May Band Trip to Hershey PA - We Won! About This Page:

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Band Trip to Hershey, PA May 15-18, 2003

Amanda- 8th grader, called up to assist Mr. Cote with the clarinet section of the HS Band
Mom- along as a chaperone at Mr. Cote’s insistence – feel like a traitor for abandoning my other 2 girls!

Pre-trip Planning –

I didn’t want to go along on this trip as scheduling for my other 2 girls was a little daunting – but Mr. Cote insisted, as Amanda was only an 8th grader, and he needed the money budgeted to keep the cost down for the other chaperones in the room. So – planning starts – We leave at 6:30 on a Thursday morning, and return home at 6:00 pm on Sunday evening (according to the schedule!). Thursday is okay – Daddy has the day off, so he can finish getting the girls off to school – the bus comes at 7:00 am – and he will be home to meet Sarah (6) when she gets home at 3:25. Scheduled a ride for Jennie to get to dance class after school-she should be dropped off at 6:30 pm. Friday – SCARY DAY – Daddy leaves for work at 5:00 am – so Jennie, 7th grade, is responsible for getting both herself and her sister off to school! Sarah was thrilled – she got to sleep over in Jennie’s room to be sure Jennie would hear her if she needed something. I had all the neighbors on alert – if the girls weren’t out at the bus stop – I think the whole town would have been at my house! Sarah had a bus pass to go over to a friend’s house after school – her first sleepover! Family rules say you have to be nine to sleep at a friend’s, but necessity is the mother of rule breaking! Saturday – Jennie has All State Middle School band festival – another mom will pick her up at 7:30 to drive her to No. Conway for the festival – she has all her concert clothes packed, along with money for dinner afterwards! Another friend’s mom will pick Sarah up from her sleepover – bring her to dance class, and then have her over to play until 6 pm when Daddy gets out of work. Sarah gets to sleep in Jennie’s room again on Saturday night – she and Jennie have a mellow day together – they get to miss church, and Jennie gets an awesome babysitting stipend! The freezer is packed, and the fridge is full – they should get through till Sunday!

Thursday – We’re off!

Got Sarah up, dressed, and hair brushed (major ordeal – long, curly hair!) early – she and Jennie just had to eat breakfast and brush teeth – backpacks were filled and ready – homework checked – snack packs filled! Daddy got up to supervise, and wish Amanda good luck – and we’re off! Stopped at Dunkin Donut’s to grab a Big One – black! We got to the school by 6:34 am! Checked in with Mr. Cote – scouted out seats on the bus – Amanda was a little nerved up, since she didn’t know most of the kids – she sat with a friend of hers from last year – she didn’t want to look like a little kid sitting with Mom. Worked out well – the busses weren’t full – so we were able to spread out a little bit. What an awesome bunch of kids – we were in the bus for over 15 hours – no squabbles, no whining, not even any noise! They had brought bunches of videos – not even any squabbling over the choices! We pulled out and we are off! The weather in Whitefield was beautiful, sunny and warm – little did we know – heading south was not a good choice! We stopped in Vermont at a rest area for a short break – the kids didn’t like using the rest room on the bus, and our driver was a smoker – so there were many of these “REST” stops? About 20 minutes later – the driver pulled over to fix something so the air conditioning would work, since the bus was a little warm – he fixed it a little too well – We were all pulling on sweatshirts and stuff – it was about 50 degrees in there! We planned to stop at a mall in Enfield, CT for lunch – with 80 of us on the two busses, it works best to have a food court to spread out the lines and accommodate everyone’s tastes. When we got to Enfield – that mall was no longer! Kept rolling on – almost got killed in Hartford – our bus driver was driving way too fast – the truck driver in front of us stopped for an accident – we had to slam on our brakes, the driver apologized and stepped on the gas again – sudden stop by the truck – and this time – I didn’t think the bus would stop in time – we could read the serial number on the trucks metal plate in back!! He finally realized this traffic jam wasn’t going anyplace anytime soon – and we picked up all our stuff off the floor – whew! South of Hartford we stopped off at a mall – something like bridge mill mall or something – and hit the food court for lunch – yummy! Had a nice salad and breadstick from the Italian place – then we got to look around for a bit – back on the bus in an hour. Kept on trucking – minor rest stop at the PA welcome center. They had some neat brochures and things for the kids – picked up a coloring book for Sarah. At this point it was about 4:00 pm – no way we would be in Harrisburg by 5:30 as planned! We kept on trucking – and finally arrived in Harrisburg around 8:15 – but got lost!!! The driver insisted he knew every hotel and attraction on the Eastern Seaboard – not! We ended up going on the wrong highway – and the bus behind us was almost out of gas – he insisted on stopping at the next exit to refuel – thank goodness! After getting both busses refueled – and looking at the map to find out we had at least 25 minutes of backtracking to get to the hotel – we asked the manager of the Bob Evans next door if he could accommodate us – YES! They did an awesome job of working the kids in – just made sure we broke up into parties of 4/6/8 depending on table size. We finally pulled in to the Harrisburg/Hershey Marriott at about 9:45 pm. Got the kids unloaded and divided up into rooms – boys on the second floor – girls on the first! Short time for exploring – curfew was 11:30, wake up call at 6:30 – breakfast at 7:00, bus leaves for Gettysburg at 8:00 am.

Friday – Touring Day – Gettysburg – Electric Map, Guided Battlefield Tour, Relax at hotel, Dinner at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater.

The Marriott was great – they use a version of the Westin heavenly beds – featherbeds on the mattress and comfy comforters, not those heavy spreads like most hotels. Interesting side note however, they left ONE Hershey kiss in each room as a welcome – knowing that most rooms were either triple or quad occupancy? How do you divide a kiss? My bedmate, John’s cousin Jackie, got up at 6 to use the exercise room – she had a lot more discipline than I!!!! I stopped off in the lobby to use my phone card – called the girls at about 10 of 7 – Great work! Jennie had them both clean, fed, and packed to go – I asked what Sarah was wearing, and she described a pair of pants from the back of the closet that I hadn’t packed away yet (size 4 – Sarah is currently wearing 6x’s!) When I laughed – Jen said they just looked like capris! I talked to my peanut and she yelled at me for not calling at bedtime to sing her a lullaby – I told her the bus didn’t have a phone, and sang her an off to school song – luckily the lobby was empty! I was surprised that the breakfast was a hot buffet – I figured it was just the hotel’s continental breakfast but apparently a special breakfast room was part of our package. Food was good – but no fruit?? Guess I’m spoiled by those Disney breakfasts! Amanda subsisted on granola and milk for three days!

We hopped back on the bus – and guess what! The driver got lost! He bypassed the visitor’s center in Gettysburg and was driving around on all the auto tour roads – We finally arrived at the visitor’s center at 10:15, and our slot for the electric map was scheduled for 10! We were unable to reschedule that – goodbye $ - they had 78 buses scheduled for that day! The weather was not great for touring – It was about 50 degrees and raining pretty steadily! Needless to say, the visitor’s center was packed! I still got out to look around the gift shops – they had some pretty cool stuff – but no magnets? So much for my fridge’s collection – I always pick up at least one from each trip! Back on the bus at 11:30 – and our guide joined us for our 2 hour tour – our guide’s name was Paul – he was a retired gentleman – and was absolutely awesome!! He really knew his Civil War facts – and he was a great speaker – really kept the kids interest! We went through some of the actual town of Gettysburg – neat to see the bullet holes and cannon shells still embedded in some of the buildings! Then it was off to see the battlefields – he really made it come alive, describing the way things were back then – and what you would have been seeing and hearing! We did stop a few times to get out to see – but eventually the rain was just too heavy – so we stuck to looking through the bus windows. Apparently PA has had some heavy rains lately – some of the roads were closed due to flooding! We finished up promptly at 1:30 and said goodbye to Paul – he had directed us over to the Gettysburg Outlet Mall – said they had a food court where we could lunch – when we got there, we weren’t too sure – but at the very end – we did find a small food court building! They were awfully glad to see us! They had quite a bit of food ready – and no customers!! I had an awesome veggie calzone type roll – delicious! Then we had about an hour or so to shop – what great bargains! We have an outlet mall here in North Conway – but they don’t usually have such deep discounts! I had only brought a sweatshirt – no jacket, and knew I would want something to wear to the theater tonight, so I headed down to the little Reebok shop – found a great jacket – but they only had it in a medium. It fit – but I like them a little roomier. The girl asked if I had a AAA card – I answered truthfully, yes, but it was home in my car in NH! Apparently, Reebok has a deal with AAA . When I got to the checkout – she only charged me $14 for the $30 jacket – she said she gave me the discount anyway! I continued strolling through the mall – and found an Adidas outlet a little further down – they also had jackets on sale – nice, lined – reg. $50, marked down to 12.99!! Since they had a large – I couldn’t resist – I grabbed that one as well! Back on the bus – we were all laden down with shopping bags! I threw the Reebok jacket at Amanda – I knew she would like it.
Back to the hotel – big surprise – lost again!! We had 15 minutes to change and get back on the bus to make it to the Dinner Theater! It was actually very comical – we had about a 45 minute drive to the theater – almost all the girls had crammed in a quick shower in their 15 minutes, and they made a little style salon in the rear of the bus – the kids that got off looked incredible – especially compared to the ones that had just gotten on!

We actually found the Dinner Theater on the first try! What a neat place – they had a little Pennsylvania Dutch gift shop attached to the restaurant. Finally, some good magnets! We were shown to our seats, and the servers explained the buffet service to us. The food was okay – typical buffet fair – nice salad bar though, and the carving station had a nice cut of beef on it. The floor had a great set up – the tables were on risers – so that every table had a great view. They had two dessert bars – one with ice cream – one without. The servers came around for last call about 15 minutes before the show – so I got a coffee, and headed over to the dessert buffet to save them for during the show – they had an absolutely decadent chocolate truffle pie!! It was nice to see some fruit on the dessert buffet as well – I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it!

The show was incredible! We saw “Man of La Mancha”. This was one of my parent’s favorite shows – so I used to listen to the 8 track soundtrack all the time growing up! I know, I’m dating myself!! The opening was a little weak, so I wasn’t hoping for much, but all the actors really got into character, and they did an awesome job!! This show is so much fun! Back onto the bus – and to the hotel by about 11:30 – lights out at midnight, for an early wake up call – 6 am! On the bus at 7:30 for competition! This is the reason we were here!

Early up – off to breakfast, and surprisingly, all the kids were up and dressed in their competition best! Very little minor fixing of ties and safety pinning broken zippers, and we were in the lobby raring to go – but wait – the other bus and driver are warmed up and ready – but where is George!!!! Still sawing zzz’s!! We were going to have a major problem if we missed our competition slot!! So – the other driver went up and kicked George into gear! On the road only 10 minutes behind schedule – luckily we did not get lost and the school we were competing at was only about 10-15 minutes away! Off the bus – keeping the instruments under cover – since it was still raining! The kids went to warm up – and we went to find a seat in the audience – we watched the first band compete – they were a junior high jazz band – not in our division – they were okay – but definitely needed to work on appearance – They all wore shorts and t shirts – but not any kind of uniformity – some wore khakis, some jeans shorts, some polo shirts, some reg. t’s. I guess I’m being picky – but our kids looked great!! They are timed for set up as well – and our kids knew what to do – they grabbed chairs – stands – and one of the seniors is a dance choreographer, so she is in charge – they make it look like part of the performance – no noise – every chair and instrument stand in it’s place! They had to make a minor adjustment – although they bring all their own instruments – the host school provides the percussion instruments – so you don’t have to transport all those large pieces. Apparently – this school didn’t have any chimes, which were a featured part of one of their numbers – quick adjustment – and we were on. The kids did an incredible job – We are really lucky, and the judges were amazed at the size of our band – about 60 kids from a school of only 450 kids!