This was the first year in quite a while I didn't do anything fireworks-related during the week of July 4th. I had plenty of other things to do though. I had Thursday and Friday off. Wednesday night (7/3) I drove up to Michigan to spend the rest of the day with Beth (she's been going up there a lot to be with her mom, who was still in the hospital) and Thursday (7/4) we drove down to the South Bend area to spend some time with friends from church who were camping at Potato Creek State Park. A whole bunch of people were there, similarly to camping at Chain O' Lakes State Park over Memorial Day a while back. We also went to see Men In Black II with them while we were there, then returned to camp for hot dogs and smores. Later that night I headed home while Beth drove back up to MI. Friday morning I set out for southern Indiana to the St. Joseph Valley Grotto campsite, since the grotto was having a weeklong campout there. As it turns out, the campsite is located on private land and is leased from the landowner. There's a big field with a woody area with a clearing in it (and a sinkhole), the campsite is in the clearing. Anyway, I got there at about 1:00 pm on Friday. I didn't know what it would be like or who would be there when I got there, but the place was deserted, so I just went about setting up the tent. Picture if you will and old movie entitled "The Three Stooges Set Up a Tent in 94 Degree Heat" with the parts of Larry, Moe, and Curly all played by me. People began to trickle back in from caving a couple hours later. Another guy who was arriving for the first time that day (many others had already been there for days) and I got a little caving in; he and I and his son and nephew went into Elrod cave for a while because we were itching to go and the kids had never been in a cave before, and they were antsy. After a trip in (which we weren't really prepared for; we were just going to walk around a little and come back out, but would up going in quite far, and anyway hadn't put on our coveralls or pads) we went back to camp and did camp stuff (sit & talk around the fire, eat hot dogs, etc) until later. I found out that our nice expensive air mattress has a leak in it because I woke up sleeping on the ground the next morning. The next day we went on a caving trip through Lost River Cave, in which I bashed my shin pretty good while walking through waist deep water. I stepped on a rock that moved. (Big cut, lots of blood.) I had to make an into-town run for bandages and peroxide. I stayed at the campsite until after dinnertime, because one of the grotto members was making her famous jambalaya for everyone for dinner. I drove back Saturday evening. Anyway, I hope to get in on some surveying in the Lost River Cave soon. It's a cave that the grotto members discovered just a few years ago and are still surveying; 16 miles so far and no end in sight. More leads are found every time they go surveying.