Strange Days Have Found Us
It has been a long strange trip to San Juan thus far. Meeting up on Saturday evening at 6pm, ten of us embarked on our journey down south. Packed like sardines in our fifteen passenger van, we were immediately forced to get to know each other. Driving what we had expected to be 24 straight hours, we pushed on through the night, stopping at various gas stations, where we re-fueled our vehicle and our bodies.
Passing through Arkansas we saw town named Arkadelphia, Friendship, Okolona, Social Hill, and Texarkana. Texas seemed to be lacking in some originality to some extent with towns such as Italy, Naples, and Beverly Hills; it even had an unusual German influence, seeing towns such as Pflugerville, Niederwald, and Schertz. There was even a waterpark that was called Schlitterbahn.
After eating at various gas stations, Subway, and Sonic (which in itself was a strange experience, with each of us having to order through a machine while looking at the person we are talking to some fifteen feet away. We even arrived during Happy Hour, where all drinks were half off; twas’ amazing), we finally found our resting place in San Juan on the LUPE camp. It is surrounded by strip malls and a strange two hole (unverified fact) golf course, and features two stray dogs, one of which appears to have bugs all over him (and who we all our best attempts to avoid).
After we arrived, our site leaders, Amber and Barath, went to Walmart (which apparently is insanely crowded most of the time) to buy food for the evening and the following morning. The rest of the crew (eight) settled into the spot by playing a few games of basketball and football. After we tired ourselves we ended up making (with a lot of my direct guidance) pasta, salad, and garlic bread. I even had the idea to boil the water that we used to make lemonade which we bought, so as to ensure that we would not test the questionable that came out of the faucet.
The evening was an enjoyable event that finally got us settled into our (temporary) new home. The rest of the week will certainly be interesting and I will be sure to keep on reporting from LUPE.
Oh, and by the way, the weather is freakishly cool here. As of right now (12:30), it is 63 degrees and apparently the high for the day was 73. Strange days indeed.
Tags: Arkansas, LUPE, San Juan, Sonic, Texas, Walmart
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March 25, 2008 at 12:19 am
good to hear all is well, I sent you a message, but well you are in texas after all .
Amanda