Double Domes

We were back at Ginnie on Sunday, since it seemed like everything was closed except for Ginnie and Peacock.  Originally we had some ideas of places to go a Peacock, but since Ted had already done most of that during class, we decided to go back to Ginnie instead.  We decided to head to the Double Domes, via the roller coast line and the Hillier tunnel.  We did the exact same dive not long after our C2 class, so it seemed like a good place to take Ted :)  I love this dive; I'm a big fan of both the roller coaster and Hillier tunnels.  Ted somehow managed to worm his way out of leading the dive again, so it was Rob's turn to lead.  

We went in through the Ear again, after our successful Ear deco the day before (though this time there'd be three of us, which would be interesting...)  Rob was hauling ass through the gallery, and was, I think, through the lips before Ted even made it to the start of the lips.  I was a big annoyed about this.  I got to the lips, and wanted to take a moment to recover from the ass-hauling, when I noticed a couple of guys on scooters approaching from behind.  Hmmm.  I could let them go ahead and leave Rob and Ted wondering where the heck I was, or I could schlep through.  So I went straight through there and yelled at Rob on the other side, as the scooter guys passed us.  From there, things were pretty uneventful for a while.  We took the jump to the Roller Coaster line, which Ted had never been on (or noticed, I think) before.  It was nice to get out of the flow.  We navigated the ups and downs of that tunnel without any ear drama.  Then as we came to the end, I had to wait a while in the little "underpass" just before the end of the line, for Rob to install the spool and move along.  I guess when it is just the two of us, the second person will just pop out of the tunnel and wait around the corner.  When it is three, there can be a bit of a backup.

We headed up toward the Hillier tunnel, but this time, as planned, we (Rob, that is) ran the spool directly to the Hillier line, bypassing that little connector between the main line and the Hillier tunnel line (the connector that caused a big blowup between Rob and me once before :P).  As we were going through the Hillier tunnel, the viz was not so good.  It wasn't as bad as I've seen it in there before, but it definitely had that certain quality that it tends to take on after someone has scootered through it.  A minute or so into the bad viz, and what do you know, that team on scooters passed us going the other way.  And the viz didn't get any better :P  It was pretty much milky the whole way to the end of the line.  We got to the teeny tiny jump to the double domes rooms, and headed up that way.  We got to the first dome, and I could see Ted checking his gas, and I was thinking "don't call it!".  Luckily, he did not.  We made it to the second dome and looked around just a bit, and then Ted thumbed it.  On the way out, we stopped a bit longer in the other dome, since we pretty much just swam right through it on the way in.

On the way out, the viz had not really cleared up much in the Hillier tunnel.  When we got back to where Rob had tied in, I proposed continuing on this line for 100 or 200 psi, so we could see the bats (which Ted hadn't been to).  But Ted said no.  I guess he was having trouble grokking the recalculation for it :)  So we continued on out, all the way back to the mainline, without much of interest happening.  We picked up our stages (which we'd left on the mainline, somewhere between the Hill 400 jump and the Roller Coaster jump), and carried them to the Park Bench.  Now it was time for part 2 of the dive.  I let Rob lead again, since, well, I didn't feel like leading :)  We went up the park bench line, and took the first jump to the left, and then when that ended, we jumped left toward the big room.  We had just made it to the end of that little connector (so just at the big room), when Ted thumbed it.  So out we went, back onto our stages at the park bench, and back out to the ear.  When we got to the little cavern zone before the chute up to the ear, I switched off of my stage and moved my bottles around a little bit.  Ted was doing something similar, and I asked the boys if I could head up the chute.  I made my way up to the log, and took the good spot.  And then I waited, and waited, and waited.  And waited.  And wondered if I should go back down to see what was going on.  But I figured there were two of them down there, so they really shouldn't need my help to resolve any sort of problem.  After what seemed like an eternity, and was, I think, at least 5 minutes, Ted appeared.  Phew.  I didn't really get the whole story until after the dive, but apparently Ted got a little tangled up with his bottle.  And I don't mean that figuratively.

Ted was hanging out next to the log looking at me, and after a bit of monkeying around, trying to find a good spot, Rob ended up going behind and slightly above me.  I guess Ted could see him, but to me, it was like he wasn't there.  Ahhh, so quiet and peaceful.  I proposed some reasonable amount a deco, Ted proposed like 5 minutes more, and Rob proposed something utterly ridiculous (I think like half of what I proposed).  So we ignored Rob and split the difference between my proposal and Ted's.  After taking a few notes about the dive, I spent the rest of the time staring longingly into Ted's eyes.  Ewww.