Day 8 – 7/29/08

At 4:45AM Thayer (another advisor) woke us up in the Sanctuary. We all seemed to be really dragging this morning. The folks from the church again had breakfast for us which really hit the spot, thank you! We were packed and on the bus at 6:15AM the trip so far has been pretty good. It was quiet for the first couple of hours but now everyone is awake. Chrissy just came back to sit with me and she wanted me to put in my blog that she broke her watch on day 6, so Chrissy, here you go.

Friendships continued to grow for the rest of the trip. Along the way, many notebooks were being passed around to get contact info. The advisors have agreed to send me the pictures and I’ll get them posted and I’ll put up a link on here as well as my other blog. We stopped about 1PM in Charlton for lunch. I had pizza and the kids spent a short time out of the bus because they said they were to spread apart and wanted to get back on the bus. That shows the bonding that this trip had created for them.

After lunch around 2PM everyone called home because we were about two and a half hours away. After about 45 minutes of traveling we pulled over. The bus was starting to over heat so Gary did whatever he did and the bus was started again and we were on the road, but a half hour behind. The problem was though that we had no air conditioning and we had to drive slower. The bus was beginning to get very hot, and the smell from the bathroom was creeping out. Despite the situation, everyone made the best of it. The girls and I were fanning each other with magazines and we still had a good time. More pictures were being taken and everyone was still talking and getting to know each other.

We rolled into the Woodford’s church just after 5PM. The bus emptied out quickly and I gave hugs to Carl, Nick, and Ryan. The group started unpacking the bus and saying good bye. I got hugs from all the kids and advisors I got to know well on the trip and said good bye. I then checked out with Susie and was off on the road home. While driving, I got text messages from Tyler, Alex, Ben, and Chrissy. It was really cool, and I asked them to please stay in touch. I have a feeling this isn’t good bye, but more of until the next time. These kids have been great and will do great things for the world. The trip is over now, but the memories and friends will last a lifetime. Thank you everyone!