So long, farewell, good-bye

The 2010-2011 year of Service Adventure Philippi has come to and end but not before an exciting activity packed closure week all culminating to some sad good-byes on June 18. We started the week with a little bit of house cleaning and then moved onto the outdoor adventures!

Canopy Tour

First off was the canopy tour, also known as zip lining. It was a new experience for all of us except Christina, who had done it before in Costa Rica. It was an exhilarating time zipping from tree stand to tree stand at speeds topping near 40MPH and up near 80 feet in the trees. Our guides always kept us clipped in for safety so most people weren't too worried doing the zips, but the suspension bridges were still a little shaking for others. Check out the video below of a few zips down to a snack break spot. If you're ever interested in doing one of these, we highly recommend the people at Nelson Rock Outdoor Center, they were friendly, professional, and reasonably priced!




Monday night we pitched tent at a nearby campground and prayed for a DRY night of camping. Mike helped get the fire going and our hobo dinners cooked, then headed home for the night with the kids. The good news is that it didn't rain Monday night, but Heidi and the girls learned that they need some more practice keeping a fire going, even with unlimited wood (there were down trees all around and piles of precut wood around every campsite). They were still able to make some yummy s'mores! Mike returned Tuesday morning in time to take everyone to the next adventure...white water rafting!

Rafting down the Cheat River

While we wanted a dry night for camping, we also wanted to have enough water for a good rafting experience. When Mike made the reservation, we were told there was a chance the river would be too low so we might need to go out on individual duckies. As fun as that sounded, most of us were a little nervous tipping over in little duckies. But we were fortunate to have gotten just enough rain a few days earlier that we were on for rafting. We rafted down the Cheat River through several intense rapids and plenty of calm rowing. No one actually fell out of our raft going over a rapid. But rather, after we cleared a rapid our guide called out "bump" which shortly thereafter we bumped a rock that knocked Heidi and Christina backward off the raft and into the river. We all had a good laugh after that. Tara and Mike decided to jump out a little later for a short swim. Tara had some trouble getting back in, so our guide told Ranita to help "flop her in like a fish." After some more laughs, we finished our four hour ride exhausted. If you want to experience that some time, we also recommend Blackwater Outdoor Adventures, they made the experience fun and provided a yummy lunch.

After our adventures, we spent some more time sharing together and cleaning the house. By the end of the week the house was cleaner than it was when everyone moved in :) and boxes were stacked up in a spare room. Since all the girls had family driving to Philippi to pick them up, it was decided to have a big cookout at the house for everyone to meet each other. Then we all went up to the farm for some dessert and invited everyone from the church to join us. It was a nice relaxing evening together that had to end all too soon. Early Saturday morning all the cars were packed, hugs were given, and after a final blessing everyone departed. Thanks for a great year!

Last Sunday together at church

First Sunday together at church

Blue & Gray Reunion

Last weekend (June 2-5) Philippi came alive for the 150th anniversary of the Blue & Gray reenactment of the first land battle of the Civil War. In case you weren't aware, Philippi's clame-to-fame (besides the mummies) is it's place in history as the site of the first Civil War land battle. Philippi, the county seat of Barbour County, was aligned with the confederates for the Civil War. So although it was a minor skirmish in which the confederates that were encamped in town quickly retreated from the Union soldiers, it placed Philippi in the history books. And every year since, a re-enactment takes place in early June.

Courthouse lawn filled with exhibitors and vendors

In addition to the re-enactment, the town was filled with Civil War era dressed people, many of whom camped in tents around the downtown area. There were plenty of crafts, art work, jewelry, and the such for sale around the courthouse. And of course the usual mobile food carts selling wonderfully fatty foods like deep-fried oreos, funnel cakes, and corn dogs were ever-present. One interesting observation we made was that the food prices at most carts were high...especially for such a low-income town.

Enjoying funnel cake and deep-fried oreos

The most popular cart (and the one we stood in line for) was the local high school booster club. There you could buy a hot dog or pepperoni roll for $1.50, when most other places were charging $4 for a hot dog! Philly steak sandwiches and other specialty foods were going for upwards of 6 and 8 dollars. But regardless of the price of food, there was a lot of activity all weekend long. There were a couple skirmishes, including one at night. There was a re-enactment of an amputation, which as interesting as it was, Ian was very concerned that they would be amputating the spectators afterward!

So many loud fire trucks!

There was a monster fireworks show, and of course an always popular parade which concluded with at least 12 fire trucks sounding their alarms all through downtown. Ian and Ella found that part a little too loud. All in all it was a fun weekend with no shortage of things to do. In a fitting end to the weekend, most of the group (Mike and the kids outstanding) were able to experience first-hand what firing a Civil War era gun was like. Our friend from Philippi Church, Jim is not only a Civil War history buff but has muzzle-loader rifles. Jim invited everyone over this week to learn a little more about the history and practice shooting some targets. They all were proved to be pretty good shots, especially Ranita, who hit the target jugs too.

This week is the closing week for the 2010-2011 Philippi Service Adventure unit. Last Friday was the girls' last days at work, and next Saturday they all head home. We'll probably have one last post with some of the exciting activities we are doing to wrap up the year.

Leaky tents and other weekend memories

Here's Tina, asleep 15 minutes in!

Last Thursday after Ian's soccer game we drove about two hours south to Brandywine campground. Memorial Day weekend is the annual gathering of east coast units in Raleigh, NC and since our last camping plans were rained out we decided to leave Thursday night, camp and drive the rest of the way Friday.

Unfortunately forecasts for much of the state were again calling for rain, scattered though, so we decided to risk it. If we could just get our tents up before rain, we figured we should be ok. Well, we weren't.

We got our tents up, the kids asleep and tried to make a fire. We didn't bring any firewood because we figured there'd be somewhere to buy some. There was, but they closed about 30 minutes before! So the girls begged a few pieces off people across from us. The pieces they gave us were too big to really get anything going, so after attempting some marshmallows over burning paper, they gave up and headed to the bath house to get ready for bed.


Meanwhile, the rain began. Hard.

We've upgraded our storage system since our first camping
experience together.

We were in our tent trying to sleep and the girls came back to find water sitting in their tent so they decided to sleep in the van. I (Heidi) woke around midnight to drips on my face and Mike never fell asleep, feeling the foot of his sleeping bag getting wet and watching water creeping in around the edge of the tent. He got up and drove the girls to the only hotel several miles back (by the gas station that wasn't open) and found that it also wasn't open, despite the "vacancy" in the window. Good thing we'd decided to wait to get the kids up!

So the girls stayed in the van and we took their sleeping bags (which they weren't using) and used them to line the inside of our tent to keep the water from getting to us! It worked and we were able to sleep, some. The thunder was actually really cool, feeling the rumbling from the ground. Would have been cooler if we weren't so worried about getting wet, but still cool.

This was our set-up for our first
camping trip together at church retreat
in August; trash bags and a sled!

It stopped raining sometime in the early morning hours and we were able to make a great breakfast (using the camp stove, still no firewood) before heading for Raleigh.

On to Raleigh, where our time was much less dicey, but no less memorable! We enjoyed a lot of time just being together with the other groups and our trip to the beach on Saturday. Plus, SA director Susan Nisly was there, which was great and she bought us ice cream at the Purple House Friday night! We love her! (Not just for the ice cream of course!)



Saturday, as noted, we went to the beach which, though it took some convincing of Ian, is also the ocean. He had an argument several people saying that we were not going to the ocean, we were going to the beach. Stubborn five year old, where does he get that? Anyway, we made it to the beach/ocean. It rained lightly on our drive there and was very overcast for the first couple of hours which actually turned out very nice because for the last couple it got really hot and sunny. Just enough for quite a few people to get burned.

Sunday was fairly low key. We attended church at Raleigh Mennonite in the morning. People walked around town or hung out at the house in the afternoon and that night after delicious homemade pizza we went to the dollar theater. 

On the way home Monday we stopped in Harrisonburg, VA for lunch at Hannah from Johnstown's house. It was a fun stopover and they fed us well!

Purple Fiddle and Ian's birthday

On a Thursday night (May 19) we all went to The Purple Fiddle in Thomas, WV. It's a fun little coffeehouse/cafe and going there was on our bucket list, so when we saw that The Steel Wheels would be there we couldn't pass it up. The Steel Wheels are based out of Harrisonburg, VA and the wife of one of the band members was in Service Adventure in Philippi! Plus they have good music, so we like to see them when they're here! We had a great (late) night singing and dancing!

Christina, Tara and Ranita with Julie from church

Here's a little video of us dancing to Tara's song, "Darlin' Cory." The song opens with the line "Wake up, wake up darlin Cory," which we find quite appropriate for our darlin' Tara Corey!

Then on May 25th Ian turned 5! We had a cook-out and cake with some friends from church. Ian requested a chocolate cake with strawberries and Toy Story characters on top!

Pre-supper baseball (Ella's hitting behind the post on the right)
We were also airing out our tents for our trip to Raleigh the next
night, though if you read the next post you'll see why that
wasn't necessary!

Last Weeks Challenge 
Last week our challenge was to use (as much as possible) food that was grown or produced in our "economic region," meaning WV and bordering states, or fair trade foods. This was a difficult challenge for many reasons, and there were times that we let items pass because it was Ian's birthday and he got to pick the menu. So while the hamburgers and hot dogs, pasta salad, carrots and hummus (homemade), and cake and ice cream (also homemade) may not have all been "local," (though some may have been, I'm not sure what was on the labels since I didn't shop) the objective really was to look at labels and be aware of where our food comes from.

This week we did not pick a challenge since we were away all weekend, and since we're halfway through the week we will probably not pick one. BUT next week begins our challenge that we've been saving, though the girls did a variation on their own a few weeks back: no personal use of the computer. We've been saving this one because the girls wanted to do this in our last weeks together so we can make the most of our time here together! Aren't they great!