Springerville, Arizona

I thought it was a joke when we were told our host changed because the high school we were staying at had a plane crash into it the day before. I don't know any more details of the accident and I sure hope everyone is ok, but the facility we got moved into was so cool. Because of my new sense of adventure and avoidance of fast cycling, I was part of the last group in. I didn't take many photos because rain was looming on the horizon and slight sprinkles actually materialized. That means the stellar views I experienced can't be shared or tranferred visually. They are for my memory only. Entry into Springerville brought with it a change to Pacific time which really just means we get an extra hour of sleep. We got the opportunity to sleep in the 8th largest geodesic dome in the world. Imagine a highschool indoor sports facility that is larger than something the Boston Celtics can piece together. This arena style structure has a full turf football field with ample other play spaces, fields, offices, food stands, and all the other amenities you can imagine. My first task for the evening was to chat it up with the dome director to see if the highschool needed any social studies teachers or coaches. Imagine how sweet it would be to coach in the highschool sports Mecca of Arizona. Unfortunately, they just hired a social studies teacher, so I didn't have to whip out my resume that I have been carrying with me for some 2500 miles. We split the dome with 200 band kids who were traveling and performing. They banged their drums pretty late into the night as they practiced their formations and instramental precision. Good thing I can sleep through anything and this didn't effect me in the least. Courtney C. gave me her thermarest because she doesn't use it and was tired of carrying it around in her bin. I had failed to patch mine with a bike tube patch kit and duct tape so I was thrilled about this gift of air to sleep on. Tonight was a laundry night and lucky for us washers and driers were located in the basement of this massive dome structure. Unfortunately, there were only 3 washers and 2 dryers so producing clean clothes took the better part of 5 hours. It also didn't help that I mistook liquid fabric softener as laundry detergent and used that on three loads. Sorry guys, your spandex smelt nice, but it was still dirty...my bad. I guess my carelessness was punished adequately when two pens someone left in their clothes exploded all over my spandex in the dryer. Hooray for blue ink splotches over the things I wear daily! I appoligize to readers and myself for following behind on my blog and coming back retroactively to fill in the blanks. I have forgotten a lot of detail and failed to frame up days and experiences exactly how they happened. I stay very busy everyday so it's hard to always find time for updates, but I'm doing my best. West coast time is on, pacific here I come. Germain out.