TEAM TRINITY COMES IN 4TH

And the race begins. We all started off in a scramble because one rule of the race was that if a team was covered in water, they had an immediate 20 minute timeout. Chad shot off to find a map, Sarah staid next to the luggage while Kim and Tauna tried to find someone that spoke English.

We ended up finding someone that spoke English but no map. Two of the teams immediately shot off from the bus station but we as a team felt that we should take the bus that left in forty-five minutes. It was very cheap and seemed to be the best route.

On the bus we found out that the Yellow team decided to choose the same path that we did. While on the bus we completed one of the required activities that we needed to complete the race which was to write and find 101 ways to worship God in the bible.

About five minutes before we needed to get off the bus we talked together as a team and wanted to call a truce with the yellow team on the water issue. Well, that was too late because they had already devised a plan and in no time we had a 20 minute penalty on the side of the road. It was pretty funny and really taught us all a little lesson on patience. It wasn’t the easiest thing while you are in a race.

The next challenge was more than 1,200 vertical stairs. Chad and Sarah decided to go all the way to the top while Tauna and Kim divided up the remainder of the 600 steps to reach 3000. It was beautiful, thrilling with the crazy monkeys and a very exasperating experience.

After the hike it was time to head to our next adventure at the elephant ride. We caught a truck for the two hour ride and pulled up about an hour too late. We arrived while the brown team had just completed the task. We were not doing the best at this point but found out that we were actually in a 4 way tie for second because only the brown team had completed the task of riding the Elephants. We had to come back in the morning to complete the task so we headed off to complete the real fun ones in Phuket town.

We found a local hotel room and split up into two groups. Kim and Tauna went to buy a Thailand soccer ball, a tourist shirt, a wood frog and the fruit that some office buildings would not allow because of the smell. Chad and Sarah shot off to the internet to research how Jesus Christ connected with Buddhism and translate John 17:3 into the Thai Language.

Well, Kim and Tauna found the Ball and the fruit but couldn’t find the rest so Chad headed off to find the frog, shirt and the best one, the locusts and the silk worms that everyone had to eat. That was probably one of the funniest things we have all done together especially hearing the loudest scream from Tauna when she saw the legs of the locusts. The girls did great and munched like champs.

In the morning we decided to go early but we got the wrong taxi driver. It was a little took took; which is a mini little bus; and our driver was about 70. He got lost at every turn and cost us about 45 minutes in lost time but we laughed every minute of it.

The Elephant ride was a time of peace and enjoyment as a team. Kim and Chad went together on Napoleon (Kim’s name for the elephant) while Tauna and Sarah boarded one that had a bit of an itch (he scratched his but on rocks a lot). We found out that the Lime team had beaten us to the ride while the red team was about 30 minutes behind us. That changed. The red team had fast elephants while we had slow ones. By the end of the ride the red team had caught up to us.

We headed off to the final destination which was the swim at Yanui beach. Our driver got lost along the way so the red team took a commanding lead. We pulled up to the beach with the thought of Kim doing the swim but Chad had just bought a snorkel and mask and was out of the van so that the whole team would not get soaked with water so he dove in the water for the 200 yard swim to the other island. While swimming to the other island he had to observe two fish below and retrieve the team’s flag on the other side.

Chad retrieved the flag and the blue team locked in 4^th place.