Cran Hill Ranch II

Once we’d unpacked, we had lunch. After that, we had freetime until about 4:30. We went down to the beach for awhile. The water was warm, however. In the lake there were these floating wooden raft things that we played on, trying to balance and push others off of. Unfortunately it was kind of cloudy, so we didn’t stay long after we swam, because it was kind of cold. There were 14 girls and two showers…it took quite some time to get everyone cleaned up, but we managed. Since we still had over an hour before we had to come to the topic, us girls sat around and did our nails in one of the bedrooms. Nailpolish and remover smell quite strongly, and Shelley, one of the chaperones, said she could smell us as she came up the stairs!! We talked and did our nails until it was time for Rev. Vogelaar to come. The boys came by, and one remarked that “it smells like GIRLS in here!!” Although a bit late, Rev. Vogelaar finally arrived and gave a topic about Joseph and resisting temptation, as Joseph had to do in Potifar’s house. The topic took place in the chapel in the woods. Dinner followed the topic. The lasagna was plentiful, as was the French bread and salads that accompanied it. After and cake-and-icecream dessert, the whole group went outside for a big game of softball. It grew very competitive as each team was accused of cheating and the ump of being biased for his wife’s team. The game ended with a half point win…the half point being scored when there was a huge argument over the runner being out or not out. There was more freetime, spent with a bonfire and playing ping-pong, pool, and foosball, as well as a couple people going swimming. At 11:30 evening devotions closed the night…or we thought they would close the night...
Not being ready to sleep, Kate and I decided to go bother the other room of girls. They had their door closed and the lights off, so we figured we’d turn the light on. We did, and beat a fast retreat back to our own room. The other girls apparently weren’t asleep, so two of them came FLYING into our room, armed with cups of water!! They tried to throw it on Kate and I, but mostly missed us, instead getting the sleeping bag of one poor girl who wasn’t even involved, Kristen. Kate and Kristen decided that the other girls, Anna and Maria S., didn’t deserve to get away with their wrong, so they went charging into the other room and drenched Anna’s sleeping bag while Anna was getting more water. They came back into our room and got innocently into bed. Anna and Maria came back with even MORE water, asking for a truce. Anna hadn’t seen the water in her bed yet. We agreed to a truce, and the two left. Seconds later they were back, and succeeded in drenching Kate. They went again for MORE water, but we moved a set of beds in front of our door so they couldn’t get in. This ended the fight…for Tuesday night.
While all this was taking place, one unusually brilliant young man, Arnie, decided that there wasn’t enough air circulation in the lodge, so he opened the doors!! Unfortunately, the doors didn’t have SCREENS!! This allowed about 4 bazillion mosquitoes to take up residence in both wings of the lodge, as well as the main room in the middle. There were two girls rooms and three guys rooms. One of the girls rooms kept their door closed and escaped most of the mosquito issue, but the other 4 rooms weren’t so lucky. The girls in my room tried to sleep, but we finally concluded it was hopeless around 2 a.m. We moved into the great room in the middle of the two wings. This was ok for a little while, but the guys weren’t able to be quiet for more than 2 minutes at a time over in their wing, getting up every 2 minutes to go to the bathroom, blow their noses, or come into the middle room to ask what we were doing!! They were plagued with mosquitoes, same as us. The mosquitoes found us in the room all to soon, and some of the girls went back to the bedroom, while the rest of us stayed. The mosquitoes weren’t any better in the room, as those of us who kept switching back and forth figured out. Around 3:30 a.m. a whole group of guys went to sleep in the basement, managing to make more noise then they had UPSTAIRS!! With all the commotion of people running around, swearing at the mosquitoes (or yelling at them at least), and swatting them, it was pretty much impossible to sleep. The mosquitoes would bite legs and arms, and when one took cover in the sleeping bags, they were forced out from the heat. If one braved the heat, they would find the bugs buzzing over faces and in ears, making it equally impossible to sleep. 4:30 a.m. found Kate and I in the great room, and the other girls in one of the two other open rooms. The other room of guys joined us, but, like Kate and I, found the great room to be full of mosquitoes, though not as bad as the bedrooms. The wake-up call came around 7:30. I think I got about an hour of sleep the whole night. It was one of the worst nights I can think of in my whole life!! More to come soon…