"Remind me never to go on an EVA with you again, Digby," Bob said jokingly.

Bob McNally, Commander Digby Tarvin, and I were riding our all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) on an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) today out to the west of the Hab, trying to retrace our tracks of last Friday night's EVA.

It started raining within 10 minutes of our leaving the Hab. Our last EVA had ended in the dark, and now this one was getting rained on.

Not continuing was never an option. We had set some goals for ourselves, and we were determined to accomplish them, even in the rain. Our instruments, already covered with a thin film of dust after eight days out here in the desert, now had new layers of dirt and mud caked on them.

We kept on, and the rain stopped after a short time, though not before the soles of our boots were caked with an inch of mud.

We were exhilarated as we drove along tracks and trails that others before us had mapped and took readings that would help us make our own map of features and waypoints of interest to our crew. The rain was nothing compared to what we were doing and the joy we found in doing it.

Are we having fun yet? You bet!

Having fun, as we are, is an essential part of the experience for Mars Desert Research Station volunteers. It improves morale and helps us work together as a team.

Here's an example of how much fun we're having: We realized after we'd been here five days that we hadn't gotten around to making even one pot of coffee. (Some of us never drink coffee, but for some it has been part of their daily routine.) We only thought of it because a Finnish TV crew came to film us and we thought it would hospitable to offer them some coffee.

Crew member Diego Casa explained how something so much a part of everyday life could be forgotten here: "When I'm at work, I have to drink two cups of coffee an hour just to stay awake, but here I don't need it because it's all so exciting that I don't want to miss out on anything."

So when friends who are checking Crew 24's adventures on the Mars Society's MDRS page tell us it seems like we're having "too much fun," we agree, happily. If this is too much fun, then everyone should be doing it far more often.