He is a geology god. Our fearless leader through the winding canyon of the Black Hills. Though the majority of his wisdom went right over my head, his impressive physical prowess was not lost on me. I'm ashamed to say that he is most likely in better shape than the rest of us. Now I understand why we were all yanked out of our sleeping bags at the crack of dawn to go meet this Sultan of the Soil... Jester of Geology... Head Honcho of the Hills... Oh alliteration! Some would even dare to compare him to the Albus Dumbledore of Harry Potter. As Albus is to witchcraft, Alvis is to rocks. Ok, you get it. I've had enough fun with my words.
As I said, we woke up with the sun, ate a pretty wimpy breakfast, and headed to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (reminiscent of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-- equally prestigious but far less popular.) We sat through a pretty lengthy and detailed PowerPoint presentation by Alvis then headed into the hills for a field study of a "monocline." In case you're wondering what that is, then take heart in the knowledge that I'm equally as clueless as you. I can regurgitate the technical terms, but I don't think I could define them all. Baby steps, people. I'm working on it.
After the 4 mile hike through the canyon, we headed to Safeway, South Dakota's version of a Publix or Bi-Lo (if you're from the south.) I've always heard you shouldn't shop for groceries when you're hungry, and now it's all coming together. We were split up into three groups: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The lunch group (me, Tim, and Melissa) went hard in the paint. We might have enough lunch food to survive the zombie apocalypse. But it won't matter for me because there is no doubt in my mind that I'd be the first to go if that ever happened. I'd probably die almost instantaneously-- first a hyperventilation, then an asthma attack, then a sudden burst of courage in which I'd think I could kill a zombie, then death. But that's so far from the point.
After the Safeway stop, which also included a little gift from God called Starbucks, we quickly made our way to Mount Rushmore for a little photo shoot before the storm clouds released their wrath.
By the time we made our way back to camp, we were ready for a little R&R. Now for the best part of the day 4... The shower. I'm learning now that I'm quite spoiled. No, my hair is not wet in the photo above. I had not yet showered. That's grease. Dang, I'm so hot. Maybe even a perfect 10. But after the shower, I was a new creation. A clean slate, if you will. It was a beautiful experience. Warm water. Clean hair. No grease. It's the little things in life, man. Kelly's exact words were, "I feel like a pretty princess now!"
Look at us go:
I was so elated after bathing that I hardly remember the rest. I recall experimenting with a vegan burger (which was amazing, in case you're curious), sitting by the fire for about an hour, then passing out in my double sleeping bag cacoon. Another day survived. Score.
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