Lessons Learned:
1. It always takes twice as long to do anything than you think it will
2. Don't drink orange Gatorade that isn't actually orange
3. The smell of diesel permeates everything

Well, today was our last day in sim. We will officially go out of sim tonight after dinner around 11PM. It has been an interesting past two weeks walking outside mainly in space suits, neglecting the IMer, and having no cell phone reception. Now it's almost time to go back to our regularly scheduled lives.

This morning Jan and I woke up to the beautiful sound of a running generator. The new diesel generator (nicknamed Casper the Friendly White Generator) is a sight for any MDRS crewmembers' sore eyes. It's quiet, it's big, and (most importantly) it's functioning. We didn't even have to shut off the power in the Hab to refuel.

Doug and John made corned beef hash for the meat eaters, and Rebecca and I had oatmeal. We had a leisurely breakfast followed by a long range pedestrian EVA. John, Jan, and I suited up after about an extra hour of last minute setting up, so we left an hour later than planned. We thought it was going to be a two hour EVA... but it ended up being four hours (and well worth it).

Our high school mission support members designed our path. They did a fantastic job finding a nice route to a large canyon and the back to the Hab. We stopped and made numerous waypoints and took lots of pictures. The waypoint names ranged from mission support members to John's fiancé to influences from Dune.

After our long and strenuous hike the remaining crewmembers that stayed home decided it was a good time to pull an April Fool's prank. Once John, Jan, and I made it in from the airlock and started taking off our suits Doug breezed down the stairs with a huge grin on his face and pitcher of Gatorade that looked less-than-fresh. It wasn't orange... but it wasn't really green... and it appeared that things were floating in it.

We heard fits of hysterical laughter erupting from upstairs. My best guess was that the rest of the crew lost it from the isolation while we were gone and they started doing crazy things... but apparently that wasn't the case. John and Jan both drank their cups of sludge, but I held off from touching the stuff. I normally wouldn't drink Gatorade anyway, and I definitely wasn't going to drink it when it wasn't a solid orange color.

To this moment we still don't know what was mixed in that pitcher. The EVA team hopes that dinner will be the appropriate time for the Hab team to tell us what our drink really was. They originally claimed the Gatorade was mixed with water from the GreenHab... Since this afternoon it has gone from three distinct layers of greenish orange goo to two distinct layers with floating things at the top.

So in retaliation while Doug was working in engineering and Rebecca and Kyle went to Radio Ridge to pick up our repeater we locked their room doors so they can't get in from the outside. Happy April Fool's guys :-) (By the way, we're not sadistic, we have a way to unlock them).

After a nice late lunch I decided to check on the generator. The tank was at about a quarter full, so I filled it up again. I'm not exactly experienced at such things, but I gave it my best. Bear in mind that this generator used to be owned by the military and is huge. It vibrates and shakes violently while it's happily running. As I attempted to refuel, the a little of the diesel sloshed out of the tank and splashed on my pants. Oops. I still feel like I smell like diesel even though I changed. Twice.

Now that we are near the end of our rotation we have to think about writing the final report. I have a feeling we will be writing most of the evening before dinner, and then hopefully relaxing after we take our first official walk out of sim together in preparation for our departure.

I will end my last official report with a toast for the next crew: may your generator always run, your toilet always flush, your GreenHab always stay green, and your satellite internet never crash.