One of my crewmates actually responded to my emails a while ago, so I started asking him questions. I asked him if I could blog his answers and he said that it was fine, as long as I didn’t include any names. I’m linking things, so that if you wanted to read about them you can. (You might also be able to find the names that he asked I take out. :D)

This happened a while ago, so if something seems wrong date wise (when I said I was writing about solo and then the last day of hiking) that’s why.

Brett: Do you still think about Outward Bound? Or have you done your best to forget it?

Crewmate: I talk about it, but I haven’t forgotten it. But I have moved on, and remember the things I learned.

Brett: Right now on my blog I’m writing about our solo. What did you think about solo? Did you like it?

Crewmate: Yeah, Solo was easy for me.

Brett: What did you do during solo? I mostly sat and wrote in my journal.

Crewmate: Once I set up my tarp, I ate, wrote a little in my journal, and then I went to sleep.

Brett: Cool! What’s your best memory of the course?

Crewmate: Topping Table Rock.

Brett: I know… the moment of triumph when we FINALLY reached the top after that horrible day. Remember how we had to evacuate the mountain because of that thunderstorm? And then we had to all squish into that one platform?

What was your favorite meal of the trip?

Crewmate: My burger at the Banquet.

Brett: Oh, yeah! Those were amazing! Remember the cookies we had with them?

What was your least favorite food?

Crewmate: grape nuts.

Brett: Those things were nasty! What did you think about the cheesy grits?

Crewmate: Good. I eat them frequently, so that wasn’t anything new.

Brett: I’d never had them before. I didn’t particularly like them, but I didn’t hate them like some of the others did. 🙂

What was your least favorite part about the course?

Crewmate: The girls complaining about everything. At first it was funny, because ____, ______, and I made jokes about it, but then we were told to stop. But the girls didn’t, and it all went downhill from there as you recall. At the end even I was starting to get agitated.

Brett: I didn’t know that you guys were told to stop! I just remember when you did. I hated the complaining too – especially when ______ was complaining during our hikes. She was like “let’s go, c’mon we don’t need to stop” and I was physically unable to keep going. It was horrible. What was it like in the van when _____ and _____ talked to the girls during resupply? I wasn’t there for that – I was talking to Josh. But I got in the van and everyone was upset.

Crewmate: It was loud. And by loud, I mean ______. Mainly her – everyone else was calm. ______ explained to the girls how we (the guys) felt about all the complaining that they (the girls) did. That set ______ off, and then they got into for a bit. Then _____ stopped all together. He ignored her for the remainder of the day. Then _____ and I took over, and we all agreed that they needed to stop, or reduce the amount of complaining they did. It was better after that if I remember correctly. ______ still didn’t talk until we got out of the van.

Brett: Wow. I can see why _____ was so upset. I was pretty bewildered – I had no idea what the heck had happened. LOL (This is what I wrote about it for my grandparents). I just remember how uncomfortable it was in the car, and how _____ and ______ were pissed about it for quite some time.

What do you think was the hardest part of the trip for you physically? And for the whole crew too, not just you?

Crewmate: Personally, the hardest day was the first day of hiking. Getting acclimated is not easy. But it only got easier for me; even the steep hill we climbed on day 10 was not bad. Athleticism has its benefits. I think that keeping a solid pace was the hardest thing for the crew. We stopped too many times, and that got even me agitated. I talked to my brother, who also went on an OB trip, and he said that they typically got in around 6-8PM, and one day they turned in at 10AM. Comparing that to what we did, we did something wrong.

Brett: For me, the hardest day was the day we summited Table Rock. I can’t wait to blog about that. LOL. I couldn’t breathe that day. I wasn’t physically getting enough oxygen. You know, that’s part of the reason we had to stop so often. Because I couldn’t physically keep going. I knew that it was annoying people, but I wasn’t able to keep going.

If you’ll remember, there were a few times we were done by 6-8. Now, there were a couple of times where we were up kinda late… Remember the night we were up until 3 in the morning?

We may have been doing something wrong, but in the end everything turned out ok. 🙂

Do you miss anything about/from our course?

Crewmate: I miss the freedom of the outdoors. It was nice to be out there. I also miss of the crew, particularly the guys, we just got along so well.

Brett: I miss that too. I’m glad that you were able to get along well with the guys. I wish that I had been able to get along with the girls more. Unfortunately, with the way I was raised I have never really understood people like them. So I didn’t get along with them as well as I wanted to. I tried, I just could NOT understand them!

What was the thing you liked the least?

Crewmate: Stopping when it wasn’t necessary.

Brett: Yeah, sorry about that. It’s been six months and I still feel guilty because of all the times we had to stop, because of me.

Did you get any good pictures?

Crewmate: Unfortunately, my camera broke so no pictures survived.

Brett: Your camera broke? That stinks! How did it break?

Crewmate: I had it in the same bag as my sunscreen. When my sunscreen exploded, it ruined the camera.

Brett: Oh, that really stinks. Would you like me to send you Jen and Katie’s pictures? They gave me a bunch that weren’t on their FB page.

Do you think you learned anything on our course?

Crewmate: Sure, I’d like to see some of the photos. I learned more than I thought I would, actually. I learned a new knot (which I still know), and what it is like to be away from civilization for an extended period of time. Great experience.

Brett: Which knot was new to you? They were all new to me. 😀

Crewmate: The top line hitch (I think thats what its called) was new.

Brett: Which knot was that? I don’t remember what they were called. LOL

Crewmate: That was the knot that we used to tie the line (what you non sailors call rope) from the tarp to the tree.

Brett: Do you remember how many feet we went up on that last day of hiking (table rock day)? Trying to write that now…

Crewmate: 4900 I believe. Somewhere close to a mile.

Brett: Thank you. I was thinking it was somewhere around four or five thousand.

I’m so glad my crewmate let me post our emails. (If you read the blog posts I linked to, you might have figured out which crewmate it was. ;))

I’m almost done with my recapping, so if you have any questions about Outward Bound let me know! If there’re enough questions I’ll do a q/a post. 🙂

To read part seventeen of day thirteen, click here.

I am NOT good at coming up with things about someone when I’m “forced” to do it. So before she handed out the papers I’d tried to come up with something for as many people as I could. Of course, Tullia was one of the ones I hadn’t thought of anything yet.

Thankfully, I came up with something before it was my turn. I don’t remember exactly what it was – I think it was something to do with how easily she made friends.

“Okay everyone,” Katie announced. “Here’s how this will work. The first person will stand up, walk over to the person he is delivering the certificate to, say what he has to say, and give him his certificate. Then the person who just received his certificate will stand up and present the certificate he has to the person whose name is on it. Does that make sense?”

Everyone nodded or said yes and it began. A couple of people went and then Bruce stood up and walked over to me.

“Brett, you were always positive. Even when you were scared. Thank you for that.”

He handed me my certificate and I thanked him, setting my certificate down before walking over to Tullia. I didn’t personally agree with him – I’d been a mess the whole time, but I wasn’t going to tell him that!

I gave Tullia her certificate, said my thing, and sat back down on my sleeping bag. When we were finished with the ceremony we all lay down and were silent for a bit, but then we started talking. We talked and talked and talked. And talked some more.

Eventually Jen and Katie had to tell us to go to bed, because we talked so much. I think that after the ceremony everyone else realized what I’d realized a couple of days before – we’d be leaving soon. And despite wanting to go home, no one wanted to leave.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part sixteen of day thirteen, click here.

I looked up from studying my hands to watch my crewmates. In less than two weeks we’d become friends. Bobby and Rebecca were laughing together, Bruce, Luke, and Kayce were doing something weird, and the others were wandering around looking at interesting things in the clearing, laughing and talking the whole time.

Jen and Katie came out and we started walking back to the platform, everyone satisfied. It had been a good evening – the time together in the platform, talking with Colter’s crewmates, and the ah-mazing dinner.

When we got to the platform we began the usual night time routine – getting changed, brushing teeth, going to the bathroom in groups, etc. Then we all slid into our sleeping bags and talked. We talked, and we talked, and we talked. We talked so much that no one heard Katie the first time.

“I said, can you all sit up and pay attention??”

It took a minute, but after a bit of elbowing and kicking we managed to get everyone’s attention.

Katie and Jen talked for quite a while about the importance of Outward Bound. They talked about how they tried to be a positive influence and how they tried to help people change. Then Katie pulled out a handful of pins and a bundle of papers. The pins were for us, if we felt that we deserved them. If we thought that we had upheld the four pillars, (compassion, craftsmanship, physical fitness, and self-reliance) then we should come up with a reason why we deserved a pin and we would get one. If we didn’t think we deserved our pin though, we shouldn’t take one. When we felt that we were ready for it, all we had to do was call or write to Outward Bound and they would ship it to us.

I don’t remember any of the reasons. I do remember that a couple of the guys didn’t take pins, saying that they weren’t ready for it yet.

When we were done with the pin portion of the ceremony, Katie pulled out the papers from before.

“I’m going to give each of you one of these certificates. You will not get your own, you will get someone else’s. When you give them their certificate, you have to say something nice about them. Something about them you admire. Something that helped you on your course.”

Katie shuffled through the papers and started handing them out. You could tell she wasn’t just handing them out randomly – she was thinking carefully about who got which certificate. I prayed that I’d get an easy one – I’m not good at coming up with things like that on the spot. When she handed one to me, I looked down at the name and grimaced. I had no idea what I was going to say for Tullia.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part fifteen of day thirteen, click here.

Rebecca finished and Bobby rolled his sleeve down. He stood up and walked over to Davis, towering over him. He got a really mean look in his eyes and said “What the ____ are you doing with my wife??”

Davis turned really pale and looked at Tullia quickly before turning back to Bobby. The room got really quiet and everyone was looking over there.

“Well? What’re you doing?”

Tullia chose that moment to interfere. “Bobby, leave him alone. Go sit down.”

Bobby looked heartbroken. “But Tullia, don’t you see how much I love you?” He pulled up his sleeve and showed her the heart on his arm with her name in it, grinning at her impishly.

I don’t know what happened next because Bruce bumped me and I looked at him to see why. When I looked back, Bobby was sitting next to Tullia laughing along with all of them. Davis still looked pretty pale though. 😀

When we were done eating, we had to clean up. A bunch of kids got kitchen duty, (including Colter), and a bunch of my crewmates and I cleaned up where we’d eaten. I wiped down tables, moved benches around, helped sweep, and then helped in the kitchen when I was done with that. They have a sweet kitchen!!

In the Dining Hall they had a TV and a blackboard. On the blackboard was a list of Olympic medals the US had gotten. When we were done cleaning we all crowded around the board, eager for news of the Olympics.

We were banished from the dining hall then, told to wait for Jen and Katie outside. We all sat around in the clearing, just talking. It was a bittersweet time for me – with every moment that passed, we were getting closer to the time we’d have to leave each other.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part fourteen of day thirteen, click here.

“Form a line and don’t fight or push, there’s plenty of food.”

Despite the warning, I found myself being jostled to the back of the line by a bunch of boys who were all almost a foot taller than me. I sighed and resigned myself to it – let the boys get out of the way and then I’d be able to get my food peacefully.

As the line spread out I caught glimpses of the food. There were baked beans, a salad, and Hamburgers.

Hamburgers. After two weeks in the wilderness, we were getting Hamburgers! I didn’t blame the guys for pushing me out of the way after that – I wanted to do the same once I saw the food!

The instructors were serving our food. All we had to do was hold out our plates and say yes or no to the different things. At the end of the line Katie was serving a tray of cookies, and without fail, every single kid asked for two. All Katie did was smile as she shook her head and dropped one on our plates.

We walked over to the tables and everyone tried to find a good spot to sit. I sat down at a table with a bunch of my crewmates. Tullia and Jordan were sitting with Colter’s crewmates Davis and Grant, and they were laughing and talking quite loudly.

I don’t remember if I’ve written about this yet. Tullia and Bobby had become good friends on the trip, and they’d started calling each other “Hubby” and “Wife”. They didn’t mean anything by it, and it made us all laugh.

Well, when Bobby saw Tullia sitting and laughing with Davis, he grinned and said “do any of you guys have a pen?” Of course we didn’t, but he went and found one anyway. He came back and sat down next to Rebecca. “Can you draw a heart on my arm and write “Tullia” in it?”

Rebecca nodded, taking the pen. Bobby rolled up his sleeve and pointed to where he wanted her to start drawing.

“Bobby, what are you going to do?”

Bobby grinned. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part thirteen of day thirteen, click here.

We sauntered up the trail, back to civilization. Everyone was happy – we had showered, shaved, and we were going to be getting real food. There was laughter and yelling back and forth as we walked, the prospect of food making everyone cheerful.

Jen and Katie walked us through a building and onto the deck behind it. They left us there, going back into the building. As we stood there we could hear boyish laughter coming from somewhere below us, so we looked around, trying to locate it.

On a deck that was beneath us and to the left, Colter’s crew was playing a game. They had to stay on their feet, lean down, and pick up a box with their teeth. My crew leaned against the railing and watched, laughing with them whenever anyone failed.

Several minutes later, we were called into the Banquet hall. The boys on the deck below us came thundering up the stairs, rushing to beat us (and not quite making it. :D)

We were all pointed through the building to the clearing in front of it. We gathered ’round in a circle, two crews and about ten instructors. When it was time for Appreciations, everyone started speaking.

“I appreciate Jen and Katie for doing an awesome job at being our instructors.”

“I appreciate Josh for helping all of us.”

“I appreciate Corey for helping us with our rock climbing.”

When one of Colter’s crewmates said Corey, my crew all focused, looking around the circle to see who’d said that. It looked like Colter’s crew was all looking at Katie – or, they were looking at the guy standing next to her.

“That’s Corey??”

“Corey’s here?”

“You guys got Corey??”

My crew was all laughing, the girls thrilled that they’d gotten to see Corey. He was Katie’s partner, and we’d heard a couple of stories about him. Rebecca (who was standing next to me) whispered in my ear “You should ask Colter what Corey’s like.” I grinned and nodded. I never did get around to that…

When we were done, Josh addressed us all.

“So, everyone, are you ready to eat??”

All of the kids let out a cheer – when we were walking through the building earlier, we’d gotten a couple of clues as to what we would be eating. After eating out in the woods for weeks, we were SUPER excited for dinner!

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part twelve of day thirteen, click here.

Kayce sighed and sat down next to Luke, holding his hands out to Katie. The girls were all grinning and whispering to each other, unable to believe that the guys were actually letting Katie paint their nails.

“Bobby? Ben? Are you going to get your nails painted to?”

They looked horrified by the idea. “Why would I do that?” Bobby asked incredulously.

“‘Cause it’s fun?”

Bobby sighed. “Nope, not happening.”

When we were done painting nails, it was almost time for the Banquet. We took some pictures of the guys with their nails, and pictures of the whole crew.

Luke, Kayce and Bruce after we painted their nails

Showing off their pretty purple nails

Look at the difference between everyone in this picture:

The Crew on the top of Table Rock Mountain

And in this picture:

The Crew after the showers, before the Banquet

It’s amazing what a shower can do, huh? 😀

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part eleven of day thirteen, click here.

Bruce looked around at everyone and then crawled over to Katie. “Here you go.” he said, holding his hands out.

Tullia grinned and started telling us about her life, the way all of us had already done. She was one of the last to tell their life story – all of us except one of the guys already had.

While she was in the middle of telling her story, Katie motioned Bruce away. He held up his hands and showed us all, the purple shining brightly, reflecting light.

Luke walked over to Katie. “Katie, you can paint mine too.”

The girls all busted out laughing. “Luke’s getting his nails painted too??”

Painting Luke’s fingernails… :D

Kayce was watching Katie paint Luke’s nails with a funny look on his face. “You should get your nails painted too, Kayce!” one of the girls said.

“Do you really think I should?” He asked, walking over to Katie. “Whew, that stinks!” he exclaimed, wrinkling his nose as he smelled the nail polish.

“Kayce, are you going to let her paint your nails?”

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*