Deam Lake

Vincent didn't join our church youth group until the week they got back from an annual Labor Day trip to a Southern IN state recreation area around an artificial/reservior lake (that it turns out many of Stephanie's students also visit). But he's been there for the past three years - including this past weekend - when we didn't camp out Saturday night but we did help our friends Carlos and Nora (and others) cook (and friends Ian and Kate and other Youth Team members keep an eye on things) Saturday and Sunday. We helped cook tacos Friday and eggs Sunday morning. And we went swimming and walking with and without some 20 teens and pre-teens there also. We also enjoyed relaxing and chatting with the half a dozen plus adults from our church there.

We gathered in our church parking lot before driving to IN.

Ben and spouse Kimberly stayed at the lake with their daughter Cora and helped cook and talked with adults and kids.

Ben (different Ben) one of the Youth Team members that helped Ian and Kate plan/direct the weekend.

Stephanie got to talk with Kimberly.

Stephanie and I didn't help much with pitching the tents.

Vincent did his part.

Saturday folks continued to gather.

Ian and Kate's Isabel was the youngest camper.

Nora (left) and Carlos led the charge with the cooking.

Ana and Andrea made lemonade.

Stephanie helped out with Isabel.

Phoebe and Andrea caught some shade.

Ian tried to rest.

Marcus joined in with card playing.

Nora also enjoyed/helpd with Isabel.

I ran several trips back to Louisville and more often to the store just outside the park for groceries/supplies.

Sunday Stephanie and Isabel matched.

Jason brought his kids too.

Ian tried to rescue our electrical problems with additional extension cords.

Late Saturday afternoon I finally joined the others at the actual lake, which turned out to be more pretty than I had expected (among the hills - pretty drive out there too). Walking to the lake it was obvious how diverse Southern IN can be - as there were plenty of white, rural, lower-middle-class folks and Latinos (some of Stephanie's students say they were there Saturday, though we didn't see any of them - they bring Stephanie shells, which apparently come from the fresh-water mussels there) and even some African Americans. Apparently, the more affluent Anglos swim at private clubs and private pools and the like (as it was Labor Day weekend, clear, and 95 degrees).

I had gone home before to the lake, because it turns out we were going to stay to help cook and clean up after dinner, and our dog just couldn't make it that long. So I brought him with me to the beach, hoping he could hang out with us even if he couldn't walk around on the sand beach or swim in the lake (though he's done this with us a few times elsewhere).

Douglas (also from the Guatemala trip), Dawn, and Kimberly relaxed off the beach.

Saturday night Carlos, Nora, and we let the kids do more of the cooking, as they cooked their own hot dogs (we made beans and veggie burgers) and served cole slaw. Ben led the fire-making effort.

Vincent cooked a couple of hot dogs.

Here we caught a rare picture of Carlos, with our fellow traveler from Guatemala, Andrea.

cooked herself some hot dogs also, along with Andrea's sister, Emily.

Luis, Douglas, and Carlos braved Ben's hot fires.

So did Ian and Kate (while Vincent watched).

We drove home in the dark - on Grant Line Road - past the Japanese-owned plant that Stephanie's Japanese students' fathers help manage, and past the Indiana University Southeast campus, where Stephanie has consulted, Vincent visited as a prospective student, and my sometime colleague Jonathan now lives and - with his mother, Becki - goes to school.

We got up early and watched that Obama bio doc and got there belatedly to make scrambled eggs and eat a Weight Watchers-unfriendly breakfast. I then rushed back to Louisville, where I welcomed people to our church as the "Elder of the week." After walking the dog, I came back to the recreation area, where the kids and Youth Team members soon left to play Capture the Flag (in 95 degree weather with no swim afterwards).

I believe here they were wrapping things up.

Vincent had napped through the first game, but Gabe (also from our Guatemala trip) and others had woken him up for the second game.

Back at the camp site Andrea had arrived to pick up SEVEN kids in her family's mini-van. When she arrived she feared everyone was ready to go - and she'd miss her chance to hang out with Isabel (but all was well - as our departure dragged).

Another group of teens - including Ariana and Elizabeth - hung out on our Taurus as we finished packing up.

Vincent had apparently been up carousing part of the night, and so he achieved somnabulance on the way home (and ended up - after getting up too early Monday and mowing and doing Geometry and then lazer-blazing and spending time with his friend Aaron - getting sick by Wednesday morning and missing some scohol during the school week that followed the three-day weekend).

P.S. On the way home, we caravaned with Carlos, Nora, and Ana. They've been in Kentuckiana for two years but haven't explored Southern IN much. We drove home a different way - went a little west than up a big-incline little canopy road into the Knobs - something between hills and mountains - along a ridge that swung us by Joe Huber's (recently deceased) restaurant and farm, where we usually go before Halloween each year to pick a pumpkin from the patch and go to a fall festival there (usually after the New Albany Harvest Homecoming parade). This year maybe we'll invite this family too - the ridges reminded them and us a bit of home for them - Guatemala - plus they got to see the great view of the Louisville skyline from the Floyds Knobs hill going down towards I-265 and New Albany's State Street.

-- Perry