So this year Kayvon and I decide to go to the LYA convention in Texas. This was to be his first plane trip and my first adventure away from my normal home states(OR, CA, NV, WA). This would mean two full days of flying and six days away from home and family(other than Kayvon). Could I do it and enjoy myself?? As the day to leave got closer, I just kept thinking "what have I got myself into?"
Wednesday:
4am-We got up so that we could get the critters feed and the last of our packing done(I needed my pillow).
5:45 am-Said our last goodbye and boarded the first plane. Klamath to Portland. Kayvon was awesome and not an issue with flying. He got the window seat. Amazing I did okay to, not a bit travel sick. Did have a few tears, as I was leaving Wally and Jacob behind.
I am not sure on the rest of the times, but we had enough time in
Portland to find our next flight gate, go potty, get a drink and then board for Ft.Worth/Dallas. It was a 4+ hour flight. Got pictures of Salt Lake, but the Grand Canyon was covered with clouds. Was very pretty. Kayvon has been to Salt Lake City, so was nothing new to him and he slept for most of the flight. We landed with ease into Texas.
We had enough time to find our gate for the flight to San Antonio, go potty, and this time to grab something to eat and eat it before we needed to board. Air time was 41 minutes. Enough time to get to cruising altitude and then descend into San Antonio...
6 pm-We met up with the Youth groups from Washington and get on the bus for Texas Lutheran University. Total from the Pacific Northwest was 33.
8 pm- We arrive at TLU and get checked into the dorms. I was lucky and got my own dorm room and only had to share my bathroom with Connie(another counselor, the only other woman from the PNW group). She was a blast to hang out with.
2:30 am- Finally get to bed.
Thursday:
6 am- Get up so that we can get the youth up and to breakfast.
8 am- Breakfast done and ready to load on to the bus. Since we were the only group that came in early, we decide to go to Schlitterbahn water parks in New Braunfels. My goodness is that park huge. I would say at least a mile long. Four separate sections. You do not walk from the first section to the last, you ride a tram..We arrived at 9:30 or so and need to leave at 5pm. In that time we had two big rain storms.
Oh, did I mention that Hurricane Dolly made land fall that morning in Texas. Since we were about five hours from the coast we only got the front edge or maybe the tail end of it. Still brought a great amount of rain and lighting. It also triggered two Category 2 tornadoes in San Antonio.
So at the water park on the slides, we enjoyed rain. Being from the PNW, one does not go to the lake to swim, the pool to play or the water slides to slide in the rain. It is just to darn cold, but here we were riding the slides and swimming in the rain.(I have a picture of us there, but have to get it scanned.) I only got to two sections of the park. I could have spent all weekend there.
5 pm- Load back on the bus and head to dinner. Which was our choice from Taco Bell, McD's or a place called Chick-something and we only had 1/2 an hour to get it and eat it. Kayvon and I had Taco Bell.
6:30 pm- Back at TLU to check in with the LYA convention.
7:30 pm- I had a counselor's meeting.
Mean while Kayvon was getting to know 200+ youth. We had kids from all over the US and ranging from 12-22. Was a great thing to see so many youth together with the same thoughts and ideas.
9 pm- This was a youth mixer(get to know ya) and pizza.
10:45 pm- Evening Chapel (I skipped this one because my body decide to catch up on itself from the flights the day before and the water park today, nice bathrooms there at TLU)
11:30 am- The rules for the weekend
1:30 am- I finally got to bed for the night after chatting with Wally for an hour.
Friday:
6 am- Up and at them. Had to get the girls up and moving to get them to breakfast(which was only from 7-8). Man, girls are hard to get up in the morning.
7-8 am- Breakfast. Was eggs, sausage, fruit, biscuits and gravy, cold cereal and toast. Very good, also we shared our breakfast with 140+ refugees from the coast. They were staying in the parking lot with travel trailers and tents. Looked okay, more annoyed then worried.
8:30 am- Morning Chapel. Really neat to hear other pastors.
9-10 am- Group Study. The theme this year was "Friends Forever". This was about your relationships, both friends and later spouses. How our relationships(and God/Jesus's relationship with us) affects our daily lives and actions. How to grow them, accept them and be a better friend.
10:30 am- Board the buses for SEA WORLD. Also eat a box lunch, as that was what we got for the day unless you bought food from Sea World.
12 pm- Arrived at SW. The parking lot was bigger than my property and the park was monster sized.
I did not have enough time(we only had till 9 pm). I rode the two huge r
oller coasters(one twice), two water rides, watch Shamu(Believe Show), watched the Skiing shows, looked at the Budweiser's Clydesdales(of course I would get there, LOL), Alligator Alley and walked, walked, walked. I must have walked ten miles. I was done at 8pm and I did not get to 3/4 of the park. Also I only saw Kayvon three times that day. He hung out with some girls from Michigan. (The Steel Eel at right)
9 pm- Load on the bus. It is an hour and a half back to TLU.
11 pm- Evening Chapel
11:30-1:30 am- Rec time. We had Volley Ball, Basket Ball, movies, ping pong tables and the such at the gym. And with a day like we had I did not expect many to show up. Boy was I wrong. I think we finally got every one back to their dorms at 2:00.
On the Campus the dorms have outer door locks, so only the counselors had keys. So the kids had to be either in their dorms or at the gym and could not go back and forth. It was my night to make sure that kids were not in the Student center on the computers that night, so I sat there on the phone with Wally and play scrabble via the internet.
2:30 am- Finally got to wash off the Shamu water and get to bed.
I am going to do Saturday-Monday in another post, so till the next episode.
Me
Wednesday:
4am-We got up so that we could get the critters feed and the last of our packing done(I needed my pillow).
5:45 am-Said our last goodbye and boarded the first plane. Klamath to Portland. Kayvon was awesome and not an issue with flying. He got the window seat. Amazing I did okay to, not a bit travel sick. Did have a few tears, as I was leaving Wally and Jacob behind.
I am not sure on the rest of the times, but we had enough time in
Portland to find our next flight gate, go potty, get a drink and then board for Ft.Worth/Dallas. It was a 4+ hour flight. Got pictures of Salt Lake, but the Grand Canyon was covered with clouds. Was very pretty. Kayvon has been to Salt Lake City, so was nothing new to him and he slept for most of the flight. We landed with ease into Texas.We had enough time to find our gate for the flight to San Antonio, go potty, and this time to grab something to eat and eat it before we needed to board. Air time was 41 minutes. Enough time to get to cruising altitude and then descend into San Antonio...
6 pm-We met up with the Youth groups from Washington and get on the bus for Texas Lutheran University. Total from the Pacific Northwest was 33.
8 pm- We arrive at TLU and get checked into the dorms. I was lucky and got my own dorm room and only had to share my bathroom with Connie(another counselor, the only other woman from the PNW group). She was a blast to hang out with.
2:30 am- Finally get to bed.
Thursday:
6 am- Get up so that we can get the youth up and to breakfast.
8 am- Breakfast done and ready to load on to the bus. Since we were the only group that came in early, we decide to go to Schlitterbahn water parks in New Braunfels. My goodness is that park huge. I would say at least a mile long. Four separate sections. You do not walk from the first section to the last, you ride a tram..We arrived at 9:30 or so and need to leave at 5pm. In that time we had two big rain storms.
Oh, did I mention that Hurricane Dolly made land fall that morning in Texas. Since we were about five hours from the coast we only got the front edge or maybe the tail end of it. Still brought a great amount of rain and lighting. It also triggered two Category 2 tornadoes in San Antonio.
So at the water park on the slides, we enjoyed rain. Being from the PNW, one does not go to the lake to swim, the pool to play or the water slides to slide in the rain. It is just to darn cold, but here we were riding the slides and swimming in the rain.(I have a picture of us there, but have to get it scanned.) I only got to two sections of the park. I could have spent all weekend there.
5 pm- Load back on the bus and head to dinner. Which was our choice from Taco Bell, McD's or a place called Chick-something and we only had 1/2 an hour to get it and eat it. Kayvon and I had Taco Bell.
6:30 pm- Back at TLU to check in with the LYA convention.
7:30 pm- I had a counselor's meeting.
Mean while Kayvon was getting to know 200+ youth. We had kids from all over the US and ranging from 12-22. Was a great thing to see so many youth together with the same thoughts and ideas.
9 pm- This was a youth mixer(get to know ya) and pizza.
10:45 pm- Evening Chapel (I skipped this one because my body decide to catch up on itself from the flights the day before and the water park today, nice bathrooms there at TLU)
11:30 am- The rules for the weekend
1:30 am- I finally got to bed for the night after chatting with Wally for an hour.
Friday:
6 am- Up and at them. Had to get the girls up and moving to get them to breakfast(which was only from 7-8). Man, girls are hard to get up in the morning.
7-8 am- Breakfast. Was eggs, sausage, fruit, biscuits and gravy, cold cereal and toast. Very good, also we shared our breakfast with 140+ refugees from the coast. They were staying in the parking lot with travel trailers and tents. Looked okay, more annoyed then worried.
8:30 am- Morning Chapel. Really neat to hear other pastors.
9-10 am- Group Study. The theme this year was "Friends Forever". This was about your relationships, both friends and later spouses. How our relationships(and God/Jesus's relationship with us) affects our daily lives and actions. How to grow them, accept them and be a better friend.
10:30 am- Board the buses for SEA WORLD. Also eat a box lunch, as that was what we got for the day unless you bought food from Sea World.
12 pm- Arrived at SW. The parking lot was bigger than my property and the park was monster sized.
I did not have enough time(we only had till 9 pm). I rode the two huge r
oller coasters(one twice), two water rides, watch Shamu(Believe Show), watched the Skiing shows, looked at the Budweiser's Clydesdales(of course I would get there, LOL), Alligator Alley and walked, walked, walked. I must have walked ten miles. I was done at 8pm and I did not get to 3/4 of the park. Also I only saw Kayvon three times that day. He hung out with some girls from Michigan. (The Steel Eel at right)9 pm- Load on the bus. It is an hour and a half back to TLU.
11 pm- Evening Chapel
11:30-1:30 am- Rec time. We had Volley Ball, Basket Ball, movies, ping pong tables and the such at the gym. And with a day like we had I did not expect many to show up. Boy was I wrong. I think we finally got every one back to their dorms at 2:00.
On the Campus the dorms have outer door locks, so only the counselors had keys. So the kids had to be either in their dorms or at the gym and could not go back and forth. It was my night to make sure that kids were not in the Student center on the computers that night, so I sat there on the phone with Wally and play scrabble via the internet.
2:30 am- Finally got to wash off the Shamu water and get to bed.
I am going to do Saturday-Monday in another post, so till the next episode.
Me
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