Excerpt from Jennifer Pepin’s journal:
Sunday April 2, 2017
What a crazy few days I’ve had here in Laos! First off our hosts are from Indiana. They have seven children here. They are managing a resort on this beautiful river where we are now living. The cabin we live in reminds me of the cabin in the movie Parent Trap.
Our first full day here was yesterday and the night before we were told to be ready at 6am. No one knew what we were going to be doing but we all were ready and waiting at 5:56 am wondering if this was an April fools joke. Sure enough it wasn’t. Sam pulls up with a truck and tells us to grab a jacket because we might get cold sitting in the back of the truck. We load up and hope when he says this is going to be a five-hour ride he meant round trip. But two and a half hours later we find out were just half way as we pull over for breakfast, which was corn on the cob from the side of the road. Our host also got us sugar cane for a snack!
As we bumped down the road some of us enjoyed the beautiful views while others tried napping on the floor (unsuccessful). The weather was nice and we were having a good time on this adventure. We stopped for lunch an hour out and ate a tasty chicken burger between fluffy bread.
We arrived at this gorgeous river and were handed life jackets and headlamps. We’re going for a boat ride through a cave (how cool!) underneath a mountain. I think to myself this is the coolest thing ever, defiantly top five best days on the race. The only light is coming from our headlamps and our driver is flying through these turns in the cave. I kept trying to figure out how he even knew where to go!
We stop to walk through these cave trails and continue on to the other side of the mountain. It was so wild and beautiful. We stop to use the bathroom and return to the other side of the mountain via cave.
We find out the real reason for our visit to the cave is to purchase a boat. This makes more sense why we didn’t take the family van and had to sit in the back of a truck for five hours. We then load the 20ft wooden boat into the back of this 8ft long truck bed. The six of us now have nowhere to sit besides in the boat in the back of the truck.
The seven-hour drive back was a test of endurance and I learned a lot about how tough this team is. Our body weight was practically the only thing holding this boat in the truck. We all chatted to pass the time then had a quick stop for dinner and another for snacks. Then it got dark and cold and we all became silent just hoping for this adventure would end soon.
I don’t know many people who could sit in the back of a truck in a boat till midnight without a single complaint. These people inspire me. My team has strength, perseverance, strong wills, determination to stay positive, and an abundance of laughter because we all woke up the next morning laughing at the craziness of it all.
I had phone calls in the morning with different leadership members and I couldn’t help but feel proud of how tough our team is. I don’t know if the rest of my team can agree with me but it was definitely one of my top five days on the race so far.
