Monday, May 12, 2008

Caving Again

On Saturday, May 10, I guided another church youth group -- this time, the priests and Laurels from my home ward, the Indian School Ward -- through Alabaster Cave, which, as I mentioned in my original post on caving in January, is located near San Ysidro, New Mexico. It was another successful (if bruising) outing, despite the fact that I still couldn't find the "normal" route through the cave; somehow I keep ending up at the second-to-last "exit" and having to squeeze past it, although at least "my" way still leads to the "bottom" of the cave. There one faces a choice between wading out through the "lake" or taking the upper passage through the infamous "Birth Canal" (and having to do the little climbing problem at the end to traverse over the last part of the "lake"). I talked most of the group into going through the "Birth Canal" (Bishop Morrison still demurred, but at least the "lake" wasn't as deep this time); a couple of people had a few problems getting through, which made me think twice (more like twenty times) about doing it myself, especially since I'd had such a hard time the last time through (see the photo in my January post). However, I finally sucked it up and did the squeeze, and, since I did it in the "correct" orientation this time (left arm up), I basically went right through. That made my day, at least until I got back to town late and barely missed Kiley's performance in a cello recital.

Our party consisted of Steve Morrison, Joshua Merrill, Anthony Lucia, Rachelle Thompson, Jessie Raney, Aaron P_____, Tyler Kiernan, Forrest Mike, Nohemi Aldaco, Samantha Phelps, and me.

(The photo above shows Rod Williamson going through the "Birth Canal" on an earlier trip; it gives a good idea of what the squeeze looks like going in. It's only about four or five feet long, but it's pretty claustrophobic just the same.)

Another Update on Darren's Mission

Darren has now been in the mission field for eight months, including six months in Honduras. When his last companion, Elder Herrera, went home, we thought Darren might be made senior companion in his existing area; alas, he was assigned a new senior companion, Elder Shumway (second from left in photo), who's from somewhere in southern Utah. They share a small house with Elder Hall (far right), who's from northern Utah (and reportedly was Elder Shumway's companion in the MTC), and his companion Elder Aguilar (far left), who's from El Salvador. Darren probably has relatives in common with Elder Shumway, as I have Shumway first cousins -- the offspring of my father's sister Merle Kartchner Shumway and her husband Carroll Shumway -- one of whom is Eric Shumway, formerly the president of BYU-Hawaii and currently the president of the Tonga temple. We got to talk to Darren on the phone for Mother's Day, and he sounded good. He may have to wait until his birthday in July for his next package, but I'm sure we'll make it worth the wait.