Today was travel day! We loaded the buses at 6:40 AM and attempted to leave by 7:00 AM. After a prayer for safety and a mini devotional we proceeded to leave Allen arena circle thirty minutes late. We had not moved five feet before hitting a concrete planter. Our bus driver stops to access the damage then we continued on to Canada!
Our first stop was exit 2 in Kentucky. We stopped at the McDonald's to get breakfast. Everyone on the bus was exhausted and we all slept until our next stop which was in the middle of nowhere. Nika, one of the adults on the trip, bought a bag of clementines. The bus smelled like oranges for several hours.
Our next stop was in Cincinnati for lunch. We ate lunch and had a quick bathroom break at Wendy's. We met Chris's grandparents there to pick up some puppets for our Bible Camp. Then we were back on the road. We had a slight "run-in" with a bird.. but i think everyone was okay.
We stopped in Beaver Dam, Ohio at a Pilot to get gas and change out drivers. We all got off the bus went inside while the bus was fueling. While we were inside the pilot we heard this announcement "Customer number 8 your shower is now available. Please proceed to the showers." We all found that announcement to be extremely funny.
Our last stop in the US was to get some gas before we crossed the boarder in Detroit.
Customs...
This was my first time leaving the country. I didn't exactly know what to expect, but no one could have expected what happened! We made it across the boarder and thru customs with no major problems. We loaded the bus and were ready for our final three hours of driving. As head towards the bridge we realize that we are going back to the United States. Our bus driver stops in the middle of the ramp. A boarder patrol officer comes up to the bus window and proceeds to tell us that we are going to get everyone killed. He said that we had to go to the American side, and they would send us back..
Take 2...
We get to the American side, and they are completely confused. They did not understand that we had only been in Canada for 5 minutes, and we wanted to return. The American boarder patrol gets on the bus with us and checks every one's passports. We cross back over into Canada and send Walt, our trip leader, back into the Canada customs office. They just asked if we knew where we were going this time...
Once we arrived in Canada it was pouring rain, 25mph wind gusts and the rain was turning into snow. After 17.5 hours in the bus we finally arrived in Hamilton, Ontario!!! It was about 2 AM when we arrived at our host family's home. Due to day light savings time we lost another hour.
It was an early morning, and we are exhausted, but it has been a fun trip so far! We are all excited about getting the day camp started tomorrow!
More to come about the dinner after crossing the boarder...
