Travel Day

So today was the day that is what is most dreaded in my mind.  Not knowing where i was going and having 12 hours to think about it.  I set my alarm for 3:57 which means i would wake up at 4:10ish, because who really wakes up with their alarm if it's set for a time 5 hours after you went to bed??  Once i had woken up and we had gotten to the church, with a few bumps in the road, and a group picture that i hardly remember we were off on the road.

 When we left, i thought that the rain had finished and we were just going to deal with a little drizzle.  That wasn't the case at all!  It was a down pour!  For me it is hard to sleep in cars, but with the rain i didn't even want to.  From the walky-talkies I heard drivers saying that they had been hydroplaning (there were thankfully no incidents) but just when it was getting to an unbearable point it suddenly let up.

 In each car there is a different story of how the spent their time: one car stayed up for a long time watching movies and talking and then fell asleep at 7, another car (my car) slept till 7, and the third car played Indian poker with animal crackers.  But once we were all up and ready to sensibly interact with other people the cars had contests to see who knew the most history and random trivia.  Dan is really good so im thinking that his car won.  After a while the decision was made that the kids should switch cars so that they could spend time with other people doing different things and I was lucky enough to be in the car with the poker people :).  Seeing as I know hardly anything about poker we started off with Indian poker (a game where you put the card on your forehead without looking and betting to see if you had the highest car.)  I dont think i folded once and apparently it worked because i became the happy owner of the 80 anilmal crackers we had been using.  then we played Texas holdem ( think that is what its called) and not folding doesn't work out very well in that game.  but before i knew it we were at the church unpacking.

 After our dinner of hot dogs we went out for a tour of the neighborhood.  It is so suprising what a difference a block makes!  From a poor looking neighborhood to a pretty nice neighborhood is all it takes.  Jon Rudd said that the difference signified the hope that is the the community.

 Once the tour was done the and we had talking about the plans for tomorrow the boys decided to play hockey in their bedroom, even though it is crazy hot here!  You can't really see it but they are dripping sweat.

 But now everything is calmed down and bed are being made.  I should probably go help my sister in the preparation so good night.

Love,
               Laura Van Winkle

Well we made it here and are beginning to settle in after a long but fun car ride.  The ride included dvds,chatting over the walkie talkies and even a few rounds of animal cracker poker on the fold out bed in the back of the van.  After a good meal and a tour of the neighborhood we had a group meeting on what to expect in the next few days. Myself, alex, david, mike, daniel,and matt set up a make-shift hockey field in one of the large rooms using equipment we found in the basement.  The winning team got to take their showers first and my team lost so i'm sitting here hot and sweaty writing this blog instead of taking a nice cold shower.  We are excited for the rest of the week and continue to check the blog for daily updates.  -Mark