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June 28, 2009, Steven Hawking had a party at the University of Cambridge. Except, no one showed up. That was because he invited everyone after the party had ended. This was somewhat of an experiment to show that time travel couldn’t be possible. But mathematically, time travel could be possible. Luckily, paradoxes like the grandfather paradox can be avoided. But if closed timeline curves “Time Portals” don’t exist time travel would be impossible.

The author/s supported time travels possibility with facts but was leaning toward the fact that time travel is not possible yet or ever. I thought that time travel is impossible, because time isn’t something we can physically change. It is something we don’t know much about, so to physically take someone/something to a time in the past or future is impossible. My parent is confused about how it would mathematically work and not physically work and does not believe time travel is possible.

You’ll never guess what I was able to do away from civilization. Without TV’s, Video games, away from I pads, and even a house. Without all that stuff I was able to do something amazing. I had fun! People might be horrified to part from technology, but the stuff we did in Joshua Tree dispelled the slightest thoughts of electronics.

The amazing adventure started as the car door opened and we went into the dry and awesome environment. One step outside and one word came to mind. HOT. The sun beat down on us like a hammer beats down on a nail and almost instantly we were sweating. Once we were accustomed to the temperature things weren’t so bad and we set up camp. Once finished we went for a short tour hike. My eyes were shot with colors of bright orange, yellow, and red. And I can still imagine the powerful colors blinding me. Once we reached the end we settled down for the next awesome day.

The sun peaked up from the mountains and morning came. We prepared to go scrambling packing: food, water, sunscreen and anything else needed. By around 10:00 we set off on our journey. Once arriving at the foot of the mountain we started our slow but steady ascension. The rocks we encountered were very cold and it felt like they were sapping the heat from our bodies. As we finally reached our destination, we saw the vast expansion of the bright desert. Then, we sat down to eat lunch.

After enjoying the meal and the view, we started to head back down the rocky side. Our next event was Rock climbing. We climbed up the cool rocks like it was cool and it was. We had a blast, and everyone enjoyed it but things got even better. We got to meet an astronomer later during the day. The man was called Jim the Starguy and he showed us all of the interesting constellations in the sky. As I looked up I saw the sky littered with bright white dots. We saw shooting stars fly left and right making our experience even better. By the time we were done, I fell asleep out under the stars.

The next day was the BEST part of the entire trip. We got to go into the cave. We prepared with food and water. We left soon after. The hike we went on to get to the cave was not long but it felt like it. 20 minutes later, we were awarded for our patience, we arrived at the “secret cave entrance”. It was an interesting way in the huge pile of rocks, we had to squeeze in through a tunnel like thing to enter. And we continued onward.

Deeper and deeper we went until we reached a room like area with two ways. Our leader and I went through the first way and found it to be a dead end so we tried the other. Bingo. We started to get people through and if they got stuck we had to dig them out of the sand. Once we all got through, we moved on. As we continued, our leader said, “We are close to a place I like to call The Cave of Wonders”. Then we arrived. It was an awesome room with a pool of water collected from the rain over the years. The place made an interesting feeling of wonder and curiosity.

Unfortunately, we had to leave in order to get back to OTA. We followed up the path of twists and turns until we saw the light and felt the warmth. Exiting the tunnel we appeared halfway up the mountain and we saw something stupendous. The view. After taking some time to look at the landscape we went back feeling glum about leaving. But as we left I still had the fun in Joshua Tree in my mind. And even as we drove away and some classmates tried to draw on my face while I was sleeping I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, forget what happened on those three days.

‘Twas fumboogle, and the purple lumpit
Did roll and stick in the wiba
All invisible were the midgets
And the garbly fattys garboogled

“Beware the Oomfoofoo, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the goofatuuf bird, and shun
The blind bellybutton”

He took his hot pocket sword in hand
Long time the gassy foe he sought
So rested he by the floating tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in empty thought he stood,The Oomfoofoo,                                                        with eyes of flame,Came walking backward through the wooden wood,                         And drawing as it came!                                                                                                 One, Two! One, Two! and through and through                                                               The hot pocket blade went snicker-snack!                                                                        He left it dead, and with its head He went exercising back.

“And hast thou slain the Oomfoofoo?                                                                           Come to my arms my bloated boy!                                                                                  Oh stupid day! Coochika! Pochaka!”                                                                                He exploded in his joy.
‘Twas fumboogle, and the purple lumpit
Did roll and stick in the wiba
All invisible were the midgets
And the garbly fattys garboogled

In the story I chose to focus on the character Atticus. He was the voice of justice in the story when things were unfair. Throughout the book he helped me understand why he acted the way he did even if it meant that he would be made fun of. His courage, justice, and selflessness were some traits that led me to understand Atticus better. And as I worked on this project, I realized that what he did took a lot of courage and hope to do his job and he became more like a protector who stands for fairness than a lawyer which are similar but one is 10 times better.