Back from Tour!

Wednesday morning through Saturday night was amazing. The top 3 groups of the Home School Music Assoc. (Symphonic Band, Chancel Choir,& Senior Orchestra) traveled to Ohio and played 4 concerts.

Wednesday morning everyone met at the bus at 9 a.m. It was pouring rain. The Bus and Van were packed and everyone was ready to go by 10 a.m. The bus ride was alot of fun. I sat with awesome people. When we were within an hour of our hotel we got a call, the van that had been following us pulling the percussion/uniform trailer had broken down. So, we went all the way back and picked up all the van riders, and squeezed everyone onto the bus along with the bass drum. That was funny. We sat 4 in a seat. It was squished. I don't believe i ever got to sit NEXT to Sarah on the bus, but she did sit on my lap several times..haha it was fun. :) We got to the Hotel and then left about 10 min. later. Becuase of  our van breaking down, we did not have our uniforms(yay!) so, we got to wear our Tour T-shirts and Jeans! Happy Day! We played at Church of God in Newark, Ohio. It was a small stage, so we had a little trouble, Wendy was poking me with her down bows, and i was poking Liesl with my up bows! and Mrs. V.(our conducter) accidently smacked David and Ian's stand sending the music floating to the ground, but she caught the music they were playing AND kept conducting! Then Amber dropped her bow becuase she hit derek with it on an upbow...it must have been quite an amusing concert to watch. :] They fed us supper, it was delicious. I roomed with Elaine, Andrea and Marissa, Mrs. B was our chaperone. We went to bed at a reasonable hour and woke up at 6. I slept in a bed with Andi and Marissa becuase my sleeping bag was in the percussion trailer! That was an interesting night!! I slept maybe 4 hours.


Thursday morning we packed up and left the hotel and headed to a Senior Living Facility. We played there and then they gave us Ice cream! Yum! We also got to wear our Tour T's and jeans again because we didn't have the van back yet! After the concert we headed to our new hotel in Marysville OH. The Van was in the shop, so Mr. F and Mrs. W. rented a U-haul and pulled the percussion trailer to the hotel and met us there, with our Uniforms! So we all went to the trailer to get our uniforms. I couldn't find mine, ANYWHERE! I Knew i had given it to someone on Wednesday morning, so it had to be Somewhere. After about 30 min. of frantic looking someone walked up and said "do you know anyone who is missing a uniform" I was like "um. YES! ME!" It turned out to be my uniform, my name tag had fallen out. I was very relieved to find it.  After finding my dress we were told that we weren't allowed to go swimming, but that we could dip our feet in the pool,this we did, and we even refrained from "accidently" dumping someone in... ;)
Then, something bad happened. A game of ultimate frisbee(which i hate) was going on on the other side of the hotel. Elaine was hit in the eye by the frisbee and ended up having go to the doctor! Her eye was bleeding, it was pretty serious, and the doctor put her on bed rest for a week. She didn't get to play at the concerts for the rest of the week, but was able to go with us to the Museum, and she rode in a wheelchair.

Thursday night we went to United Bethel Mennonite Church. I think this was mine(as well as everyone else's) favorite performance. After we performed we got to talk to the people and they were so nice, and we played catch phrase with some of the kids, it was awesome!Thursday Night at the hotel was awesome. We were on the 2nd floor which had a balcony! We went to bed pretty late.

Friday morning i woke up at 6 and went to breakfast with Sarah! There were a couple other crazy people up at the time and we had a fun time. Then Sarah and i went for a walk. We went across the parking lot to the other building of hte hotel and went up on the balcony. Some of the guys(Cam, David, Andrew, Derek, Ian) were on the ground and we could hear them talking, but we couldnt see them, nor could they see us. So, Sarah took a leaf and dropped it from the balcony to where they were standing, and then we ran. Soon after that they came pounding up the stairs and started following us! They were freaking out becuase we dropped a leaf!!! Seriously? it was pretty hilarious. Friday morning we left the hotel at 9 and went to the National Air Force Museum! It was pretty cool. We got to go onto the Base and go on the Presidential tour, that was my favorite part. We got to walk through old Air Force One Planes!!! It was SO AMAZING! I LOVED it!
After being at the museum a while we boarded the bus again and traveled to our hotel and then to Dayton Avenue Baptist Church. After a great concert Madison had an asthma attack and she had to go to the Er! The hotel we stayed at in Dryden, OH, was pretty much just plain scary. The rooms didn't smell very nice either. It was pretty much in the ghetto.We went to the gas station across the street and the cashier was behind a wall of glass! That made me feel safe(not).im sure it made him feel safe though! We weren't allowed to go anywhere without a guy to protect us..haha yeah, we have some huge scary guys at HSMA that could totally beat up any punk that tried to hurt us... ;) No, it was nice to know we were being taken care of. We stayed up late playing frisbee in the parking lot! :) Then our little parking lot "party" was broken up by a scary incident. We all then went to bed and slept! Everyone in my room slept in till 7! It was SO nice!



Saturday morning we left at 8:30. Our van had been fixed and returned! Yay! We went to the National Air Museum again and spent the day there. Everyone got to go to a Imax movie, either "Figher Pilot" or "Hubble" I went to the "Hubble" Imax movie and sat by Tori. It was an AMAZING movie and i want to see it again! It was all about the Hubble space station and how last year they went to repair it. I love space, it is SO beautiful. How ANYONE can look at everything and think it happened by chance just blows my mind. During the movie it said something about how the pictures from Hubble would help answer questions like "where did we come from" "How was earth created".i was astounded! I leaned over to Tori and said "umm... actaully the Bible answers those questions!" God's creation is AMAZING!
After Hubble there was a commercial for "Fighter Pilot" which was showing next. Tori and I reallly wanted to see it, and when we walked out of the Theater we found out we could buy tickets for it! We were So happy! We got to see both Hubble AND "Fighter Pilot". Fighter Pilot was also a really awesome movie, but i still think Hubble was better.

We left the museum at around 4 and went to a pizza place! Then we began our trip home. We arrived at the meeting place at 10:30. It was an amazing trip and i hope, if there is one, that i can go on tour next year. I had so much fun getting to know everyone better!