Last night was quite a night. The crew had a special desert in honor
of Kim’s last meal with the crew. He departed today to catch his
flight back to Earth. After this special desert the crew began
laughing over a funny hypothetical story of everything that could
possibly go wrong if one crewmember entered the living area from a
stateroom in a Kramer like fashion. Photo documentation of the
aftermath was taken as the crew staged what they expected would happen
as a reminder of safety to future crews.

Today the crew had a very early start. 3 crewmembers woke up to the
rising of the sun as they slept in the crew living area after falling
asleep watching another episode of Firefly. Breakfast this morning was
a treat from Whisky, PANCAKES at 7:30am. A little sprinkle of
freeze-dried strawberries made the treat extra special.

The crew headed out at the ripe time of 8:30 for Goblin Valley State
Park. The hoodoos were spectacular. The crew had an amazing time
posing for a panoramic photo where they are in just about every part of
the picture. Do you think you can find them all? Can you tell how
many people are actually located in the picture? The crew was amazed
to be standing on ground that was deposited during the time of the
dinosaurs. The crew then headed out in search of the slot canyons.
The State Park Ranger gave incorrect directions and the crew found
themselves standing on the top of the fluvial sand dunes they were
hoping to look at from the side. The crew then took a long drive to
find the canyon and finally located it. As the crew hiked onward into
the slot canyon BioBabe remembered why she preferred living on the
prairies as she worked through a minor claustrophobic panic attack.
Although this event occurred the crew had a great time learning about
the geology and forces that created the sandstone and the canyons.

The final destination of this EVA was Arches National Park. This part
of the EVA was a very quick tour of the park because Kim had to be back
in Green River by 6pm to catch the bus to Salt Lake to make his flight
back to Earth. The beauty of the Arches Park however was not lost on
the crew during the speedy tour as they contemplated heading back after
dropping Kim off to view the stars through the arches.

The crew was very sad to see Kim off as this means that their time at
MDRS is rapidly coming to a close. The whole crew feels that these
past two weeks have flown right by. They were all excited by today’s
adventure and are looking forward to tomorrows trip to Capitol Reef
National Park.

After returning to the hab the crew spent some time outside stargazing.
The crew has many amateur astronomers and it was quite interesting as
they orientated themselves to the Mars sky and located many common
constellations.

On a side note the human science experiment that was begun at the
beginning of the rotation is still going strong. Blondie has not yet
taken a water shower and has stuck to his chemical showers. None of
the crew has yet complained of any moldy sock stench radiating from
him. We are all very fond of him and his stamina through this
experiment. Keep holding strong Blondie only two more days until you
head to Salt Lake yourself and you can have a real shower.