The boys are safe and sound, tucked into their air mattresses here at First Presbyterian Church in Sandusky, Ohio. This is a much more pleasant town than I was expecting. Nestled along the banks of the Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo, this city boasts many miles of shoreline and a very resort town feel to it. I like it!
The day started in Tonawanda, New York with the boys all together in a motel where we stayed for the two previous nights. Our schedule was pretty relaxed this morning, so we used the opportunity to hand-out the clothes from the day laundry trip the night before and also give the bus a thorough cleansing. These boys had it pretty messy, so we used this as an opportunity to learn from our dirtiness. Since we had everything unloaded from the bus, we also used this as a chance to switch seats for the last time on the tour.
We had our first minor injury of the trip - an occurrence that is bound to happen when traveling for 17 days with 34 boys. Young Mr. Joel was burned by a little hot water from a coffee pot at breakfast this morning. It's got a nice little blister to it, but it wasn't bad enough that we needed to go to the doctor. He's a trooper and says he is doing "just fine".
The trip to Sandusky wasn't real far, so we left about 10:30 am and headed West. It wasn't long before we were in Pennsylvania. Since fuel was a little cheaper there, we filled-up the tank ($513 worth - ick) and got the free cup of coffee you get with every 50 gallons of fuel purchased! No joke - if you buy 50 gallons of fuel, you get a free coffee. What a deal!
Our next stop was just down the road in Erie. The Cracker Barrel was our choice for lunch today, and boy did they deliver a good meal! We called ahead to give them an hour and a half warning that we were coming. That gave them plenty of time to prepare enough table space and puzzle games for our arrival. The boys ate pretty well and we had a few minutes to sit out in the rocking chairs on the front porch. The manager commented on how great the boys were and one of the waitresses said this was the best bus group she had ever seen in all her years of working here!
The boys took a good, long rest period after lunch on the bus. Our birthday boy, Alexander, got first choice of where to sleep today. Finding a good spot to sleep during rest period is somewhat of an art. There are special ways you can sit in the seats and special places on the bus that are better than others. On cold days, when the AC is working very well, the nice place to sleep is on the back floor, just above the warm motor. On hot days, like today, the ideal place is up front, just at the point where the floor starts sloping-downward and the vents for the AC begin. You get great airflow there.When the boys woke-up, they were in Ohio and at a rest stop about 30 minutes outside of Sandusky. We changed on the way into town and could see the rising towers and coasters at Cedar Point in the distance. It is a pretty formidable park! After taking the Head Choristers and Assistant Head Chorister in to the church to look at the layout, the boys prepared for the concert and ate a wonderful sloppy-joes and corn on the cob dinner.
The only downside to this beautiful old church is its lack of A/C. With the temps well into the 90's, much like Minnesota is experiencing, along with the rest of the country, the old wooden building became very much like an enormous sauna. With fans blowing everywhere, we dressed the boys in their concert uniforms on the air conditioned side of the building where our changing room was, and spent as much time over there in the cool air as possible. I took the opportunity to try and be proactive with my pre-concert speech. We went over all the protocols if you feel faint and what to do if someone next to you faints. It's as basic as it sounds: catch them. Then I basically explained to them that they were performers, the audience was just as hot as they were, and it was their job to put on a good show. I also threw in some "soldier sympathy" for them by showing them the temperature on my phone in Baghdad, Iraq and explaining what soldiers go through and how much worse it is than the little warmth we have here, not to mention all the equipment and clothes they have to wear. If soldiers got to run around in the breathable tailored suits Wanda Mae made for us, our soldiers would be much cooler indeed!One other thing I did was praise them for what I consider one of the most amazing things of the tour. Usually, we have about one boy every other concert or so that feels ill and sits out a portion of a concert. Sometimes these are legit, but often times they are an indicator of other issues. This year, we haven't had a single note missed on stage because a boy wasn't feeling well. To me, that is amazing! (After tonight, the streak continued as well!)
Despite the heat, the boys performed one of their best shows of the year, earning yet another standing ovation and winning the hearts of another audience. After the show, a special guest introduced herself to the boys from in the audience. Jackie Mayer, Ms. America 1963 is from Sandusky and happened to be in the audience tonight. Even though the boys were already half-changed when we discovered this, we made them go put their hot blue shirts on and come take a picture for this unique meeting. She loved the boys and spent a bunch of time talking with them after the photo. She was great to meet and a nice ending to another great day! That is also when a few boys were "bombed" by passing birds as well. Ethan got the worst of it, right on the side of the face. It's not nice to laugh, but that was pretty funny! The boys are all together tonight in a wing of the church used to house mission trips. There are about 40 air mattresses all ready for us, complete with a kitchen, shower facilities and some room to relax. It's a pretty great deal for us and it works-out perfectly! All the boys took a shower tonight and should be dreaming about roller coasters and long lines right about now.
This kid needs to get to bed so he can keep up with them in the morning,
P.J.
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