Road Trippin

I am here! Lafayette Louisiana. We arrived yesterday afternoon.
Here's a quick recap of how the week of traveling went down.

Day 1: Monday- Departure 6AM, Destination: Palm Springs CA

This first part of the drive was down I-5, towards Los Angeles, the same drive we took for our last project. THe fun began when we were just north of L.A. in some town that I don't know the name of, but luckily it was civilization. We were traveling with 2 other teams, so our caravan consisted of 3 12p vans and a uhaul. Gold 3's van decided to break down on the interstate in this suburb of LA. After we picked up the team from that van, we sat at this ghetto shopping strip (like 7 small stores), for a good hour and a half. My team leader stayed with us, while the other 2 waited for the tow truck. We then moved our waiting party to a nearby park for a change of scenery, where we sat for another hour(ish). Eventually the van got towed, and while it was being fixed at the shop, we crammed the other team in our 2 vans and made the final 2 hr drive to Palm Springs, arriving at the hotel around 8:30pm. A few of us walked into "town" (the touristy area) for a little bit, but we were staying a mile away, and it was late, so we didn't see too much of it.

Day 2: Tuesday Departure - 7AM Destination: Tuscon AZ

We originally were going to go to Joshua Tree, but because one of the vans still needed new tires, and apparently it was farther away than expected, we set off for another long day in the car. This actually was one of the shortest driving days, but the scenery was pretty blah. It was cool at first to see desert like conditions, and some moutains, but the excitement went away quickly. We had to do PT at the hotel once we arrived in Tuscon, and then we enjoyed the pool and hot tub, and called it a night early.

Day 3: Wednesday Departure 8:30 AM Destination: Fort Stockton TX

The drive from Tuscon east, was probably the most boring ride I have been on. Sure there were fun moments in the van, but looking at bleak desert for hours on end, just doesn't scream fun. We went through AZ and crossed the southernmost part of New Mexico (We were on I-10 this whole time), and then began our trek across Texas till we reached this small town called Fort Stockton. I haven't really been able to sleep much on youth mission trips over the years, but I definitly slept some in the van all week long. I don't feel like i missed seeing much because the scenery was always the same when i would wake up. It was always fun guessing when the next exit would be too, sometimes 45 miles between places! Talk about the middle of nowhere! Good news though, if you are ever in TX and get hungry, Cracker Barrels have made it to El Paso! This day was double long feeling because we crossed through the mountain time zone and into central time. We all were hurting the next morning when we had to get up at 6AM for PT and our bodies were telling us it was 4AM. Not really my idea of fun.

Day 4: Thursday Departure 8AM, Destination: Baytown TX

Let me tell you, Texas is one LONG state. The scenery got better a little outside of San Antonio, green grass and trees were a welcome sight! Since we hadn't stopped anywhere else, we stoped in San Antonio for a 2 hour break. We saw the Alamo (cool from a history standpoint, but kinda small). We walked around the riverwalk a bit and ate lunch. 2 hours isn't a whole lot of time, but itw as nice to get out and see a new place. I also had some good bbq at the place we ate, first time since I left home. Apparently out west they don't know what pulled pork is. LOL
We arrived in Baytown, which is east of Houston, around 7ish. I quickly saw that there was a Cracker Barrel on our exit, so myself and a few others enjoyed some good dinner. Billy and myself (he's from TN) were actually the only ones who had eaten there before, so i enjoyed bringing some culture to people's lives.

Day 5: Friday Departure 7AM, Destination: Lafayette LA!

This was our shortest driving day, we arrived in Lafayette around lunch time. We stopped in Lake Charles to unload some extra luggage that belonged to a team that was staying there (some teams flew down last weekend). Unfortunatly we wern't able to see the team, since they were working at their site.
Our house we are staying at is owned by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, so the college is right near us. It kinda reminds me of a cross between a beach house (older) and a cabin at Camp Chesnut Ridge (for those of you non Mebane folks, just imagine a camping cabin). It's definitly nicer housing than some other teams. We have a big field beside us which is going to be great for PT and just playing around. We are all excited since we were stuck in the big city last time.

So that's a quick round up of the past week. It was fun overall. I enjoyed the two teams that were with us, a few of the people on those teams were people i had gotten to know well while i've been here.

We are exploring downtown and other parts of Lafayette today. I have now found the library, which is probably going to be my only internet here. It's not toooo far away, but i don't think it's really walking distance. Hopefully i'll get here once a week, maybe twice, we'll see.
Thanks for the mail, emails and comments, I miss ya'll!!