What up, what up America! We are the Dopeys, taking over the blog for the next few days!! The Dopeys include Rylee
Gaus, Mary Anna Chewning, Tyler Sellers, Alex Marsicovetere, Callie Matthews,
Caleb Mann, Cole Frederick, Jada Prichard, Andrew Prachar, Lillian Sumner,
Caroline McCrorey, Katie Bowyer, and Sarah Royster.
 |
| Alex Marsicovetere, Jada Prichard, Callie Matthews, Katie Bowyer, Andrew Prachar, Cole Frederick, Caleb Mann, Rylee Gaus, Lillian Sumner, Caroline McCrorey, Sarah Royster, Mary Anna Chewning, Tyler Sellers |
For the 4th day in the row we got up at the crack
of dawn, but not too early because we are not bus packers anymore!!
Before we got on the bus, we started the day off by singing
happy birthday to Tanner Hester of the Sleepy group, who turned 16 today!!! We love TWB birthdays! We
started our journey leaving Texas as we witnessed the transition from flat San
Antonio to the plateaus of the West Texas desert into the mountainous desert region
of New Mexico for the first time, the Guadalupe Mountain Range, to be exact!
 |
| View from Carlsbad Caverns! |
 |
| A real life plateau!! |
 |
| BIRTHDAY BOY TANNER HESTER!!! |
 |
| Alex Marsicovetere and Callie Matthews in the desert! |
 |
| Jordan Burrell and Aubrie Miller! |
For breakfast the cooks served us bagels and an apple, which
was a delicious start to a long and exciting day! However, the van Miss America
ended up running out of bagels L.
Today, Miss America took several L’s when they ran out of gas and then got lost
on top of not having tortillas for the pizza wraps we had for lunch. They ended
up having to stop on the side of the road and get the gluten free corn tortillas
out of the kitchen trailer. Miss America
wasn’t the only van that had problems! The van Carolina Girl ended up
not having any water on the trip from Carlsbad Caverns to Alien Town New Mexico
(Roswell). Wow they were thirsty, but they survived!! Our fellow Dopey, Caleb Mann ended up counting 87 aliens.
 |
| Jada Prichard, Lillie Griffin, and Sarah Whalen enjoying their pizza wraps for lunch! |
 |
| Jamming out on the van! |
 |
| Aliens are even at the Domino's here in Roswell! |
We did finally get our first picture for the SLUMP CAM!!! Anyone who falls asleep on the bus or vans is vulnerable to having their beautiful picture taken and posted on the blog! There should be MANY more people to come but for our first victim... Gia Lash!!
 |
| Gia Lash catching some Zzz's! |
We took a rest stop in Texas where there were only 2 stalls
that had to be used by around 55 girls. The guys had an interesting experience
in their bathroom as Caleb Mann ended up killing 56 bees (he counted) and saved
the lives of all the boys on Trip 1. Caleb likes to count things...
After a very long journey to the Carlsbad Caverns we were
all greeted by a pungent smell of bat poo, known as guano! Before going into the caverns we had to catch up on some research, Allie
Temple presented her research on Louisiana due to paper complications. John
Gray Blount then presented his research on the Carlsbad Caverns. Jenna
Trantham presented her research on New Mexico, where she told us there are more
cows than people in this state, but that it is also the state with the most people with PhDs...interesting.
 |
| Carlsbad Caverns National Park! |
 |
| Down at the entrance of the caverns! |
 |
| Allie Temple giving her report on Louisiana! |
 |
| John Gray Blount telling us about Carlsbad Caverns right before we ventured down into them! |
 |
| Jenna Trantham filling us in on the coolest facts about New Mexico!! |
 |
| Rylee Gaus and Taryn Jenkins! |
We took a three mile walk through the caverns and saw many
interesting stalagmites and stalactites!! They were SO cool!!! It is so crazy how nature made all of it by itself!! Many looked like cauliflower,
potatoes, and popcorn. One interesting fact is that the really long, skinny ones are
called soda straws because they look like straws!
 |
| Caleb "Crispy" Bozard, Kirsten Tevepaugh, Alex Marsicovetere, Nicole Fortin, Mary Helen Alford, and Sarah Bass! |
 |
| Lucas Bonomo, Felipe Moda, Leah Mosher, Jordan Burrell, Ashley Weinstein, Cam Ray, Kristina Sellers, Gia Lash, Rylee Roller, and Cayla Gregory! |
 |
| Leah Mosher and Kirsten Tevepaugh in the caverns! |
 |
| Mikayla Wright, Camryn Bernhardt, Mackenzie Wright, Callie Matthews! |
After our chilly hike down through the 800 feet deep
caverns, we took a 58 second elevator to the top that travelled at 9mph. When these elevators were first built back in the 1930's and were the tallest elevators int he world! Sooooo cool! Once
getting to the top, we all shared stories of what we saw, and Nicole Fortin
shared her experience of getting pooped on the head by one of the birds that were flying around the entrance of the caverns. When we left the
caverns, the bus and the vans were boiling!!! The van, Carolina Girl, recorded an
extreme temperature of 118 degrees through the thermometer outside the vehicle!!
 |
| Rylee Gaus and Lillie Griffin! |
There were rough conditions on the way to the New Mexico
Military Institute, but we all made it intact and alive!! Before we got there, we made a long stop at Walmart to get food for meals and to stock up on the essentials for the Grand Canyon!
After he greeted us, Blessid Snow read the card to him with our gift and then Emma Parson gave us some research on the institute. Once we were done with the research, we all dispersed and got our bags and some of us went to hang our Enos up on the pull-up bars while others set up their sleeping bags on the hill. We call it, ENO VILLAGE!
 |
| The Grumpy's, our current cooks, pushing Dallas around Walmart! |
 |
| Griffin Law with the most CHEESE! |
 |
| Caleb Bozard says WATER is important! |
After he greeted us, Blessid Snow read the card to him with our gift and then Emma Parson gave us some research on the institute. Once we were done with the research, we all dispersed and got our bags and some of us went to hang our Enos up on the pull-up bars while others set up their sleeping bags on the hill. We call it, ENO VILLAGE!
 |
| Blessid Snow presenting our host with a gift at New Mexico Military Institute! |
 |
| Emma Parson quizzing us on the NMMI! |
 |
| Ashley Weinstein, Jordan Burrell, and Ashlee Hamrick! |
 |
| Some of the boys testing their pull-up skills! |
 |
| Nick Richard and Isaac Allison watch Felipe Moda do a "flag pole!" |
 |
| Teamwork makes the dream work! |
 |
| Tim Sellers getting in shape for the Grand Canyon with some pull-ups! |
We are tired and hungry since our bodies are still used to
the Eastern Time zone, which is 2 hours ahead, because we are now in Mountain Time. However, the fun times have not ended because tonight we are having
nachos!!!!!! Tortilla chips, ground beef, cheese, salsa, tomatoes, lettuce, guac, sour cream with WATERMELON and cupcakes!
We had our traditional sing-a-long tonight around some campfire lights and another chat about the Grand Canyon!
We had our traditional sing-a-long tonight around some campfire lights and another chat about the Grand Canyon!
Tomorrow we drive to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest
and then we will be going to the Grand Canyon to watch the sunset before we
hike the next morning!! WE ARE SO EXCITEDDDDD!!!
That's all from the Dopey's today! Peace ouuuuut!!
