Despite what Hippies claim, engines don't run on water

Frances, Esther, Erin and I woke up early this morning to go on a morning hike to Avalanche Lake. The name of the lake sounded much more dangerous than it actually was. We hiked two miles through cedar groves and pine forests, traveling alongside a stream flowing blue glacial water. When we arrived at the lake, I understood why people love the park. On three sides of the lake were mountains, each with bare rock faces and little streams flowing down the sides of the cliffs. Esther thought the area looked like something straight out of the movie "The Land Before Time." I realized that I was wearing my swimming trunks, so I decided to go for a morning dip. The water was SO COLD! The lake was very shallow, and the bottom was all silt, so it took about ten minutes of trudging through the muck to get to a spot deep enough to go for a dip. By the time I got out of the lake, my feet were numb. On our hike back down to the car, Esther got into a "fight with a bear," and scratched up her hands and legs pretty badly.
When we got back to the bus, we packed up camp and headed back to Kalispell. The bus vegged up, and the chase car dropped off Erin. We were all sad to see her leave, because fresh faces are always welcome on the bus. After saying goodbye to Erin and her family, we began our 360 mile drive to Bozeman – only to break down half an hour into our trip!! The bus was losing power, so we stopped at a small local gas station. Lucas and I spent the next two and a half hours in the parking lot examining the engine. Lucas worked on the bus and explained the problems to me while I nodded my head and pretended to understand. The "veg run" that we made earlier in the day turned out to be more of a water run. The tanks were contaminated with water!! We drained the water out of the front veg tank and cleaned out the fuel lines, but some engine troubles remained during our 6 hour drive.
We arrived at Sam Naney's house in Bozeman at 11:00. A crowd was over at his house, and they wanted us to hang out with them, but we were pretty tired. Sam, his buddies, and our gang all hung out on the bus for a while, but then it died down and we crashed.

-Merritt