OK, first of all, I want to give you my phone number and address.
(541)489-3189
Kate Tichelkamp
1 Muddy Rd, PO Box 142
Antelope, OR 97001
Please call me and send me mail. Both would be greatly appreciated. Because I miss you all A LOT already.
Let me now tell you about my day...
I woke up at 6:15 in Boise because my mom had to leave for the airport. We said goodbye and she went on her way. I headed back to the Blazer, ready for my lonely trip the rest of the way to camp. I left Boise at around 7:30 AM. Luckily, I gained another hour on the trip out. I crossed into Oregon and was again amazed at how beautiful it is. Even though all the states I've driven through have been really pretty, Oregon takes the cake. I spent the whole day driving through mountains. But again, they're not the kind of mountains I'm used to. There like giant hills. I'm going to try to attach some pictures that I took on the way out so that you can see kind of what I'm talking about. Although, they don't really do it justice.
I was on I-84 for most of the day until, weaving through the mountains. At a town called Biggs, I was to get off the interstate and that is also the last place I would be able to get gas before getting to camp. As I said, I was basking in the beautiful scenery all day, but driving into Biggs was awe-inspiring. I'd been seeing mountains all day, but for about 30 miles into Biggs I drove along the John Day River, which was incredible. Right at the base of the mountains is the huges river with crystal blue water. And the mountains are this crazy yellow and red because it was off and on showering all day which was creating really cool light. At one point I drove under a rainbow. It was just gorgeous. But I was getting anxious.
I stopped in Biggs to grab some lunch and fill up on gas. Biggs is a teeny-tiny little town with tucked onto the side of the mountain. People were actually wearing flannel inside the McDonald's. It was awesome. Two things I have learned about Oregon: 1) There is no sales tax and 2) Every gas station is full-service, meaning someone pumps your gas for you. It's weird. And I didn't know whether to tip them. Turns out you don't but I did, so hopefully they'll give me a little extra gas for free next time or something. That's how I roll.
From Biggs, I got on Hwy 97 which is a windy 2-lane highway that keeps rolling through the mountains. You know, being from Missouri, I thought I knew rural. It was nothing compared to this. There is just literally nothing for miles and miles. I passed through maybe 2 towns in 50 miles and none of them even have a gas station. Crazy.
In Shaniko, I got onto Hwy 218, which takes you into Antelope. This is where things got dicey. It literally S-curves all the way up and then down a mountain with no guard rail. It was seriously scary but when you got to the summit of the mountain I literally gasped out loud. You can see for miles and miles of incredibly beautiful, uninhabited, mountain land. It was indescribable. That took me down through Antelope (pop. 37) and then I turned onto the scary dirt road that would take me into camp. It's another 15 miles into camp and also scary. Although about 10 miles before getting to camp, the road is paved. That's because that's where the property starts. This place is massive.
I manuevered my way past the cow in the road (seriously) and got my first real glimpse of camp. This place is so different from other camps because there's a lot of buildings and stuff (left from the cult) that aren't being used. But I drove past the big lake, some buildings and the air strip and made my way up to office. There I met Rich, who is the intern coordinator. He showed me the way to my condo. I'm in East Village Condo 55 with the 4 other Lady Interns. The condo's really nice. It has 7 bedrooms, but there's only 5 of us. Upstairs there are 5 bedrooms, 2 on each side with one at the front of the building and a common room. There are also 3 bathrooms. Between each set of 2 bedrooms are the bathrooms. The toilet and a sink are in one room and the shower and another sink are in the other room. So I'm only sharing with one other girl, which is awesome.
My room looks out into the courtyard with some picnic table and mountains. I'm across from Kristen and Mandi and Lacey are on the other side. Downstairs is a living room, a huge kitchen with 2 fridges, a laundry room and two more bedrooms and a bathroom. Drew took one of the down stairs bedrooms because the other upstairs one is weirdly shaped. Apparently summer interns will move into the other 2 rooms when that time comes. The condos are in really good shape and they've made them really nice. The boys are right next to us, we share a common wall. And the two married couples are across the courtyard from me. What's funny is they each have condos the size of ours for themselves. So, 7-bedroom condo for a newly married couple! But they're just living downstairs.
We live in the East Village and there are probably 30 condos here. There's also the Staff Village with more condos. There are about 80 people that live here year-round which I was amazed at. A lot of the ladies came by and brought us bread and cookies and such. It was nice. And we met one lady and her children who have been here for 9 years. There's a little one-room school house here on property and there are 13 kids in school there. The camp has actually hired a teacher which is so cool. So it seems like a really cool little community out here in the middle of nowhere.
After I got here, I unloaded all my stuff and started to set my room up.
Kristen was the first one here and we hit it off right away. She is so fun and sweet and we've already had some great conversations. I can't wait to get to know her more. Next came Mandi and then Lacey and Drew came a little later.
We drove down to the dining hall for dinner at 6:00 which was, of course, yummy. We got to meet some more of the property staff including Pam and Jen, who will be the small groups leaders for the single girl interns. We then went back to the staff village to a condo that has been converted to meeting space and played some get to know you games. I emerged victorious at a game of Oh-So-Co-No, which is very similar to Ah-So-Oo except that when you get out you get to become a heckler and stand on the outside of the circle and yell and the people still playing. Luckily, I have lazer focus and I represented for MO by dominating.
We also got our schedule for the next couple of weeks AND our jobs... Wait for it... I know you're excited, I was... My job is.... Snack Bar. That's right, I'm the Sassy Intern. (That's what it's called, short for Sasparilla.) I'm really excited; I think it'll be a lot of fun and I'll get to interact with a lot of the people who come in and stuff. So I'm stoked.
OK, so this really long, but I want to tell you my first impressions of all the other interns, so if you're bored, you can stop reading. If you've made it this far.
Single Girl Interns: Kristen, Mandi, Drew, Lacey, Me
Kristen is originally from the Southwest but went to Colorado State and just graduated. She grew up in YL and may be my kindred spirit while here. We've already laughed a lot and talked about how we were both really wary of not being in direct ministry while out here. And she knows a few people from Mizzou that I know and did Lifesigns at Timberwolf when we there 2 years ago. She's going to do Guest Services (which is running the rides and stuff).
Mandi is from Michigan but has been living in LA working for a church called the Dream Center. She's the most quiet, but seems very chill. It's hard to get a read on her, but I like her. She's the kitchen intern.
Drew is from Oregon. She seems artsy and brought the most stuff. She's pretty gregarious, but seems very welcoming. She's one of those people that I would never be particulary drawn to because our personalities seem pretty opposite, but I think I'm going to end up liking her a lot. She's on Guest Services too.
Lacey is the baby of the group at only 19. She's from Washington, near Spokane. She seems very sweet and girly. She and Drew both have been here several times and she seems to be the expert on the intern program. She's also very sweet. Lacey is the dining hall intern.
The single boy interns: Mike, Nick, Shay, Darren and Dan
I didn't get to spend a lot of time with the guys so I don't really have a read on them yet. Mike and Nick are both from Michigan and led together. Nick was here over the summer as the video guy. They're both really friendly and seem fun. Shay, Darren and Dan are all from Oregon. Shay was getting competitive during the games, so that immediately made me like him. Dan is very tall and seems super chill. Darren was friendly and an easy chatter which I also appreciate. The boys are all on landscaping or maintenance.
The married couples: Peter and Becca, Dusty and Sara
Peter and Becca are from North Carolina and SO fun. I like them both a lot already. They're very friendly and engaged in everyone they come across, asking a lot of questions and being genuinely sweet. Also, Becca already came and hung out in the girl condo without Peter, so she gets mad points for that. Becca's in guest services.
Dusty and Sara seem to have been kind of nomadic but came here from the San Diego area. They both seem really chill and SoCal, but in a good way. Dusty also brought his A-game to the get to know you games which again, I appreciated. He also made an Office Space reference, so he has double points. Sara seems a little overwhelmed; she's never had anything to do with YL before. She's also a little sick, but also seems chill and sweet. She's the store intern.
And that's it: 14 of us. Tomorrow we have some paperwork and then we're going on an official tour of the camp followed by training, training and more training. There's a camp coming in this weekend, so we have to figure out what we're doing fast. But it'll be great. Sorry this was so long, it was a crazy day.
