One for (and about) the road

Before my laptop gets below 2% battery power and before I fall asleep watching the Big Ten Network highlight show, I wanted to chime in here again with my experience from the UP last weekend.

I was one of three chaperones on a ski trip to Ski Brule, near Iron River, MI. We took 22 junior and senior high kids up to Covenant Point Bible Camp (awesome place) and skied for 2 days up there. The bus ride was, well, it was a bus ride. 6 hours each way, but they went by quickly with a DVD player on board and some sleep. Plus, it was great leaving the driving to somebody else. 

Thanks Ron!

My experience with the kids was fun - some I had gotten to know a bit from last year's trip to Granite Peak, in Wausau. This year's incarnation included the younger set, and many more girls this time around. I tried to spend time skiing with just about everyone, but ended up skiing quite a bit by myself. Turns out, nobody really likes to go as fast as me. Besides, many of them were still learning, either on skis or snowboards, so the comparison really isn't fair.

For the most part I think they enjoyed having me around, although the junior high kids really didn't quite know what to make of the new guy for the first 36 hours (I don't really do much with the youth group throughout the year, I just volunteer for the ski trip)

I can see why my dad bailed on teaching junior high kids earlier in his career. He's exactly right.

Junior high girls are insane.

Far and away the best part of the weekend (aside from a few dozen really nice runs at high speed listening to some good music) was all the amenities at the camp. The staff there served us some awesome meals (baked oatmeal as well as biscuits and gravy for breakfast) and the even had a sauna and a hockey rink on the lake, where we played broomball 2 nights. C'mon over and I'll show ya the bruises on my knees to prove it.

It was a marked improvement over last years event, sleeping on a tile floor with a camp mattress. And no cooks.

They even had great coffee anytime we showed up at the dining hall. KEY!!!!!

And, it was a great tune up for my upcoming trip out to Bend, Oregon with Jon.

He and I along with some of his buddies are going to ski Mt. Bachelor for 2 days. I'm so stoked about that - the place looks like a lot of fun.

I didn't take any cameras with me to the UP, but if I can get some pics from Pastor Jan, I'll do a a little show and tell.