What Else?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

Note to all skeptics: This is a TRUE story and it is not an exagerated version. I would never believe this except this was my life for the last two days!

Who would have ever imagined that an annual school field trip could turn into a comedy of errors in a mere 48 hours? We've been planning since school started for this two day trip to Charleston and spent the early part of last week getting ready....tour group lists, bus lists, chaperone rules, rooming schedules, tee shirts, etc. Twice our schedule changed. And, on Wednesday a parent contacted one of the teachers to let her know that she had called the hotel for some information and they didn't have us staying there. We should have known then what we were in store for..............................(Oh, we did have rooms they were under the tour groups name and the hotel name had been changed and we were not informed.)

Thursday morning my alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. and I left home an hour later to meet everyone in the church parking lot. We were all excited and ready to get on the road. We were scheduled to pull out at 6:45 and this is where everything started south. One of my students was still not there at 6:50. There was a broo-ha over whether or not to wait on him. I called and told him we were leaving him and I won't even go into what happened until 15 minutes later I ended up calling the school and getting our principal to say "leave". We finally got on the road about 30 minutes late. We stopped at a rest area near Columbia and while there get a phone call from the tour company that our itinerary has CHANGED...again! And, this time it has changed us from leaving on Friday at 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and we have no dinner plans on Friday for 208 people. Our bus and Bus 4 are supposed to be at the IMAX now at 11:00 a.m. (we're still about two hours from Charleston and it is a little after 9:00). We arrive at 11:05 and crawl through the dark to our seats. We see "Underwater 3D" and laugh "what else can go wrong today?" Wrong thing to ask, I guess!

From the IMAX we head to the Aquarium where another broo-ha starts up over dinner for Friday due to the schedule change. Again, not anything I can discuss on a public blog, but trust me, this went on for almost 24 hours and some of us were pulling our hair out. The Aquarium was great! Suzy, my next door teacher, Kristen, my student teacher and I had a blast looking at the exhibits and taking pictures. From here we bus over to the Customs House for lunch with the other two buses. These meals were all pre-ordered, but somehow, no one managed to be "in charge" and ensure folks got what the ordered. By the time we got up there it was eat whatever was left. Like it or not. And, we ran out of drinks for the last people.

After lunch we divied our kids and chaperones into groups and sent them off on a walking tour of Charleston. After continuing some logistical issues (can you imagine our headaches by this time?!?) we hike a couple of miles to "Cupcake" (remember reading about it in the December blog about my trip to Charleston?) to drown our misery in sugar and sweet! This was awesome! We also walked the market and did a little shopping. I forgot to mention that the weather report before we left was calling for 72 degrees and sunny on Thursday. It was actually about 65 and cloudy. AND WINDY! So, everyone was scrambling and trying to buy sweatshirts.
(Picture: Suzy, Kristi, Wendy, Me and Kristen)

We met everyone for dinner at Bubba Gump's for dinner. Where we ran out of seats and the teachers had to wait until after 6:00 to get seated and eat. Which meant we couldn't go on the 6:15 ghost walk. Oh well! Instead we ate, walked to the Charleston Place and then met back at the bus to hear groups complaining about some of the stories told on the ghost walk. They either had a great tour guide or a terrible one apparently.

(Picture: Wendy, Kristi, Kristen and Me)

And, here our story gets to the truly unbelievable part. We head back up 26 to Mall Drive for our hotel....no, our motel. The rooms were all outside. I'm totally appalled that we are placing 200 students and parents in a motel where the doors are all outside and about half of them FACT the Interstate. While checking in there are room mistakes that have to be worked out and we finally start passing out keys and getting everyone to their rooms. As we are coming through the lobby with our luggage (me and Suzy) a parent from our group is ARGUING with another guest not with our group because he is yelling and being very rude with the front desk. About this same time, we find out two of our parents are furious with each other over something. Yes, we are asking ourselves, once again....what else? Suzy and I head to our room.

First of all, if you are going to Charleston anytime soon, let me know and I'll tell you the name and address so you can make sure you don't stay at this place. In our room, the bathroom is disgusting, wallpaper is peeling, the water sprinklers are rusting and our curtain will not close! We have to break a hanger, climb in a chair and clip it together. The next morning I get out of the shower and Suzy asks, "Did you wear dark socks yesterday?" I answer, "No". She points to the floor and the foot of her bed and says, "Well, that's not mine either." YUCK! At breakfast, which is another confusion point for everyone and not good at all....we learn that many other rooms are in as bad or worse shape. Another set of adjoining rooms that our teachers are in has mold growing on the doorframe between them, one person had to order new sheets at midnight because theirs were dirty and one room had the shower tiles cave in! We are thinking this is INSANE!

On the bright side, it had originally been forcast for raining and cloudy, and we woke to a rising sun. Suzy and I decide that today is going to be a better day. Our school agrees to pay for food for Friday night and the tour guide sets this up for us. We board our buses and head towards Patriots Point where it truly seems that we are going to have a much better day. We have a blast touring the Yorktown and the whole area. We even ate lunch in the ship's Mess Hall. Many people complained, but I thought it was a pretty cool experience. (Me and Suzy in the gift shop)

From Patriot's Point we take the bus back over to Liberty Square. Did I mention that the sun is now completely obscured by clouds and its starting to rain? We board the boat for Ft. Sumter and decide that even though its raining, windy and freezing we are sitting on the covered deck. Kristen and I are determined to see a dolphin. I at least get to see a fin. About where Sullivan's Island is the water gets really choppy and the boat starts rocking. (We later hear that a small earthquake was detected on Sullivan's Island Friday afternoon...could that have been it? Hmmm....) As the boat is pulling into dock I notice I have a voicemail on my quickly dying phone. Its Nancy, a teacher with the other two buses, who are currently at Patriot's Point. One of the chaperones from class who is with their group has gotten hurt! What else?!?! This requires some additional phone calls, but not much else that I can do. Again, can't go into much more detail here......Kristen and I go tour Ft. Sumter. On the way back out to the boat is one of the highlights of the trip for us! We see a wild river otter playing on the rocks around the Ft.! He was so cute! Thankfully, the return boat trip is uneventful. (picture: Me and Wendy on the deck)

When we get back to the bus our food is waiting and we begin passing it out. In the meantime, the first two buses leave. We finally get on the road a few minutes after 5:00, about twenty minutes later than scheduled. We're concerned that we'll hit major traffic in Columbia. We get right outside of Charleston and about 5:30 the Interstate stops. Highway patrol and news cars and trucks begin flying by us in the emergency lane. Something has happened ahead. We're trying to get information and finally after and hour and a half or so we find out that there is a major accident (it turns out a truck travelling east crossed the median and hit a Sherriff Deputy's car....killing both of them and the Deputy's K-9 dog and involving several other cars), the Interstate has been shut down and we're going to have to divert off the Interstate at Holly Hill, eventually get on I-95 and take it to re-route onto I26. By now, it is almost 8:00 and we are barely out of Charleston. After a rest stop break, we book it to Columbia.

We are certain by now that our "what else's" are through, we're late, but we'll be home soon. And, so, we settle in for the drive. I'm in the seat right behind the driver resting when (we're going through Columbia at this point) I see two cars in front of us swaying, lane switching and hitting the breaks. I start to brace to hit them when I notice the road is covered with something and it is flying towards the bus, making the most awful bumping and thumping noise you've ever heard while in a vehicle (think Armageddon when they are trying to land and the ice chunks are hitting the ship....got the picture?) and then a huge crack. Someone had lost a piece of furniture in the road. It had shattered into big chunks of wood and we were HITTING THEM! The big crack? One hit and cracked the windshield of our bus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once we got our hearts to stop thudding and calmed down, I think Suzy and I both sat on the edge of our seats the whole way home. Evidently, we finally learned our lesson, because we did not ask "WHAT ELSE?" again and, thankfully, that was the last major issue. And we pulled into the chuch parking lot at 11:00 p.m. I have never been so glad to be home in my life!

Now, let me address the most important part of this whole thing that I didn't know until today. God was definitely looking out for us.....I mean, we know He was looking out for us the whole time, but He REALLY looked out for us. Had we left Charleston at the time were supposed to (4:45) on Friday, we would have been coming through the area where the accident happened at just about the time it happened (between 5:20 and 5:25). And, we may very well have been involved. When I read that today, I was just blown away to see how God had worked. This was a wake-up call that God works everything for our good...even when it doesn't fit our schedule!