Thursday - Tripdate 202307.20 Sol System, Earth, Arkansas

Today was Thursday. It was our last day of work at ECHO Village.  Breakfast, made by the wonderful group of Rob, Anna, David, and Barbara, consisted of 35, not 36, fresh eggs from Suzie’s girls.  They were very good and were a very bright yellow.  

After breakfast, we headed to ECHO Village to continue the war against the dirt.  Despite the hot and humid day, the dirt lost the battle.  It was spread evenly and grass seed was scattered, straw was spread, watering commenced.  The flower bed was planted – sunflowers, roses, and other flowering plants – some of them were purple.  Some of the group worked on the flower bed by House G – it is weed free (until tomorrow when new weeds sprout), new plants were planted, and mulch applied.  Work continued on Veterans House – it is looking good and will soon be ready for the new resident.  We are happy to report that Anna learned how to operate a circular saw as boards were cut to install a door to the crawl space in the Veteran’s House.  Windows in Hospitality House were cleaned.  In the process, the upper sash of one came off the track.  Determining how to fix it provided the steps to fix the lower sash so it no longer had to be propped open.  (Dan, not Dave, was incredulous.)  Gene completed a rock border around a tree at the front of Hospitality House – it was quite artistic and unexpected.  The cabinets in the kitchen were stained and clear coated and a grill was assembled.  Much cleaning was done so that the Hospitality House would be clean and shiny for the ECHO board meeting occurring there this evening.

After bidding farewell to Dan and Suzie, we returned to the church for showers and quiet time before dinner.  Dinner this evening, prepared by Melanie, Jinhee, Cora, and Pam, was quite the smorgasbord – they prepared as many of the leftovers from the week as they could.  Because of the power outage back in Kansas, we had a special surprise of shrimp with dinner.  It was either go bad in a freezer with no power or come on the trip.  The shrimp enjoyed Arkansas and we enjoyed the shrimp.  After dinner, we went to downtown Eureka Springs to do an Escape Room.  We split into two teams – first time mission trip attendees vs veterans of the trip.  The Newbs went to John Smith’s Speakeasy to determine his secret identity.  The Veterans had to determine if Cy was guilty of participating in the Great Bank Heist of Eureka Springs.  Spoiler alert – he was.  The two teams are still debating which solved their mystery fastest. 

We are now back at church blogging and working on Care Cards.  If you want details about Care Cards, I’m sure Cora, Alex, or Anna would be happy to explain.

Thank you for following our adventures.  There will be a final blog sharing each participant’s thoughts of the week.

Good night and pleasant dreams.

Rob, Anna, David, and Barbara

Last Picture from Hospitality House