J.B. starting early in the month.

My Aunt Virginia called me today to tell me about the death of my cousin John Hawkins' son Spencer. I guess he was in his teens but had had health problems since birth. I went to the viewing - saw John and his ex-wife and their 2 girls - also another one of my cousins - John's brother who lives in Modesto, California and just happened to be up here for conference. It is only April 4th - so I plan to edit this post and keep adding to it thru-out the month and hope that others do also!!

4/8 - Hooray for Molly - she becomes the 1st other than Jabe and myself to post to the Washburn Wanderer. Hopefully many others will follow suit - soon AND often!! As you can see, it is easy to post early in the month and then add to your original post by logging in and editing rather than starting a new entry!!

4/11 - We were trying to go to Blanding this weekend but I have 2 offers on a house I have been trying to sell for awhile, so we are staying closer so I can hopefully get it sold. We may go down by Green River with our Lone Peak 4 Wheelers Jeep Club if all goes smoothly. More later.

4/25 - We did go to Temple Mountain on that Saturday and did Little Wild Horse Canyon and Muddy Creek. One of our guys buried his Cherokee to the axles crossing Muddy Creek and we had quite the adventure getting him unstuck. It took us over an hour but he finally did winch himself out - We took his 125 foot winch cable plus a 20 foot strap which let us reach over a sand ridge - then I dug a hole aiming under the ridge and back toward his Jeep and we buried his Handyman Jack in the hole with the strap wrapped around the bottom - as he winched it just buried the jack deeper and deeper!! After we got him out he had to come around and winch the other way to pull the jack out of the ground. I went a lot faster than he did and got across with no problem.

As we continued south toward Hanksville, we found a space capsule called the Mars Desert Experiment. We arrived at the only time we could have and get to talk to them - otherwise they would have been inside and could only come out in space suits, but they were changing teams the next day so they were out and about - if you want to read some interesting stuff, just Google them and you can read all about it. This is an excerpt from what I found on Google.

March 11, 2005
The Mars Society of Canada is now accepting applications for Expedition Beta ÿ a two-week training and research mission to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah. The purpose of Expedition Beta is to certify new recruits for participation in future large-scale research expeditions, to expose researchers to the facilities and environment typically available in a Mars analog setting, and to cross-train participants in several areas including geology, biology, technology and operations as they pertain to human Mars exploration. The two-week expedition will take place in December 2005 or early 2006.
Expedition Beta will be the Mars Society of Canadaÿs second training mission, building on the success of last yearÿs Expedition Alpha to MDRS that featured studies involving the local geology, crewmember physiology, field-testing of new fieldwork protocols, EVA traverse planning, and work-study task and procedure analysis. With both Expedition One to MDRS and Expedition Two to Arkaroola, Australia having been successfully completed, successful participants of Expedition Beta will have the chance to contribute to future large-scale expeditions being planned for the Canadian Arctic, Iceland and the Atacama Desert in Chile, among other locations. Individuals who have not participated in either a Training or prior Research Expedition will not b e eligible to take part in future full-scale expeditions led by the Mars Society of Canada.