/Saratoga

Along the way, groups of three to four students gave “Triple T” presentations: lessons on various historical events and people accompanied by student-created activities. The “Triple T” topics included uranium mining, a crashed WWII era B-52 airplane, Japanese relocation camps, the notorious western outlaw Butch Cassidy, and the Pony Express. Some of the activities included tag, Frisbee and a water balloon fight. Torrens often follows educator Horace Mann's philosophy that the best way to teach a student is to have a student teach.
 The trip was extremely physically tiring, starting off with a twenty mile mountain bike ride down Schafer Trail in Moab. Torrens said that he wanted the students to experience Utah right away so he scheduled the ride for the second day of the trip. The bike ride ended a few hours behind schedule, resulting in the cancellation of a campfire on the Colorado River.
 “The rocks and the steep downhill slopes were so hard, but it was really fun,” said junior Elizabeth Shin who suffered a five feet skid on her back. “Insane but fun. [For me] it's a once in a lifetime sort of thing...I never want to do it again.”
 The students also experienced rappelling and driving All-Terrain Vehicles and Jeeps at Monticello. The first day of the trip included an exhausting race up a sand dune. Torrens originally claimed that no one had ever beat him to the top of the dune, but this was revealed as a lie when all the students beat Torrens to the top. Junior Duke LeTran said rolling back down the sand dune was one of his favorite activities of the entire trip.
 On the last day of the trip, the group visited Monticello High School, where Torrens used to teach. Students sat in on a junior English class and compared life and culture with the Monticello students. They then split into small groups and were given a tour of the school. The Saratoga students were shocked to hear the the Monticello junior class was only  about one-fourth the size of the Saratoga junior class, and that prom bids which cost approximately $80-$90 at Saratoga cost only $8 for Monticello students. After the tour, the chaperons drove the group back to Salt Lake City.
 The group was split into three vehicles, two identical white vans and a Jeep for the duration of the trip. Students were extremely bonded with the group of classmates in their respective vans by the end of the trip, for a rivalry had started in the form of pranks among the three groups. Jokes included saran-wrapping an entire van, covering a van with diapers, and covering a hotel-room's door with duct tape among other things.
 Short but intense, the Wild Wild West trip was definitely a good balance of education and fun.

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