Gateway to the west and off to a new camp.

Days 22-24: Purdy & St. Louis, MO; Carbondale, IL

Thursday at Barnabas went pretty well. My team and I finished our ramp project and so did the other guys on the wheelchair horse platform. It seems so easy to underestimate the size of a project and I find myself doing that quite often. However, we always finish on time; just never as early as I sometimes hope. Like some of the other days the guys and I finished our day off in the camps pool and made full use of the waterslides (knowing full well that we were leaving the next morning and may have choose to break any slide etiquette the camp had).

Trekking to St. Louis on Friday was a short trip. In two hours we were at our accommodations at Saint Louis University staying in one of their old renovated mansions. We had a sponsored dinner provided by a couple of Pi Kapp Alums at an Irish restaurant; the food was awesome. That night the guys and I went out and found great little college pub nearby. Luckily for us it was only a few blocks away because the area of town we where in was pretty “unfriendly”.

On Saturday morning we had a sponsored breakfast at City Grocery in downtown St. Louis provided by a Pi Kapp Alum and a regional governor Chuck Howard. His wife and kids came out and we had a great time eating all the hot deli breakfast we could. Our afternoon in St. Louis was something else though. A group of the team and I took a tour of the Anhiesher Busch factory and then went to the Archway monument and got a few photos. We then went to our sponsored dinner at a Pi Kapp Alumnus’ house (Brother Jay Stuckel). He’s considered a big deal in our national fraternity and rubs shoulders with some of our elites. What was most exciting was that the Journey of Hope cyclist “Trans” team would also be eating with us. Their team has three members of my chapter at WSU (Todd Wright, Jake & Andrew McCaffrey) riding and it’s been months since they left and I had last seen them. We had a great turkey dinner and the guys and I made plans to meet up at the “Landing” later that evening for drinks. It was great to kick it with some Cougs and meet some of the other pi kapps on the cyclist team; it’s just too bad they didn’t have what it takes to be on the Build America Team.

Sunday we departed for Carbondale, IL to camp “Touch of Nature / Little Giant.” This is somewhat difficult to explain because the campgrounds itself is actually owned and operated by Southern Illinois University. The facilities have different annual programs that come though such as “Little Giant” which almost specifically serve people with disabilities (from severe to similarly grouped weeks). The week for our stay is exclusively kids with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder). Our project consists of building a 16’x30’ wheelchair accessible fishing pier on one of their fish stock lakes (they own a ton of acreage out here).

This camp has been amazing to us. Our house has enough rooms for each guy to have one roommate and there is also a lobby with a TV and DVD player, two fridges stocked with goodies and tons of food put out for us.

The guys and I have gotten to work and in the past couple days we are close to actually finishing a project early for once; even after they camp management has thrown a few extra items our way. The only thing to be concerned about at this camp is apparently the severity of ticks because of the amount of wildlife they land hosts out here. I hate ticks.

Well if you haven’t noticed, my entries have been on kind of a weird frequency of posting and that is due to the great data coverage of our location (it just usually takes me a couple of days to find it).

Miss you all.