Happy Independence Day!
The boys had a great time today.
Let me tell you about it now.
This morning the boys were able to sleep in a little until
10:00am. They met at the church and we
wasted little time. The first order of
business was to get to the local country club so we could go swimming. Obviously, the boys enjoyed that idea. The drive was about 20 minutes so the boys
asked for more “How the States Got Their Shapes”. They love that show.
The boys were very warned yesterday that their journals
would be checked before they were allowed in the pool. Some of them decided to test that though, and
I am sorry to mention that about four of them did not get in the pool
today. I feel like such a meanie…That
cost be the “Staff Member of the Year Award” this morning on the bus. Stewart won by a landslide. He also won “Most Improved Staff Member of
the Year” and “Most Musical Staff Member of the Year”. A resounding victory, all tabulated by the
auditing firm of Joey & Leibig.
The time in the pool was great, but on the shorter side of
things. The boys were most excited to
have a pool that made it all the way to 8 feet deep. They swam for a good hour before having an “All-American”
lunch of hot dogs and apple pie. Before
we left for the day, we sang a few songs for the staff of the country club that
had to work on the 4th of July, as well as the patrons that were in
attendance. By the third song, we had
quite a nice little crowd.
The next stop was at a modern art museum in Bentonville
called “Hotel 21”. This had a number of
modern pieces that some of the boys found very enjoyable. Essentially a block away from this was the
original “Walton 5 & 10” – the birthplace of Wal-Mart. Obviously, as the largest company in the
world they didn’t have much use for the old store other than a museum. We brought the boys through to see the
history and depth of the Wal-Mart company.
It is impressive what they were able to accomplish, but even more
remarkable was the humility of Sam Walton.
The same old Ford pickup he drove to work each day and the cheesy
Wal-Mart trucker hats he wore as his trademark were on display. (In hindsight, I wish I would’ve picked one
up from the gift store.) He is an icon
in the business world and a good man to emulate. The boys really enjoyed the museum and spent
as much time as they could going around to the interactive exhibits, including
Sam’s actual office encased in glass.
The next stop was “Crystal Bridges”, which was essentially a
personal art museum for Alice Walton. It’s
amazing and features so many incredible pieces of work. We saw everything from some of the original
works of George Washington all the way to works by Norman Rockwell and even
Andy Warhol. One of the first paintings
we saw when we walked in was about 400 years old and was sold to Alice Walton
for the minimal sum of $31,000,000.
Needless to say, I was fairly anxious bringing 28 boys through this
exhibit.
On the way back to the church, Bill Plante (Mary Jo’s
brother) wanted to bring us by a Chapel constructed by one of the original
settlers of Bella Vista. This chapel
constructed almost entirely of steel and glass was described by one of the boys
as “a big bird house”. I could see
that. It was located on a hill in the
middle of the woods. Nobody was staffing
it and the doors had no locks. It was
about as much of a community building as you could ever find. We walked right in a made ourselves at
home. We took the time to take some
photos and sang a little song to share with everyone in honor of Independence
Day. You can listen to it here. It was a great stop to end the day.
We finished-up our episode of “How the States Got Their
Shapes” on the way back to the church where all of our host families were
waiting for us promptly at 5:00pm. Many
of them were attending fireworks again tonight, although I know a number of
them had other activities planned like Mini Golf and ice cream. I imagine they will be having fun and should
all be headed to bed fairly soon, around 9:45 tonight.
Tomorrow is fairly early start at 8:00am. It’s onto Clive, Iowa. I have a TON of questions for the boys and
will answer as many of them as I can during our drive, but conserving battery
power seems to be an issue on these longer bus trips (380 miles). Anyone want to sponsor tomorrow’s
journey? We have a matching grant that
was generously offered for the next $1,000 donated to this cause. http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Fund-The-Drive-Trying-To-Raise-1-For-Every-Mile
Until tomorrow,
-P.J.
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