June 21st, 2008 - Day 1

1:17pm
We are close to halfway to our destination in Nebraska. Riding in a 15-passenger van has a way of bonding you as a team, perhaps a little too much. You know you've been in the van too long when Cameron suddenly calls out, "Can you play with a mermaid? Yes, no, or sometimes?" (He was playing that little electronic 20 Questions game).
Earlier in the morning, the entire team except PJ, Ves, and me conked out. Neil, who's sitting next to me (spoooooky) woke up when Ves brought out the Chex mix and hasn't been able to find a comfortable sleeping position since. I'll probably attempt to nap later.
Already we've had a couple adventures. First of all, at a rest area, a bunch of the guys sprawled out in the grass next to a "Keep On Sidewalk" sign. Then when we had lunch at Culver's, Neil and Clayton stopped up the salt and pepper shakers by sticking napkins in them (Beau was kind-hearted enough to undo their work). Then we attempted to look for a Wal-Mart. First of all, the GPS led us down some weird roads. Then Cameron insisted we passed Wal-Mart, we went back, discovered it was actually Lowe's, and it took forever to get back on the road. Then when we got to our "destination," we discovered Ves punched "McDonalds" into the GPS instead of Wal-Mart, which was nowhere around. Everyone was laughing.
So yeah. Haha.

6:26pm
Almost an hour away now. Something pretty interesting: Garrett can solve a Rubik's Cube in 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Rumors are his record is 1:45.
We're gonna eat at an Italian buffet called Valentino's soon, so...yeah.

11:26pm
We arrived about 9:00pm, and let me tell you, it is nothing like Jamaica. In Jamaica, we lived in a dorm so bad that the roaches practically had to wear slippers, but man, you ought to see what us girls are living in now. Outside it looks like a huge barn, but inside it's so huge and clean and log-cabin-smelling. It doesn't even feel right, like we're being too blessed right off the starting gate. Plus, it's such a big house for 5 girls. The 10 guys have to sleep in a nice-sized-but-considerably-tight-for-a-group-of-10 room in the basement of the camp director's parent's house. It's nice, really nice ("like the Hilton compared to last year in Jamaica," PJ says), but a little small. Us girls all have beds to sleep in (plus a jacuzzi!), guys have the floor. We were told that us girls got the huge house instead of the guys because the lady who owned it (a friend of the camp director's, who's on vacation) thought us girls might be a little neater than the guys and didn't want her house all messed up. Haha.
So we're here, and it's awesome. The camp's a little smaller than I expected, but I know God's gonna work through us.
Potential prayer request: Neil was feeling bad earlier during dinner, had to use the bathroom for a while. At first I thought he felt really tired or nauseated and maybe had to throw up, but Ves said that he was on the verge of tears. So I don't know what's going on, he didn't talk and he seems fine now, so maybe it was a strong bout of homesickness, but hopefully he's okay.
So we met the camp director, Jeff, and his wife Trisha (who's 8 months pregnant), and their 2-year-old son Rylan. They pretty much explained what we were doing at camp. We'll get a tour tomorrow. We also met Nana and Papa, Jeff's parents, which is right next door to the camp. Us girls are staying 2 or 3 miles down the road.
So here we are.