Roughin' It.

We had an incredible time at Rough River State Park. It was a little less primitive than we were hoping, a fact that was painfully obvious after the 80 year old man drove up in his golf cart to hand us some paper work, but we lived it up, sitting around the campfire throwing down over some hotdogs, smoores and IBC Root Beers.

In the middle of our campfire chat, after hearing some odd growling noises from the woods followed by some snapping twigs, we asked an old park ranger if there were bears in these woods, to which he responded, "Boys... there ain't no bears in these woods. I've had 7 year olds camp out here and ain't never heard no complainin'. " Then he cleared his throat and spit out a wad of bolts and nails on the ground in front of us and drove away. We later determined that it was a cow that had been growling in those woods, but to our credit, it was probably a very large cow with pointy teeth.

It was 22 degrees, but we were well prepared for the night: Dan and I in the tent with our sleeping bags, Ryan and Eric in the car with the heater on. To Eric's credit, all he had was an old bed sheet while the rest of us hunkered down in our 20 degree sleeping bags. Turns out, Ryan had brought two 20 degree sleeping bags, one of which had been laying tightly rolled up within arms reach of Eric the entire night before they made their 6 AM dash to the 4 Runner. Ryan brought handy wipes, too... very resourceful.

In all seriousness, there is little doubt in my mind that experiences like these will be the ones we remember most from our days in seminary. It's been incredible to build these new, and no doubt, lifelong, friendships which the Lord is using to progress and persevere us in the faith. Enjoy the pictures...