![\"img_5998\"](\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/img_5998-225x300.jpg\" "\\"delicate")
This past week was pretty crazy. \u00a0Tests, papers, homework…BLEARGH. \u00a0Less than satisfying. \u00a0What’s more, I was starting to get cabin fever from being in Provo so long. \u00a0Every day, doing the same old thing, going the same old places, seeing the same old sights…<\/p>\n
…Then I got a call from my friend Ben Fisher, saying that everyone from the old Capitol House was going down for a camping trip near Moab. \u00a0Would I like to come?<\/p>\n
HECK YES!!!<\/p>\n
I basically dropped everything to run away with these guys. \u00a0First, I had a late paper that I had to finish–stayed up until 5am Friday to write it, took a 3 hour nap, then went to class. \u00a0CRAZY. \u00a0Emailed it to professor Ricks, with “many Bothans died to bring you this paper” in the body. \u00a0Got my coworkers to cover for me so I could get out early, met up with Ben, and then we loaded up our car with the girls and the camping stuff and basically ran down to catch Steve, Warren, Mike, and the others, who were already at the campsite.<\/p>\n
![\"campfire\"](\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/img_5919-225x300.jpg\" "\\"campfire\\"")
What an awesome weekend! \u00a0Ben had brought a couple of dutch ovens and tons and TONS of good food! \u00a0Dinner was much better than the stereotypical hot dogs and smores (though we did have smores in the morning). \u00a0We had cobler, sweet and sour chicken, and fried rice for dinner–awesome! \u00a0Plus, it was fun just to hang out around the campfire and talk. \u00a0Good times.<\/p>\n
We laid out some tarps on the sandy ground, then threw down our sleeping bags and had a big bivouac under the stars. \u00a0I fell asleep as Ben was telling us all a story that had something to do with galoshes…I don’t really remember it all that well actually…and then I woke up a couple of hours later and didn’t sleep again the whole night. \u00a0I hadn’t brought a mattress, and man, the ground was hard…ugh. \u00a0Note to self–get a better sleeping bag and some kind of a camping mattress. \u00a0Mike Lebben was the smartest–he brought a cot.<\/p>\n
![\"hanging](\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/img_6000-300x225.jpg\" "\\"hanging")
Got up early, restarted the campfire, and we had a good breakfast–biscuits and gravy, and then smores a little while later. \u00a0Good times. \u00a0We took off a little later and went up to Arches National Park to do some hiking.<\/p>\n
We checked out Delicate Arch<\/a> and Balancing Rock<\/a>, then did some rock climbing out near Sandstone Arch. \u00a0Lots of fun. \u00a0I got sunburned really bad (of course), but the weather was really nice! \u00a0Not too hot, with a good breeze up near the top of the mountain.<\/p>\n One of the most interesting things about these trips is the social dynamic and getting to know new people. \u00a0I knew all the guys from the capitol house, but I met a few new people as well. \u00a0Natascha was there (she kept telling me to take a candid picture of her, then posed! \u00a0The pictures above are some of the few ones where she didn’t know I was pointing the camera at her), and her sister Hannah, who I hadn’t met before, plus her good friend Beth, who always bugs me about the one time I didn’t sub for her at the MTC cafeteria when it was her birthday (for consolation, I told her I was fired the next year–I think it made her feel vindicated to hear that), plus a couple of other friends of the other guys. \u00a0 It was also good to see the guys from the capitol house again. \u00a0Probably my favorite part of the trip was hanging out around the campfire, or the conversations we had driving the three hours up and back.<\/p>\n In a lot of ways, the weekend was a roller coaster. \u00a0Beth commented that she was really surprised that all of us from the old Capitol House, with our strong personalities, get along as friends without tearing each other to pieces. \u00a0It was a valid comment–me and Warren weren’t getting along this weekend, for some reason. \u00a0I think I was still stressed out about the past week, plus I just haven’t hung out with him a lot recently. \u00a0So that was one of the lows of the weekend. \u00a0Another low was getting up Sunday morning, after we’d gotten back, and finding out that I had a 102 degree fever. \u00a0Not too much fun.<\/p>\n Still, there were quite a few highs. \u00a0On the way back from Moab, Natascha and her sister got me talking about my mission, and I shared a TON of old mission stories with them. \u00a0Good times, even if I was more than a little loopy (or perhaps it was BECAUSE I was so loopy…). \u00a0Also, when I got back, I found out that I’d gotten a letter from the English department–turns out I won first place in the Mayhew short story specialty contest!!! \u00a0WOOHOO!!!<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Awesome!<\/p>\n So, anyways, that was my weekend. \u00a0Basically, it was like half of a summer rolled up in 2 days. \u00a0It was SOOO good to take a break and get out of Provo! \u00a0Good times!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past week was pretty crazy. \u00a0Tests, papers, homework…BLEARGH. \u00a0Less than satisfying. \u00a0What’s more, I was starting to get cabin fever from being in Provo so long. \u00a0Every day, doing the same old thing, going the same old places, seeing the same old sights… …Then I got a call from my friend Ben Fisher, saying… Continue reading Many Bothans died to bring you this weekend<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[162,161,34,164,122,33,163,149,63],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-arches-national-park","tag-capitol-house-adventures","tag-college-life","tag-contests","tag-friends","tag-girls-and-dating","tag-mayhew-contest-2009","tag-the-middle-east","tag-triumphs","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-7i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"hanging](\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/img_59671-225x300.jpg\" "\\"hanging")
This was my first time at Arches, and despite some problems with the parking, it was a lot of fun. \u00a0The desert around Arches reminds me a lot of Petra–lots of sandy red rocks in weird formations, making for relatively easy climbing. \u00a0In fact, the whole trip reminded me a lot of Jordan and Petra.<\/p>\n