Ghost Ranch Pilgrimage 2019!!

Our last day of work was at the Christ in the Desert Monastery. After a 14 mile drive down a BuMpY washboard road, we arrived at the stunningly beautiful monastery. Father John assigned us three jobs: shoveling gravel on a path, coiling wire from the hops field, and  weeding a trench. We did the work in silence, only speaking to the monks. We enjoyed our sack lunches after our work, then finished our visit attending the Sext (mid-morning) chanting service. Tomorrow... messages from our pilgrims!!

Ghost Ranch celebrates a home-grown 4th of July by hosting their own parade. When we found out vehicles of all sorts are decorated for the parade, we asked our amazing bus driver, Donnie, if we could decorate our bus. He even helped!! With our "portable" speaker, and U.S.A. rockin' playlist, we were the life of the parade. July 4th evening, 10 of us got to be flight crew for 3 hot air balloons. They tethered to the ground and  performed a night glow. The next morning, Meghan and Lucy helped one of the crew set up for a morning flight  (at 5:30 a.m.!), and the flight captain invited them to ride along!!! Here is the view from our cabin on the mesa...

Wednesday, July 3, 2019 The morning began early for some of us! A group of weary but motivated hikers set out from the cabins at Ghost Ranch at 4:45 am. You read that right: we got eight teenagers on the trail before five in the morning. We raced the light as we scrambled our way up to the top of the Chimney Rock mesa, and we watched the sun rise on the valley below us. Not bad for a group that was stargazing six hours earlier! Yes, we're tired, and yes, Bobby was probably sleepwalking for most of the hike, but I think we are all in agreement that it was a spectacular way to start the day and one of many highlights from this trip (so far!). Check out some picture below of our fearless hikers!