A Road Trip: In Pictures (Well, And Some Commentary)

Three of the five Mariners HSM team members had not seen our Summer Camp site: Lost Canyon in Williams, Arizona. Obviously, a scout trip was necessary.

This year, we are partnering with Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells, CA. (Their Student Ministries Pastor, Aaron Gutridge, and our Student Ministries Pastor, Matt McGill, have been friends since High School.) So, three of their staff took the trip with us.

Four boys and three girls.
seven-straight-hours of talking.
and the girls were reading and sleeping.

Lunch at Cracker Barrel
Yum.

Ryanne and I shared the
Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake

Classic Cracker Barrel photo

Two hours later, we arrived.
Or, as Matt would say, "Somehow we found it!"

Last year, I had tried to sneak away from camp to see the Grand Canyon (only an hour away), but just couldn't make it happen. So, Ryanne and Brooke arranged a visit this time!

We made it just a few minutes before sunset.
It was beautiful!

Matt was parking the car, so he missed the sunset.
He walked up and said "Eh, I'm seeing it now...it's still cool."

The Mariners HSM Team {minus BP}
Ryanne, {me}, Matt and Brooke

Some mediocre Mexican food and a night's sleep later.
And we were back in the car driving home.
Seven more hours of talking (again, just the guys.)
We did, of course, stop at Cracker Barrel again. Yum.
(We were all so tired and car-ride-looking that I couldn't post those photos.)

Half-way home, Matt said he wanted to "show us something"...
So he pulled over on the side of the road and got out of the car.
The girls stayed put...it was too hot to explore the desert.
The dudes got out and kicked dirt around and pretended to see snakes.

We dropped the Southwest team and made a final stop at Starbucks.

The best line of the trip came from Matt as we were crossing back through Riverside. He said, "Okay, I need 30 seconds of no talking."
We, of course, burst in to laughter since he had been the one leading the previous 14 hours of car ride conversation.
To which he responded, "Well, 14 hours of conversation with those guys and I'm just fine...14 minutes of conversation with you three ladies and I need a break!"

We continued to laugh...and talk--mostly over one another--all the way home.
Exhausted, but excited, our two day scout trip was over.
And I was able to cross another item off of my 30 Things List!