Hey parents and friends, the Grumpy group is back! This morning was quite the adventure. Most of us woke up in puddles of water even though we were in tents around 5:00 am, which meant that we were up and ready to go way before wake up call. We started rolling up our wet stuff as quickly as possible and tried finding our rain jackets. Everyone pitched in and took the tents down at lightening speed. Some people were half asleep in the process, some people were dripping wet, and some people were just trying to float away. A few brave participants decided to sleep under a shelter rather in a tent. It turns out they stayed more dry than the people in the tents. The only down fall to sleeping under the shelter was the mosquitos! Will P. woke up with nearly 50 mosquito bites on his back; Kansas’s mosquitos don’t play around (yikes).
We finally left our campground at 6:45 am, and we were thrilled to be heading to a new state, that would hopefully bring us some better luck . Due to Miss. America needing some more time to get repaired 8 of us stayed behind with Counselor Madi and waited on Miss America at Kansas State University. We
ended up just driving by Kansas State instead of actually getting out, because
it was still pouring down rain, and we didn’t want to get soaked again. Dallas
thought it would be a good idea to forge ahead to the arch in St. Louis and get
to the campsite a little earlier to lie out our wet items and we all
agreed. Soon after we were on the road,
we stopped at our favorite place: Wally World.
Counselors Julia and Kent left to go and get a part for the broken Miss
America, while the cooks shopped for our upcoming meals. Julia left soon after
to deliver the part to John, so Miss America would be fixed and we could all be
together again. We love some good teamwork and we are so thankful that are counselors always go above and beyond!
Many of the people on the bus slept due to their lack of
sleep the previous night, even sleeping through the movie “The Lion King” that
Dallas played for us. After hours of driving and stopping at a few gas
stations, we arrived in Saint Louis, MO. We rushed to the arch around 4:40 pm
since we were late to our actual ticket time. We split off into groups in order
to ride the elevators up the Gateway Arch, and then to enjoy the beautiful view
from the top. As the TWB members worked their way back down the arch, counselor
Kent stayed at the top in order to execute the letter designs on the ground. We
started by spelling out “TWB” and then because we had enough time to make a
second one, we decided to do the shape of a heart along with “KS” for Kansas
(because as you can tell we truly love Kansas after that amazing night). We
also got to go check out the gift shop and some of us collected some end of the
trip souvenirs!
Once we finally made our way to our campsite, we got
sleeping stuff laid out and all showered after being smelly the whole day. Quite a few sleeping bags were still pretty wet so Kent took Allison, Ethan T., Josh, and Ava R.took our sleeping bags to a laundry mat down the road to dry our bags! We are so thankful to not have rain tonight! Others helped Dallas lay out all the tents and tarps so that they would dry and hopefully not be as smelly. Finally all gathered together for our final sing-a-long, and counselor Dallas even
facetimed counselor Madi so that the few people on the van would not miss out!
There were many hugs passed around and a couple tears as we realized we would be leaving each other very shortly. We have truly become a family as we have traveled together. We then headed to our comfy and dry beds and fell asleep (pretty quickly since we were so tired) and tried to ignore the
massive amount of bugs around us.
Thanks for tuning in! See you all in 2 days!!
-The Grumpys
Counselor Corner!
Hello parents, friends and loved ones! I cannot begin to
tell you how proud I am of every participant on this trip! Despite our morning
starting off very cold and wet, everyone had an outstanding attitude all day
long. It was amazing to watch every participant work together quickly and
efficiently to get our tents and campsite cleaned up. By the end of the day we
were all laughing about the adventures we had the night before. It was so
encouraging to me to see them make the absolute best out of the wet situation!
It has truly been an honor to get to know your children over these 23 days. I
have watched them grow so much and I am incredibly proud of each of them! I’m
looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday!
-Director Dallas Godbold
Day 21 - (Some of) The Gang stays in Kansas
What’s up guys, it’s the Kansas gang! This gang consists of
Jo B., Jennifer M., Maddy H., Erin D., Cam F., Olivia M., Toula L., and Wyatt
F. along with the counselors Madi and Julia. We volunteered to stay behind
today in Manhattan, Kansas because the van was finishing up being fixed. The
bus dropped us off at Kansas State University around 7:15am. We all gathered
our stuff and hung out in the Student Union. After taking a much needed nap and
talking amongst ourselves, we helped ourselves to Chick-fil-a for lunch. We
also kept ourselves busy by visiting their gift shop, including the Apple Store
inside the gift shop, and playing the game “What Do You Meme?” In the gift
shop, we bought Madi a “Kansas State Mom” shirt which she proudly wore the rest
of the day. Around 1:30pm, Julia came to hang out with us in her rental Toyota
Camry. We all ended up at an AMC movie theatre at the mall to watch the new
Lion King movie! Olivia decided to bring along her stuffed animal Simba that
she got in her care package to enjoy her favorite movie even more. After
enjoying a good childhood memory, we discovered how hungry we were and decided
to eat at the restaurant Texas Roadhouse that was right across the way. After a
filling meal of steak and rolls, we headed over to Wal-Mart to wait for John to
pick us up in the new and improved Miss America van. Around 7pm, John pulled up
with Miss America to all of us cheering because we couldn’t wait to reunite
with the rest of our TWB family. On the 6-hour van ride, we passed time by
sleeping, making bracelets, and jamming out to Taylor Swift music! We finally made it to the campground by about 3:30 am, which resulted in most of us just staying asleep in the van. Thank goodness because it. was. buggy!!! We are so excited to see and reunite with everyone in the morning :)
