Day Three - more driving and arrival in Ely, MN

This morning was an early morning for us in Chicago - 5:30 AM with plenty of driving to follow. We took off at 6 and drove until about 10 AM when we decided we both needed some Starbucks (BAD). From there, we stopped at an Old Country Buffet for lunch at about Noon and kept on driving until we hit Ely, MN at around 5 PM. The drive had plenty of bug spatters on the windshield of the car and most definitely PLENTY of music including the completion of my Disney Soundtrack, HMS Pinafore, Phantom, parts of Enchanted, Sweeney Todd, a few random songs from Carl and then a bit of the Juno soundtrack. All in all, the trip took a good 11 or so hours (I napped for about 3 of those...) and Carl drove for every one of them (not that I didn't offer). I'm pretty sure we made some good time and also had a pretty good time singing along with the musicals. That was, until we hit Ely and I realized our imminent future.

Upon our arrival at base camp, we wandered around a bit until we figured out where to check in. While Carl was checking in, I met Angela Stuart (who knew who I was right away (somehow)) who had talked to Dad earlier in the day and found it funny that he knew staff was arriving today. After I had checked in, the two of us were shown around camp by my "boss", the history director, John. Then the three of us continued on to dinner which consisted of traditional camp food - noodles and sauce, bread and corn and then Carl and I took our stuff up to our cabins. I'm in a cabin with four other girls whom I haven't met yet. I'm on the top bunk and we have our own bathroom with shower; its even nicer than Draper or Trout Lake at D - A. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one with a trunk/footlocker despite the list telling us to bring one. We had a staff meeting and met each other at around 8 tonight and told a bunch of jokes - some were funny, some were traditional "corny" scout jokes. Someone (whose name I already forgot) sitting behind us told the unique rabbit joke that Mr Cullin tells all the time in Geometry. I wanted to tell the hypotenuse one but I figured it would be lame to tell a math one (until some one told this one - "What's the integral of 1/a log cabin? Natural log cabin..."). Tomorrow starts early with some training at 7 am for my group and then breakfast. After that, who knows what. We'll see I guess.

The free floating, general anxiety is still pretty much very present but Carl has been really great about reassuring me how awesome and fun things will end up being - I'm just worried about how things will be after he leaves base.

I'll keep you all updated.