Saturday & Sunday

Saturday: Savannah bus and walking tour. Batty tour guide. Ghosts, pirates, old buildings, where Forrest Gump was filmed. Saw Paula Dean’s restaurant. Ate ice cream. Tammy tried to flag a limo. The student leaders steered our small group through a specific square where an old bum sat on a bench, made up as a clown. The leaders said he’d been there last Sunday when they had been there before. Dinner at Sonic.

A special evening in the conference room where the graduates gave a charge to a younger sibling or friend, and the students read their letters of encouragement their parents had written in advance. Will liked how I’d complimented his improved wardrobe. Appropriately, Meg’s dad had sent a card that played a song, disturbing the quiet moment.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Mr. Cain presented short, fascinating character sketches on Christians who made great contributions to science, like Louis Pasteur.

Sunday: Packing for the return trip. MaryKathryn had left her shoes outside, next to Meg’s hoody. I opened a pack of peanut-butter crackers and put one deep in each shoe, and stuck the opened packet in Meg’s hoody pocket, in plain view. I told MK I was playing a joke on Meg, that MK was sure to find out. As I was pulling out of the hotel I saw Meg and asked if she had any crackers.

The kids aren’t supposed to purchase snacks on the trip, but two in my van bought large energy drinks…just what a teenager needs when the next five hours are to be spent in a car. One actually sang 600 verses of “Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall” (quietly, fortunately for the rest of us). After his first hundred I said “one more time!” – big mistake.

Our four-van B group caught the A group near the Chattahoochee on 75 North. All nine vehicles arrived at the same time, and soon it was over.