Retreat Recap: Day Five

One Friday story I failed to mention was the continued travails of Mrs. Wiggins. Bless her heart, she had a rough trip. Not wanting to get her own personal vehicle trashed, she opted to rent a nice white Town & Country for the trip. Wednesday I saw a noticeably noticed a large dent in the back. She had used her hip to make sure the back was shut, as many of us have done in the past. One student remarked "The dent was exactly the same size as her hip!"

Friday afternoon all the vans loaded to depart Washington Oaks Park at the same time. I was one of the first to leave. Windows down, the road made a U-turn through the woods. Through the trees you could see and hear excited students. I thought that odd, since the entire tired group had been loaded into vehicles.

Mrs. Wiggins THOUGHT her van was in reverse. It wasn't moving, so she pushed on the gas a little...then harder. The van was in DRIVE, and eventually the front wheels hopped the concrete thing. She was stuck! The event was commemorated with pictures.

Both Thursday and Friday my return trips to the hotel were quiet. Most of the guys fell asleep on the way back, exhausted.

Thursday night Mr. D's evening reading included an amazing passage about time, and how God transcends it. The researchers at Answers in Genesis have some amazing theories on the subject. Friday afternoon many of the chaperones had down time. Some visited the gardens, some frantically wrote skits. Mrs. Braswell pulled out a book, that had similar theories on time.

Saturday morning we pack and lug our gear down to the trailers. Before breakfast I made a short trip to get gas. It was 7:30, the sun was up, and I was able to hear the familiar voices on AM 750 WSB on the radio. Atlanta had suffered a low of 39 degrees that night.

Peyton Roth and Will Sykes remained excellent students throughout the trip. Faced with having to share the king sized bed, they considered taking turns sleeping on the floor. Not long before wake-up time that first night I happened to witness Will, in his sleep, roll over and almost put his arm around Peyton. They both quickly recognized the slip, and both edged back to their respective edges of the bed. After surviving the first night with only one close call, the rest of the week seemed to go well. One night, just before lights out, Peyton reminded Will "no snuggle-buddies tonight!"

One time we were in the room, chatting as we prepared for the next activity. Peyton was talking about his four years at Living Science. Though only his first year at LS, Will said he did know of some of the Living Science "legends." Interested, I asked him to name one. "That tall guy...Willis." I agreed.

After breakfast Mrs. D called on the Servant Leaders to encourage each member in their group. It was an amazing, wonderful time. For the most part each SL did an excellent job, granted sincere, detailed, personal encouragements. Then one group member individually encouraged each SL. Wes hopped up and told how exited he was to discover he was in Caleb & Joanna's group, that it would be "an explosion of awesomeness." And it was. As I recall, Sandy and Elin were among the other students with encouraging words for their SL's.

Due to the heat, we put off wearing the black trip shirts until today. Brianna and I sported the same outfit, which included black adidas warmup pants. I was wearing a similar outfit Sunday night when I ran into DJ at a Halloween party.

In my return car: co-pilot Mrs. Leiner, Emerald, Sandy, Mary-Clayton, and Charlotte (again, in order by last name). Not long after passing around Jacksonville we have to take an early Whether Stop, and we all eat lunch. I spy a spry Ninja sneaking around with vans, with an accomplance. When I went to intercept them, they ran the other way. Instead I discovered all the van windows had been written on.

The students discovered dozens of empty locust shells clinging to the pine trees, and made sport of tossing them on one another. I decided my fellow drivers Mrs. Braswell and Mrs. Howell would like to take one home, so I placed one on their dashboard. Amy found hers as soon as she got in her van, and had Wes remove it. Mrs. Taylor, Mrs Howell's co-pilot, saw the present but kept quiet. Mrs. Howell didn't see it until she was miles down the road. Her girls squealed, especially when Allison flung the carcass toward the back of the van, and more screams erupted.

Since we were to pass through Macon, Mr. Leiner was again the subject of ridicule from his fellow chaperones. I had wanted to time my barb just right, but since so many beat me to the punch, my joke was only moderately funny. You might not know from reading these recaps that I try to publish only the funniest jokes I think up. Aren't you glad?

In Tifton we stopped for fuel. Several of the guys were eyeing the energy drinks, literally forcing me to retell how a 9th grade Caleb drank one in my return car from Tybee Island, thinking it would help him be more like Krypto. Only Ryan purchased one.

In our van, MC and Charlotte sat in the back, swapping war stories about chorus. MC brightened when she saw a south Georgia 4H outpost/tatoo parlor. She launched into some 4H stories, so I knew she'd be fascinated with a few of my Rock Eagle memories. I think Sandy was sleeping by this point.

Emerald was sitting quietly, jotting in her notebook. Fearing she was collecting notes for a retreat recap of her own, I asked her what she was doing. Quite interestingly, she was writing a screenplay for her dad, who makes movies. Mrs. Leiner and I learned alot about her interesting family life. Made my trip!

In Macon just about every car descending on Chick-fil-A. Mrs. Taylor grabbed me and Mrs. Howell for a Wendys run. Though much quieter, I think the rest of the mob at CFA may have received quicker service than we got at Wendys.

As we finally turned off 575 at Hwy 92, Charlotte piped up, telling us of her superpower: control over traffic lights. In my car it only worked about half the time.

If you're still reading, hoping for some great ending to this five part saga, you are quite mistaken.