For the first time I can remember, the morning dawned without a single mishap. The generator hammered away dependably; none of the many water tanks overflowed or ran dry; and there were no strange smells to investigate. It didn't seem right. However, we are down to one operating rover, the one that quit during my first EVA. Turns out that the other rover, which runs fine, if not rather loud, is missing some bolts that hold the exhaust pipe to the header. At least that's how I understood what Don Foutz told me when he came to take the garbage away and refill our water tank and fifty-gallon barrel of diesel fuel. He said we shouldn't be driving it, which effectively leaves us with no rovers at all since we're supposed to go out in EVA crews of two. The rumor of a third rover has been floating around since we arrived but it has yet to appear, and my guess is that it won't. That leaves us with only the pressurized rover to take us on EVAs, limiting our ability to get do much outside the Hab and the GreenHab.

We received a visit from Doug Pizac, an Associated Press (AP) photographer today. He was following up on a visit by an AP writer who interviewed members of the last crew. Apparently, the AP writer was here for a day. On the surface, writing a story about the Mars Society's activities out here at the Hab would be an easy, and even fun, assignment. It's an odd place inhabited by odd people-let's face it, anyone who volunteers to spend their hard-earned vacation time or time away from their families to live in a simulated Mars environment is a bit odd-working toward a goal they won't likely see in their lifetime. And the real Mars has been making news lately. Put the two together and you have a quirky feature story that gestures toward recent scientific discovery. Having lived here now for more than a week, I can say with confidence such a story would miss quite a lot of what goes on here. In any case, the AP photographer tagged along for an EVA in the pressurized rover as Gregorio and Commander Frederick searched "tank wash," a dry streambed where they hoped to find terrain features analogous to Mars. After an hour or so the wind started to kick up and threatening clouds rolled in from the northwest. The EVA returned to the Hab with some rock samples, lots of pictures to compare with those coming back from NASA's rovers, and one dead scorpion missing a stinger. The AP photographer left soon after.