TWB June 15th 2019 Experience: Day 20- Kansas

Day 20- The Kansas Drive

What’s good?! It’s the Grumpys back with a brand new edition. We’re here with Anna Gregory, Olivia Wagner, Grace Kisting, Caroline Roseman, Marc Chroback, Hannah Rock, Jake Willis, Hayden Armstrong, Olivia Jones, Emma Lawing, Lilly Myers, Katie Blackmon, and Abbey Curtis. If you were hoping for an exciting blog today … you get Kansas. This morning we woke up at 7 am to the patriotic musical interpretation of the Declaration of Independence, courtesy of Josh. Happy 4^th of July! We had 35 minutes to get decked out in our 4^th of July gear and get our bags to the bus. Tattoos and face paint completed our patriotic looks, and cowboy hats and bandanas were not uncommon. We loaded up and arrived at our first stop about 15 minutes later – Wally World. Everyone ate their McDonald’s breakfast in a matter of five minutes before getting on the vehicles.

Our cooks provided us with a gourmet breakfast of Lucky Charms or Trix and half a banana. While the people on the vans mostly slept for the morning, the bus was the place to be today, because instead of watching the wheat fields go by, we watched The Greatest Showman, Kung Fu Panda, and The Goonies. After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived in Kansas! We stopped at the Kansas Welcome Center and hopped off the vehicles to use the bathroom just to get right back on them. We went back to our movie binge on the bus and the vans had jam sessions the whole ride. The vans took a detour to the Loves gas station to fill up while the bus went to a rest area around lunch and then headed back down the road through the fields of Kansas to take a look at an oil rig. On the way there, the cooks made the rest of us bagel sandwiches with turkey, cheese, honey mustard, and the Sneezy’s form of “lettuce”, which was actually cabbage. Fruit snacks and crackers were also provided and nevertheless, it was still delicious. When we got to the oil rig, Garrett Voorhees and Emma Campbell gave their research presentations and we got a group picture. The counselors decided to play a funny trick on us by running back to the vehicles after telling us to turn around. It didn’t take long for us to figure out that they were gone.

We arrived at yet another one of our favorite places, Walmart, to get dinner for tonight at the campground. Many of us got gourmet chicken from the Walmart deli and subs from Subway. Tonight at the Kansas State Park we were welcomed by the mosquitos and humidity, which told us that we are east bound and down. We had a competition called ‘Hug it Out’, where each group had a relay to pop balloons using only our chests. The Bashfuls came in first, making them the group in the overall lead. We had a lovely surprise of finding a snake by the tree we were competing under, which made some of the girls flee. We all hope that we don’t find another one in our sleeping bags tomorrow morning!! The cooks served us hotdogs, watermelon, chips, and red, white, and blue popsicles in honor of our freedom on this special holiday. Many went and took pictures by the lake, and the one and only Joe Flanagan even jumped in it! Following dinner, we had a fantastic sing-a-long lead by our own Jack Current. As we bed down tonight, we hope we will see some fireworks in the sky. Happy 4^th of July everyone!!