“First ones up get Captain Crunch!” called Ishtar’s voice across the meadow. Everyone jumped out of their sleeping bags and scrambled to find their bowl and spoons. After the first twenty people or so, there wasn’t any Captain Crunch left. Ishtar had found a way to get everyone up on time.
      As some ate their Captain Crunch, others were finishing their oatmeal or breakfast bars. Then we all got dressed and cleaned up for the day ahead of us as Ishtar called a meeting. Once we all got our journals and pens for the meeting, we all sat down on the tall grass in the meadow.
      We were told some bad news about not being able to go to Kilcher Homestead, but we also got some good news. Mossy Kilcher was coming to talk to us about her experience living on a homestead in her childhood. We heard stories from her “Cinderella” experiences where she and her sister changed from farm clothes to town clothes before school at the bus stop. We also heard how they got mail when they lived so far out from everyone else. She told us that the mail was put in a box and wrapped in toilet paper, then thrown out from a low-flying plane so the toilet paper would leave a trail for them to find the box when it was dropped. We all listened intently to her stories and realized we’ve got it pretty easy these days.
      After hearing about Mossy’s childhood, we packed up the vans and set out for what was going to be a fun-filled day. We were now heading down the road to the Islands and Oceans Visitor’s Center. As we explored through the center, we watched a short video about Alaska’s seabirds and other ocean facts, and we also learned some other facts in the exhibit area. Then we bought some chocolate bars to keep us going and went on to our next stop.
      All the vans split up and did their own thing. We all ended up going to the Washboard laundry mat where we also got nice, hot showers! We left smelling wonderful and had clean clothes for the rest of the trip. Then the vans went to the Homer Spit at different times and did some power shopping for last-minute souvenirs and gifts. After we had a long day all over Homer, we went back to our campground that feels like home every time we pull in and see the meadow with the beautiful ocean and mountains in the background.
      Just because we were home again didn’t mean the day was over. After dinner, people started getting ready for our dance! The theme was none other than a crazy one! Some people had gone to a Salvation Army and gotten some crazy stuff to wear and others just took what they had and went crazy with the hair. The minute the music turned on, everyone started dancing and showing off his or her moves. After some crazy songs like “Love Shack” and “Cotton-Eyed-Joe” we had to end the night, and what better way to end a great day than sitting around the campfire listening to Mossy singing and strumming on her guitar.
      Then we all said goodnight and had hug time. All of our heads hit the pillow pretty fast and we fell asleep thinking about how tired we were after dancing our hearts out and how much fun we had doing it.

      The day started off with a great talk from the wonderful, much loved, if not somewhat eccentric, Mossy. We learned a lot about growing up on a homestead and some very interesting facts about it. For example, she told us how when they dropped off the mail it was dropped from a plane with toilet paper. The paper unraveled so you could find the mail—at least most of the time (once they lost a box of chocolates from their grandmother in Switzerland!!).
      There were some slight mishaps during dinner when people put barbecue sauce on their hobo dinners and they burnt to a crisp. Other problems included putting catsup and cheese on prematurely. Matt Crapo was cooking and accidentally dropped a coal onto Kay Fitzsimmon’s plate, and it melted a hole in the plate. During dinner Mike Williams made a mural on the side of the outhouse. I think that it was a really cool idea to be able to leave something like that behind. I’ve got to say, Mike is a good artist and the mural was a very good one.
      Now the most exciting part of the day began: the dance. The theme for the dance was mis-matched or nerdy. So, of course, we had most of the guys dressed up in girl’s clothes and bras (on the outside of their shirts). Andrew Mickus and David Doud wore the most outlandish clothing, coming in as a French maid and some sort of cowgirl. Many pictures were taken of the dysfunctional duo as they skipped and pranced about.
      I think the best part of the dance was when Mossy came to sing for us. She is a very good singer and guitar player. The first song she sang for us was a song she wrote when she was 13. The second song was a Swiss-German song about a gypsy. The best song was the third one. She sang her song “Come back come back” from her album Northwind Calling. Her final song was one we could all sing along to. We all sang Kumbayah together and held hands. Afterwards we found out she had some copies of her album left and we could buy them for 20 dollars. I think we all enjoyed Mossy’s singing, I hope the rest of the trip is as amazing as she was.