Time | Activity |
3:50am | Alarm goes off. After questioning my sanity, I crawl out of bed and head to the gym. |
4:10am | The workout begins. Unfortunately, time runs out before I can do squats and lunges. |
5:30am | Arrive back at home. Down a protein drink. Wake Patti. Shower and pack a bag for the day. |
6:05am | Head out the door with time to spare for so I can stop for water and snacks. |
6:20am | Start greeting students as they drag themselves in still in a sleep stupor. |
6:45am | Phone call from bus company saying they are running late and will not be at the school at their scheduled time of 6:45. |
7:15am | Load the buses and head on our way only 15 minutes behind schedule. |
8:00am | Listening to music, playing scrabble and texting friends. |
8:13am | Listening to the boys argue whether ABC stands for Adult Beverage Center or Alcoholic Beverage Center. (They decided on Adult as it wouldn’t be good to encourage Alcoholics to the Beverage Center.) |
8:52am | Asked by the boys if we could go to Hooters for lunch. |
9:15am | The bus crashes into a stopped car in front of us turning a small sedan into a Smart Car in a fraction of a second. |
9:28am | Collecting injuries, birthdates, phone numbers, and addresses from the students on the bus involved with the accident. |
9:52am | Accident report filed, bus driver ticketed, we begin on our way again. |
10:13am | Learned that there are still a few 8th grade boys who don’t know what XXX stores are all about. |
10:14am | There are no longer any 8th grade boys in the front of the bus who don’t know what XXX stores are. (No, I did not educate them.) |
10:30am | Arrive at the aquarium. I stay on the bus to rearrange groups so a student can be taken to have her head checked out. |
10:36am | I am the proud chaperone of double the amount of boys that I started with when we began the trip. My group of 4 has grown to 8 – very active 8th grade boys. |
10:38am | Look for my group. |
10:40am | Run to the gift shop to get some batteries after realizing mine were sitting on the counter back in Benson. |
10:46am | Begin looking at the exhibits in the aquarium. |
10:55am | Head to the whale tail for our special class. |
11:00am | Whale class. Throughout the class, tell my boys to quietly listen even when they speak regular volume, “When can we go miss. This is borin’!” |
12:01pm | Head back to the bus looking at the fish on the way out. Stop to take a quick picture of a turtle on a log. |
12:05pm | Look quizzically at the bus and notice one side is much lower than the other. Wonder if there is any truth in the ‘air compression’ reasoning I hear as an explanation. Examine the slight damage from the crash before getting back on the bus. |
12:30pm | Arrive at Hardees with check in hand to pick up the order placed for our students the day before only to find two busses ahead of us and our food not ready. Wondering where my boys are. (No worries, I found them.) |
12:57pm | Hand out meals to students. |
1:05pm | Head to the beach asking, “Where are my boys?” |
1:07pm | Find boys. Walk at a discrete distance behind them as they walk the beach checking out girls. |
1:21pm | Join the group of students gathered at the water looking at a great big jellyfish. Talk myself out of taking it back to school as a motivator after hearing a man tell them if they touched it in the wrong place it would “bite your ass!” |
1:44pm | Load the buses and head to the battleship. Run into dreadful traffic due to construction and our second accident (not us) of the day. |
2:43pm | Arrive at the battleship. |
2:47pm | Take two boys back to the bus to leave their swords and silly string out of temptation’s way while on the warship. (You guessed it. They were planning themselves a game of war on the USS North Carolina.) |
2:55pm | Enter the battleship while looking for my boys. |
3:20pm | My boys are nowhere to be found. They have begun a game of hide and seek on the battleship. |
3:45pm | Find my boys and hang with them on deck before heading to the gift shop. |
4:15pm | Start loading the buses for home. I breath a sigh of relief when see all my boys on the bus. |
5:28pm | Try to answer riddles presented to me. I get 2 out of 5 correct. Put my headphones back in and turn the music up. |
6:23pm | 2 miles from school the bus begins sputtering. We find ourselves on the side of the road – again. I am able to quiet a busload of middle school students for the 5 minutes necessary to make a phone call. |
6:37pm | Arrive back at school knowing this class trip is definitely one for the record books! |
Section 1 We end at the beginning Does it feel like this trip will never end? Epic adventures tend to last a bit longer than just an average one. So….on with our tale. We got our bikes all packed up and continued over White Pass. The first time we went over it, it was a cloudy day. Thus, the visibility of the mountains was not much. I was expecting the same on our return trip to Packwood. Therefore, it took my breath away when I saw the mountain off in the distance for the first time. The beauty was so overwhelming, I teared up. I continued to watch the mountain until I could see it no more. Soon we were in Packwood. Back where we started. After a quick breakfast at the local coffee shop, we were on our way. I may have taken a few minutes to ride the big bike first… Not too long though, because someone was ready to get moving. Jennifer had some friends that were camping at Walupt Lake, which is right on the trail for Sectio...
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