E.Y.E. Day 1/2

I spent the days leading up to our departure for E.Y.E. 2011 explaining to friends and family members where I was going and why. It was funny to me how many people told me not to worry, that I would have fun, and that they would pray for me. I'm not sure why it was funny per-ce, just knew that it was.

I arrived in Ellicott City, MD to catch the bus at 11:30am yesterday. We left a little after Noon and drove to Hermitage, PA. We arrived there shortly after 5pm an hour early, and waited for the other two buses. The plan was for all of Province III to meet in Hermitage and drive together to E.Y.E. Bus number 2 was on time-ish arriving shortly after 6pm, and bus 3 was very late arriving around 7:30pm.

We ate dinner in shifts, waited on the buses to refuel and get new drivers, sorted out who was riding where (the people from Pittsburgh and North Western PA met us at the church in Hermitage along with a 15 passenger van missing the back seat-it was determined that we would have chaperones only in the van and let the kids ride on the buses), and finally departed shortly after 9pm.

From Hermitage we drove up into Ohio where we stopped briefly after midnight, and then to Portage, Indiana to switch drivers at a hotel after 3:30am. We passed through downtown Chicago a little after 5am, which is when the van lost the buses. Turned out it was ok as we had to make a bathroom/gas stop just inside of Wisconsin around 6am.

Just outside of Madison we stopped and had breakfast; at which point our van caught up with the buses again. We arrived at the Mall of America between 11:30am and Noon. We were given until 3pm to wander the mall and eat lunch; I still didn't see all of it.

We made it across the river to Bethel University by 3:35pm and after some brief confusion managed to check in, go to our dorm, hear the welcome speech, and find our rooms by 4:30pm. We were all eagerly anticipating taking a shower before dinner only to learn that dinner was at 5pm and adults could only shower from 5:30-6:30am or 4-5pm. I was determined to make it so I quickly yanked what I needed out of my suitcase, dashing into the bathroom, and took the fastest shower possible.

Since I gave up on sleep after barely managing to get an hour's worth between 10:30 and 11:30pm I headed to dinner with plans to take a nap between dinner and the 8pm Adult Leader Orientation. I managed an hour which helped me make it through the adult meeting and the dorm meeting before crashing for the night

I did manage to read an entire book between Midnight and breakfast on my Kindle though, so the van ride wasn't a complete wash-out.