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Before I left NZ I didnt particularly like been driven places.Ever since i have been in America I have loved the driving.
Yesterday we were meeting John at the office. Me, Lesley(England), Axel(Sweden) took us an hour and a half to load up then we went and picked the others up. Oliver, Vikki(England), Thomas(Dutch), Rudy(A little French island) and Danial(Sweden). We took off in no real hurry. We had a 6hour drive ahead of us and got there at 1030pm. After taking a few wrong turns and some lengthy breaks, none of us cared, this is a really wicked group. We got to sleep in untill 7am this morning cause of the lateness last night. We set off along the rough road. Vikki and I have the back seats all to ourselves, so we would be the cool kids if we were 10years younger. My job today was to put in a end brace for the fence and then add a wire gate. Ive done this work before at home but it is slightly different, kinda like what it would have been like 20years ago in NZ. We all cooked dinner and sat around the fire.
Sat - What a day, We set off driving along the rough road, dropped Axel, Danial and Vikki off so they could walk a fence and fix it. Then we dropped Lesley, Rudy and Ollie to fix up one spot of fence. We told them we would be just over an hour. We drove down into the valley and got stuck so we took the tow bar off and then got out. Then we came to a dry river crossing and John jumped out to check it, he said it was all good. So we drove through and got stuck. Thomas and I were laughing so hard. I set off with the GPS to find the others, as I was walking off John jumped in the van and all I could hear was FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got radio contact with the others and got there co-ordinates. They were 500meters away, so I told them to climb the hill and I would see them at the top, I could see them on the hill next to me. So I gave them the co-ordinates for the van and would meet them there. I then sand surfed down the side of the mountain. When I got back Thomas walked to meet them. Then they turned up without Thomas. So I went looking for him and he came back without me so Vikki came looking for me. She found me. We were building a rock road to drive out on but the rocks kept slipping out from the wheels. We finally got out around 730 and back at camp late so again no dinner. The others up the hill all day had been unaware of the dramas.
Sun - We got another 7am sleep in. We walked the fence fixing it along the way and working really fast and great as a team. It was really windy so we stood on the edge of cliffs and lent right into the wind. We cooked dinner at the empty random airport. Somehow I was incharge of cooking the meat. Cut the pork up like steaks, added spices and then grilled it. Thankfully it was good.
We all had such a good time, lots of laughs all the time. I really enjoyed having John as a supervisor, it really was an honour. The crew worked so well things always got done and if you were not fast enough all the jobs would get taken.
THE LIFE OF JOHN - Over 5days with us this is some of the things that happened. John is a really nice guy and it was a pleasure to work with him and get to know him. I would love to go on another project with him.
- Hour and a half to pack van
- Reading list of tools and saying "dont need that"
- Driving up a short driveway and taking awhile to get out
- Frequent, prolonged, relaxed stops
- Often taking the wrong turns or driving straight through intersections
- Reversing at speed, forgetting about trailor, jacknife x2
- Scratches, dents, broken lights and side mirror of van
- Getting van stuck x2
- Spilling coffee
- Wind caught door and would have knocked him out if Rudy had not have caught it.
- Credit card declining at petrol station
- Broken stove and gas would catch alight by the knob
- His solar shower had a hole in it
- His choice of road side campsite left our tents like sandpits.
- 6hour trip that took 14hours there and 9hours back.
Coming back into Cisco the house was full of the new people, and alot of them are my age so thats good. I was leaving Cisco on a bike to go to Cedar to have dinner with the rest of the crew. I was going down a dark alley and heard some rushling while lifting the bike over rocks and it was a scunk with its tail up at me about 2metres away. I dont think ive moved faster before. Thats the first time ive seen a scunk in the wild so I thought it was going to gas me right there.
Tues - The 8 of us from our work crew got a 7seater car and piled in with gear all over us, and drove down to Sedona and went to Grasshopper point for a swim, the water was pretty cold but very refreshing. Then we set up camp and got loose playing the game "Ive never". Axel and I sared a tent and it started to rain during the night, so I just threw the rain cover over and went back to sleep. We took the scenic route back and now just waiting for everyone else to come back from project for a big night tonight.
The same crew of 8 team Splice(our team name), have a safety meeting on friday and then go away on a 8day project hiking all our gear in 17miles before starting work.
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