mom's input

I love this country and my kids despite what they may say. Yes we have had a crazy past 8 days in the Gobi Desert. We have laughed so much while reliving the adventure. This is what travelling is all about, having this kind of experience and living to tell about it.
During our ordeal my job was to keep the troops spirits up, their minds off their troubles, while keeping them busy solving the problems at hand. This I think I did quite well. First I reminded the girls of how much they really know about surviving ie. How to find food, tie knots (to keep Chewy (the camel) from escaping), build fires, use a compass (so Future could find us again), how and where to find water which we had learned just days before (which the girls did). The next step was to send them off in search of things we might need. They came back with plenty of lunch if we needed it. Lizards, we were actually thinking of all sorts of ways to prepare them and looking forward to it! Anything other than Mutton sounded delicious. Having the camel tied up beside us was actually very comforting. Chewy had all sorts of useful possiblities if our situation turned into a long term event. After every thing was prepared and we were starting to get bored the cards came in very handy. We were very lucky that the weather had changed for us as well, it became cool and cloudy 30c instead of the 45c we had been boiling in the previous days, and what are the odds of us breaking down right near camels, the first and only we saw all day!
Shean we have been spending many hours fantisizing about food! Oh to have vegetables, fruit, spaghetti or pizza!!! or something, anything cold to drink would be amazing, since they don't understand the meaning of cold here except in the winter at -40c.
Malcolm and all my crazy brothers, and nephews we really have found your heaven on earth here in Mongolia. The 4x4ing is amazing with thousand of miles of terain for you to get stuck in and oh don't forget the hours of repairing you trucks!
What makes Mongolia so great really is, the people. I am convinced that the less you have the more you share, with each other and complete strangers. I think we could all learn a lot from these good natured and crazy humoured people. I really hate to leave here because we have had such a good time and met so many special people. Although like Ammon I am looking forward to another stamp on my passport.
love to all. Maggie the mom
p.s. I am soooooooo excited that skylar is going home to the states as I write this. I will be able to sleep at night again.