hurleysweety
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2008
For all of those who think they've had an awful trip, get ready for one of the worst!
Nov. 14-16th - Annual Youth group trip to Magic Mountain
A little background:
Each year our youth group goes to Magic Mountain. We usually take around 50 kids. Well this year we went with a couple other churches, took two buses, and a van, which amounted to around 120 kids and leaders total. Most of our church was on one bus, and the other bus had a couple of our kids and leaders and the all of the people from the other two churches. I am a youth leader as well as my DH. I've been doing it for 5 years so I'm used to all the little faults in plans made, but nothing could have prepared me for this trip.
Friday:
We left around 6 PM on Friday night from Phoenix. We stopped about an hour and a half out for dinner and got back on the bus around 8. Around 11 we stopped again for filling up the gas tank in the van and letting the kids used the bathroom. We found out that the other bus had no air conditioning at this point, but considering the cool weather, it wasn't that big of a deal. We got back on the road around 11:30 AZ time. Around 1:00 AZ time we pulled over to the side of the road. We then found out that the bus behind us had broken down (Bus 2). So our bus (Bus 1) dropped us off at a parking lot and went to get the kids stranded on the side of the freeway. Bus 1 came back to the same parking lot so we were 112 people (the van had long passed before) with transportation for 56. The final decision made was that they would leave us at the parking lot and take the stranded kids to the hotel (we were only 80 miles away). We thought a replacement bus was coming... About 30 minutes later when we were all freezing because of the wind, we took our 50 kids and crossed the freeway to a gas station. Well we ended up waiting for Bus 1 to take Bus 2's kids to the hotel and come back to get us (over 3 hours). Oh, and did I mention that we were in a pretty bad neighborhood and we witnessed a robbery and high speed police chase while we were there too?! We also had police patrolling the area after they found out that we were stuck there. In the three hours our kids had resorted to sleeping on the ground outside, and inside, kids entertaining themselves with the gas station staff, and leaders wondering if we'd just have to go home because of the fires. But the bus came back and the Magic Mountain area was still fire-free so we drove our 80 miles to the hotel. So we finally arrived at the hotel at 6 AM AZ time, 5 AM cali time. But about 2 miles from our hotel we drive by fires so close to the freeway that we feel the heat and quickly everyone was awake and frightened. Had it been even 10 minutes later, the freeway would have probably been closed down. As we entered our hotel we saw a large orange cloud of smoke over the hills. We finally went to bed at 5:30 AM cali time, knowing we would need to be all ready to go to Magic Mountain for the day at 9:30 AM.
So what happened next?
Did we get evacuated because of fires?
Did the leaders stress out?
Did we ever get any sleep?
You'll have to wait a bit while I get some Zzzzzzz after this weekend!
(PS - No matter how bad our trip, I'm glad that were were not injured or loss anything because of the fires. Our hearts go out to those who have been evacuated from their homes and lost everything. Our prayers be with you as we realize our "bad trip" is nothing compared to what you have gone through these past few days. )
Nov. 14-16th - Annual Youth group trip to Magic Mountain
A little background:
Each year our youth group goes to Magic Mountain. We usually take around 50 kids. Well this year we went with a couple other churches, took two buses, and a van, which amounted to around 120 kids and leaders total. Most of our church was on one bus, and the other bus had a couple of our kids and leaders and the all of the people from the other two churches. I am a youth leader as well as my DH. I've been doing it for 5 years so I'm used to all the little faults in plans made, but nothing could have prepared me for this trip.
Friday:
We left around 6 PM on Friday night from Phoenix. We stopped about an hour and a half out for dinner and got back on the bus around 8. Around 11 we stopped again for filling up the gas tank in the van and letting the kids used the bathroom. We found out that the other bus had no air conditioning at this point, but considering the cool weather, it wasn't that big of a deal. We got back on the road around 11:30 AZ time. Around 1:00 AZ time we pulled over to the side of the road. We then found out that the bus behind us had broken down (Bus 2). So our bus (Bus 1) dropped us off at a parking lot and went to get the kids stranded on the side of the freeway. Bus 1 came back to the same parking lot so we were 112 people (the van had long passed before) with transportation for 56. The final decision made was that they would leave us at the parking lot and take the stranded kids to the hotel (we were only 80 miles away). We thought a replacement bus was coming... About 30 minutes later when we were all freezing because of the wind, we took our 50 kids and crossed the freeway to a gas station. Well we ended up waiting for Bus 1 to take Bus 2's kids to the hotel and come back to get us (over 3 hours). Oh, and did I mention that we were in a pretty bad neighborhood and we witnessed a robbery and high speed police chase while we were there too?! We also had police patrolling the area after they found out that we were stuck there. In the three hours our kids had resorted to sleeping on the ground outside, and inside, kids entertaining themselves with the gas station staff, and leaders wondering if we'd just have to go home because of the fires. But the bus came back and the Magic Mountain area was still fire-free so we drove our 80 miles to the hotel. So we finally arrived at the hotel at 6 AM AZ time, 5 AM cali time. But about 2 miles from our hotel we drive by fires so close to the freeway that we feel the heat and quickly everyone was awake and frightened. Had it been even 10 minutes later, the freeway would have probably been closed down. As we entered our hotel we saw a large orange cloud of smoke over the hills. We finally went to bed at 5:30 AM cali time, knowing we would need to be all ready to go to Magic Mountain for the day at 9:30 AM.
So what happened next?
Did we get evacuated because of fires?
Did the leaders stress out?
Did we ever get any sleep?
You'll have to wait a bit while I get some Zzzzzzz after this weekend!
(PS - No matter how bad our trip, I'm glad that were were not injured or loss anything because of the fires. Our hearts go out to those who have been evacuated from their homes and lost everything. Our prayers be with you as we realize our "bad trip" is nothing compared to what you have gone through these past few days. )