Are We There Yet?

*I apologize, but it looks like you’ll be reading this post at some point on Friday, due to the fact that it’s been a very, very long night.*

Official diagnosis is that the bus is low on Freon, and we would have had to wait to leave Effingham until around 9:30am if we wanted it fixed. Kept the shades pulled and got everyone off the bus at our rest stops to let it cool down. The A/C isn’t broken, it just isn’t COLD. The temp was hovering around 72-74 most of the day, although it did get pretty sticky between 3-5pm, during the hottest part of the day.

Truthfully though, things went as quickly as 12 hours on a bus with limited A/C could go. These kids are troopers. No complaints, aside from the looks of pure boredom, mixed in with cramping and a dash of sweat from the warm temps.

I’m beginning to realize that this crew is a punctual group. Our 8 kids from Redeemer have been right on time for every check in, even our one at 5:40am today so we could meet to load the bus. We were on the road at 6am and almost everyone slept/dozed until our first rest stop at 9. It was a pretty quiet second leg as well, except for me and Jack singing along and laughing to The Jungle Book.

Stopped for lunch at McDonalds/Taco Bell. Jacki and Russell attempted to teach me and Aurora how to play Euchre, although I’m not sure if either one of us was paying attention.

Things picked up a little after lunch however, as our crew from Redeemer tried to figure out how to do balloon races down the aisle of the bus by attaching a balloon to a straw with dental floss strung through it. We think we figured it out, despite Jack and Russell attempting at one point to build a two stage rocket that might have received funding from NASA.

For our afternoon rest stop, the roadside state sponsored stop was under construction, so we ended up a little further off the highway at the “Country Junction” which was a stereotypical Southern trucker rest stop. What type of items are sold at a southern trucker rest stop? Well, we saw your standard array of snacks and drinks, pop (not sure why I think the plain white styrofoam cups at a pop fountain are so funny…), but also such necessities as Confederate flag du-rags, Confederate flag license plates, Confederate flag teddy bears, Confederate flag…well, you get the idea. Also, there was an impressive collection of glass and ceramic eagles, bears, deer and other awful looking trinkets. The highlight was, without a doubt the Krispy Kreme donuts that they were selling by the box. Mmmmmm.

Played a get to know-you-game with the entire bus, which helped to get everyone talking and laughing (more at me than with me I think). Chelsea had the guts to come up and engage me in a conversation over the mic using only her Forrest Gump impersonation. Good stuff.

Watched Ryan’s favorite movie, School of Rock this afternoon. He’s not lying about it either. I think I watched him watch the movie more than I watched the TV’s. The kid knows every word!

Whitney and Ang were pretty quiet most of the bus trip, although they did get quite a bit of enjoyment out of watching the two kids from WI directly in front of them take flirting to a new level. Chelsea once again allowed Aurora to use her as a gigantic body pillow (this is a slight exaggeration…it’s just funny to see how differently girls sleep all cuddled up on top of each other during bus rides).

Finally pulled into New Orleans around 7. Dropped off WI, got to the Marriott New Orleans at 7:20.