Day 1 -- July 9, 2017

Drive from Heritage University to Deschutes National Forest

Bend, OR

I do not do well when I have to drive as a part of a caravan. Without a doubt, I end up yelling at the other drivers when I don’t understand what is going on. Or I’m irritated that we have to drive so slow (I understand that the truck hauling the camper trailer can’t go very fast, but drive 50 MPH is killer).

And then my students laugh at me or give me a hard time for my caravan road rage.

Granted, it’s a good thing I never have to be the one leading the caravan, that would be a disaster. I’m terrible at being the leader.

Breakfast Club. Jayenell and Christina named our van "Breakfast Club" because we are in charge of the breakfast food. They get mad at me when I forget to say "Breakfast Club out" on the walkie-talkie. 

We have quickly discovered that we were extremely lucky with the group of White Swan and Heritage students that joined us on the trip. Between the 15 students and 5 chaperone/leaders, we make an interesting and colorful group, one that is flexible enough to go with the flow needed with these kinds of trips.

Album Cover. We had to do a quick pull over on the side of the road, so I made them jump up on the rocks for a photo op. I told them it looked like a picture an indie band would use on their album. They laughed at me. 

Clinton (the other WS teacher) and I spent the past week frantically trying to find more students to come on the trip with us. We called, emailed, texted, and tracked down anyone we could, and we ended up with six awesome young people that are down for adventure. As long as they still get some cell phone reception (although, we have been super impressed with the fact that the college students are worse about being on their phones all the time than ours are).

Tent time. Judy and Sidonia were able to quickly set up their tent. And then they decided to use the giant 5 person tent instead, so they ended up setting up my tent for me. It worked out well for me! 

And while the journey was not all smooth, we made it to camp all in one piece and immediately started setting things up. For most of our students, this was their first-time camping. So even just setting up a tent was a new experience.

This is going to be a time of many new experiences, and I have to say I’m pretty excited to get to witness a lot of them.

-KT