4 of the way through the pot and no longer starving.  Then it was pretty disgusting.  It was a lot of rice with seasoning, canned beans, and turkey sausage.  It was strange to go from ranting about how good it was to gagging at the thought of eating more.

That night we made banana boats for dessert.  We took a banana, peeled it, sliced it in half and then stuff it with chocolate chips and marshmallows.  Then we wrapped the peel up again, put it in aluminum foil, and shoved it into the fire.  It turned out to be pretty good.

The next morning we packed up camp after breakfast.  We were going to move camp to Big Laurel Falls so we were halfway out and didn't have as long a hike the next day.  However, we still had a long day ahead of us.  After breakfast we had our devotions, then hauled our gear up to Virgin Falls cave.  We didn't enter through the passage the creek/river flows out of.  There was a much drier side entrance.  And this cave was intense.  Lots of calcified mud, slick walkways, and a huge stalagmite/stalactite room.  We ate lunch in the cave.  There was a big ledge we climbed up onto.  It was weird to have the smell of fried spam that some of the people were eating, filling the area.

                                                  (Jacob took this picture of us eating lunch)
When we reached the stalagmite/stalactite room we were in awe.  Below are a couple of the best pictures I got.

After we left this room we crossed a huge caved in room.  It had happened a long time ago so don't be worried. :D  We eventually got to a point where we waded through a creek.  In some points, up over our knees.  It was so cool!  Then we could no longer walk.  We crouched and half crawled on and on.  Finally we went past where Johnathan had been before and there was no end that he could see to this water filled passageway we crawled through.  So we turned around.

We realized that it was be even more difficult to stay on some of this mud/calcified clay (Might I add that calcified clay is the worst thing ever!) so we followed the creek most of the way.  And then, conveniently, I smashed my left knee (Each day I got an injury that progressively went up my left leg).  And it was at that point that I sort of crashed.  My ankle and leg were bad enough, but now my knee.  I had a hard time getting out of that cave.  I was cold, wet, in pain, and for the first time ever I had an urge to get out of a cave. 

As I struggled along at the back of the group we soon realized that we were walking in the bottom of the stalagmite/stalactite room.  We had some new views.

I finally got out.  But not without souvenirs.  Some of us had found little broken pieces of stalagmites and we had picked them up.  I too had found a large chunk that had different rings.  I hauled that out of there.

We left and it was not a fun task hauling 40-50 pounds on your back with an injured ankle and knee.  But, no one else can carry your stuff so you have to do it.  I just fell behind the group a lot.  On the way to Big Laurel Falls we stopped at Sheep's Cave Falls and rested.  I enjoyed it.  And we also waited for Ben who went back to the entrance to Virgin Falls Cave to get the poop shovel.  Some of the guys explored up at the top of the falls, but I stayed in one spot the whole time.  Ben gave me some ibuprofen and then we continued on.

Finally, that evening we made it back to the falls.  Everyone but Nick and I climbed up above the falls a ways to go jump into a pool again.  I stayed and unpacked some stuff and since I was on the group to get firewood, I slowly limped around trying to find some.  Most if it was gone around the immediate falls area.  But I found a little.  When the group got back, Ben and Nathan found some dead branches.  I sawed a good portion of them as Ben hated doing it and I didn't mind, especially if it meant I didn't have to walk all the way back to camp over boulders carrying firewood.

That night Johnathan's group cooked pasta noodles and some sauce.  I donated the summer sausage Critter had given me and we threw that into the sauce.  Then we had pineapple and smores.  It was all very good.

Nick and I didn't want to set up our tent as there really wasn't a good spot.  Too rocky and uneven.  So we just laid our tarp out and slept under the stars.

The next morning we ate some breakfast, packed up, had our devotions, and then I faced the climb out.  For the first mile up the trail from Big Laurel Falls it's pretty steep.  It was a killer on me.  I was always behind the group.  And then later after we stopped at our creek crossing to get water Ben stayed behind with me while the rest of the group made it back to the van.  Ben and I eventually made it.  We ate lunch and then loaded up into the van. 

Our first surprise was Cumberland Falls.  I hadn't been there yet and it is beautiful.

After that everyone else except Nick and I changed into our swimming trunks for our final surprise before we made it back to Berea.  I would have probably participated in this surprise had I not been a cripple.  You know what it was?

                                 (Johnathan jumping off the 40 foot cliff into the water below)
It was cliff jumping.  There wasn't any danger, the water was a good 25 feet deep.  Everyone except Johnathan stuck with the 20 footer.

We got back to Berea around 7:30.  Food service was closed, and so was the cafe.  So Johnathan and Brian treated us to pizza from Little Caesars.  And that is some of the best pizza around.  He bought 6 of them, plus some drinks.  We sat in the quad on campus and two guys didn't join us.  They had to leave.  The 7 of us that were left polished off all 6 pizzas in 18 minutes.  We were starving.  It was a fitting way to end an awesome trip.

I belong in a cave

So I actually didn't go to sleep right away Friday night.  I ended up going into Ivan's room for a minute and before I knew it I was sucked into playing games, then we watched Night at the Museum 2 in the lobby and Alvario heated up some left over chicken and we ate that.  I ended up going to bed at 3:30.

I slept in and after lunch I spent all my afternoon working on my 210 paper.  Then I went to dinner and at 7 I met Johnathan, Ben, and Brian outside Dana.  They were taking a small group of people caving.  And they asked me if I wanted to come along.

Like usual, caving was simply amazing.  I got to explore some new passages, visit ones I wanted to see, and climb some new routes.  I am getting to know the cave pretty good.

                               (This "canyon" is only a foot high.  I got down and took this picture.)
It was really cool when we reached the usual big room after we squeezed through a small hole.  We all turned our lights out and we sang As the Deer.  Then Ben did a little devotional.  It's so cool to hear a praise song to God echoing through a cave.  And we can know that he still hears us even though we are deep underground.

                           (A view of some room, looking up)

                                     (One of the many tight squeezing passages there are 20 feet tall or more)

              (Looking down into a 50 foot crevasse.  Some of the RAs didn't know it existed until me and a couple guys found it a couple caving adventures ago.  You can faintly see a blue glow stick at the bottom that Ben through down.)

So I went to bed around 12 after we got done caving.  And I slept until 12:30.  I caught up on sleep for the past three weeks or so.  It felt so nice.  So I went to lunch and then headed to the library.  I met Cassy in there and we just sat and did homework.  Then Daniel just randomly waltzed in and saw us.  He stuck around for a while and then we all parted.  Except I went with Daniel.  We went to his apartment and we hooked up our computers and played Cabela's Big Game Hunter.  We hunted coyotes together.  I was bagging them quickly.  While Daniel was trying to shoot one with his shotgun I would kill it with one shot with my .308 rifle.  I stole several of his coyotes that way.

Daniel brought me back too late to go to food service so I had to resort to getting a sandwich, chips, and a drink from the cafe for dinner.  Then I went back to the library and I finished the rough draft of my 210 paper.  It is around 500 words short still, but I got the bulk of it done.  My professor will help me out with revising and giving me some more ideas to lengthen it.  But I am glad I am past the worse of this paper.  Two days of hard worked has paid off.  I now feel I can make the final push to mid terms and spring break.

Nice Warm Day to be hunted by Bigfoot

Today, officially started when I had finished caving.  But I slept until 11.  Then around 12 I went to lunch and then came back to my room deciding how to spend this nice warm day we had.  I talked to a few friends to see if they wanted to go hiking.  Most of them couldn't.  So it ended up being two guys that live on my floor, Benjamin and Critter.  Both of them went caving last night.  So at 2 we set off on the cross country trails and then went on the farthest trails up along some of the ridges.  We didn't stop there.  We set out on our own and hiked up two more ridges to the point when we reached the top of the third one we could barely see the campus way, way, way off in the distance.  We had a great time talking.  Benjamin is a Christian.  Critter, I am not sure.  He is open to the Bible and being a Christian.  he is showing promising signs.  But overall we had a good time. Critter even asked me to bring my Bible so we could possibly do a little devotion or something on the hike, but we forgot to do it.

We finally got back over the second two ridges and made it back onto one of the paths.  We hiked the rest of that and got back to campus by 6.

Now, where does this "Bigfoot" come in?  Well when we were way out there in the middle of nowhere and off the path in the forest, we started hearing leaves rustling.  Benjamin said it was probably just a squirrel, but there was no life out there.  Well it turned out it got louder and more frequent.  So we investigated the noise.  Soon it sounded like something was running through the leaves and we could hear it quite loudly.  We looked for people or deer, or even a dog.  But Benjamin and I couldn't see anything through the trees from our positions.  However, Critter was in a better vantage point and saw something big and black with a white face run up the side of the ridge.  It was going pretty fast.  Benjamin and I probably could have saw it, but the hills and ridges played games with the noises and it was hard to tell where the sound was really coming from.  So we now have a Bigfoot that roams the local forests around Berea.

Later on after we tried to chase whatever had ran up the ridge so we could get a better look we began to smell smoke.  It was a wood fire and it smelled good.  We began thinking.  It was not cold enough outside for a fire to be built in a house, and there wasn't a house around anyways.  Then soon we came across some orange tape around trees.  It formed a line.  We figured it was a property line.  Then the thought of possibly stumbling upon somebody's still wasn't worth getting shot so we decided not to press it.

And so that was my adventure for today...

The Critter

Today in health class we learned some self defense moves.  It is basically a wimpy form of martial arts.  I wasn't impressed.  If I am going to learn martial arts to defend myself I want to teach the guy to never think about messing with me again.  I don't just want to do enough so I can escape.  But then I went to work and I got the privilege of using the wood chipper!!!!!  Lunch was good.  I talked to Esther a little bit and some others before I went back to work.  For the afternoon, I spread mulch around trees until class time.  In class we went over electrical wiring in a house.

I had a good time at dinner and then I basically did nothing much except watch episode 2 of Band of Brothers.  Finally, 9:30 came and we met a group to go caving.  At the last minute they decided to switch caves so I went to Sinks of the Roundstone for my 3rd time, now.  But it was still fun.  Even though we rushed through more and didn't get to do as much exploring, I still had a good time.  So did Ivan.  He had never went before.  Since I knew a lot of the cave I left the group sometimes and took little detours and sidings to go to an area so I could see more.  And I did a lot of climbing and jumping tonight, for some reason.  When we got near the entrance I jumped off a 10-12 foot ledge into some mud and gravel below.  And I sort of had to as Jacob and Lydia made a big deal about it and told me I had to.  I got complemented on my landing as I did it right but then when we got back to the dorm I really am paying for it.  My left foot is throbbing and it will be bruised for a while.

                                         (Critter, before we entered the cave.  His first caving too)

I guess out here in Kentucky, so my friend Josh (he goes by Critter) told me, the bigfoots are called Critters.  So there was some joking about The Critter lurking through the cave and the woods.  When we exited the cave I went ahead on my own and had fun doing a video clip of me in the dark being used by the group as bait to lure The Critter away.

                                    (Jacob, going out of the entrance to the cave.  It was mostly coated in ice)
So that's about life right now.  I could go and live in a cave...

 

(Ivan, happy about his first caving experience)

  

(Wes sitting on a very nice ledge)

My 18 Hour Day

So my day started at 5:30 when I woke up with Jacob. Daniel and his wife Lauren came and picked us up and took us to the church we go to. There we spent our time unloading a semi full of food for a ministry. It is called Angel Food Ministries. Then we were served breakfast after the loading was done, and we sat around and talked until around 9, intermittently helping people carry boxes of food out to their car as they came and picked it up.

We were dropped back off and I went back to my room. Jacob went to the Tech building to do some wood turning. I on the other hand, went in and out of sleep. I had only gotten 4 hours that night.

I awoke at 12:30 to Jacob coming in and I realized I had slept too late. I hurriedly packed and got changed to go caving. I was able to run to food service and grab some lunch and then join our group. The Inter-varsity Christian group was sponsoring it mostly, but a few other people joined us.

We arrived at the cave, but one of the leaders discovered that the big front entrance wasn't very accessible because the creek that flowed into it was pretty high. So we walked down the railroad tracks to the smaller entrance on the other side of the mountain. Basically, we had a blast crawling around and I even got to explore a few new areas that I hadn't been into the last time I was in the cave. And since the water was backed up we were soon stopped in a place and couldn't proceed. Thus we doubled back the way we came.

There was a point, however, when we congregated in a large open cavern and we all turned out our lights and sang Amazing Grace. It sounded real nice echoing underneath the Earth.

Anyway, after we finally made it out and we really discovered how dirty we were we went back to the van and cars. However I went with a couple guys real quick to check out the front entrance of the cave.

We got back in one piece and made it to food service in time. Then I went back to my room, cleaned up, and decided I would go contra dancing. I was also able to get my friend Ivan to go with me. So I had about half an hour and then we went down to some of the lessons they had before the actual dance started.

I have one word for the dancing. AMAZING! I began to get the hang of the dancing. I had a blast, especially with a few of them. And as a guy I will admit that it was very fun to dance with a bunch of pretty girls. And I asked a few to dance as well. It certainly cut my fear of girls in half and I had a very fun evening. A few of the people that went caving were there. However, there were a few dances that my partner and I couldn't get the hang of so we dropped out, but over all it was a very fun time.

The contra dancing is basically several lines of people and you have your partner. Different dances require you do do swings, spins, and swinging your partner around and around and you move up and down the line systematically dancing with everyone as you go. It's very fun!

So to sum up my long day, it was truly amazing! I have decided I really like the Inter-varsity group as they are the "friendly Christians" I have discovered here on campus. I even had a good conversation with one on the way back. I've made some brand new friends and I know how to have a good time and get out of my comfort zone because of caving and the dance!

But anyway, I am off to crash in bed. For those of you that read this, I will tell you that I will upload all the caving photos to my Picasa web album. I could only stick a few select ones on this blog. It was very hard to chose which ones.