On Friday the 21st, Tiff and I went to the premier of Disney’s Newsies Jr. 📰! Andrew played the character Albert. He had a lot of dancing roles and even performed a front-walk-over! I noticed the stage lighting created shadows of characters on the backdrop in certain scenes that may have been choreographed with stage props…🤷♂️. Anja Beck had a wonderful singing scene as well. I loved all things New York! 🗽
On Saturday morning at 0730 hours, the dive team & SAR assembled at the barn, prepped and packed equipment, conducted a pre-mission briefing, and rolled out to Tioga Pit for our annual ice dive training. Upon arrival, SAR went to work prepping the dive site. Todd from SAR mentioned the chain saw that they use to cut the access hole in the ice has no bar oil, rakers are filed down, every other tooth is removed, and the teeth are 45 degrees points. After completing my neurological exam, I kitted up with Nathan in the dive team trailer next to the heater, morning temp was around eight degrees.
After entering the water, I was a little impatient and didn’t get all the air out of my dry suit and resorted to descending head first. This is a bad habit that I need to stop doing. My improper decent resulted in excessive pain within my left ear while equalizing. While working through equalizing and comm line management, I had a difficult time hearing Andrea on comms. After a few minutes, my ears equalized and the pain went away and I preceded to a depth of approximately fifty feet.
Nathan, and I, descended on the dog skeleton and proceeded south along the edge of the drop-off. We couldn’t go very far because we ran out of comm line so we had to turn around. I then ascended to the ice ceiling near the access hole. The visibility was unlimited. I managed to stand upside down on the ice and attempted to capture the moment with my GoPro. Its fun to watch the air slide around in puddles like mercury looking for any escape to the surface. I think the fun of ice diving is messing around near the ice and trapped air. After diving, we were provided with tasty cheeses burgers and fries before we started teardown, cleanup, and packing. We returned to the barn and finished up unpacking before heading home.
Upon arriving home, I was met by Tiffany, Tammy, and Mazie. I didn’t think that I was going to be able to attend the Saturday performance of Newsies because of the ice dive but it worked out. 👍 We were able to visit for a short time before leaving for dinner. I showed everyone some of the GoPro video of my dive and Mazie showed us a video of her recent exploration of the Holy Grail Cave that was arranged by her boss that works at a climbing wall at St Olaf College. Tammy stated Tyler was not feeling so well so he stayed home with Jamie. Kim arrived and we all then went to Rapids Brewing for dinner before the musical. I had the Beef stroganoff and sourdough while we listened to The Jason Waldron Band. The musical was wonderful and afterward, Andrew was able to meet Noah who had brought his friends from UND.
Sunday morning, we had brunch at NOPO. I had a delicious cup of drip medium wash coffee, an everything omelet, and a side of crispy bacon. After eating, Tammy and Mazie left for home, Tiffany attended the last performance of Newsies, and I took a Sunday nap with Willow. 😴
End of blog. Thank you for reading!
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