The Float Trip from...

... well, from nowhere I want to go again! Actually, when it was all said and done, it wasn't so bad. There were many blessings for this weekend's trip, it just didn't start out that way!

We were headed on the float trip Friday evening, and as Friday went on we kept getting more and more youth, until we were expecting 21 kids, which is A LOT! But we got there Friday, and the 21 kids all showed up, ready to go. Unfortunately, we were counting on taking the bus, but when Dad took it to fill it with gas, it started leaking large amounts of water. So, since there is NOTHING between Jeff City and Bourbon, MO, we decided not to risk it. The blessing was that, when we substituted the van and my car for the bus, we had 30 seats for our 29 people. If that's not God's planning, I don't know what is! So off we headed in our convoy, an hour later then we meant to be. And, of course, it always takes longer when driving in a convoy with 29 people (bathroom breaks at one-holer gas stations are infinitely longer when shoving that many people through one restroom), so we didn't hit St. James (dinner) until about 8:30 or 9:00. But, still, we were in great shape to make it to the campsite before they closed at 11:00. So there we are, driving along I-44, and I am feeling like there is a stiff breeze. My car was just pulling really funny and I couldn't keep it going straight... suddenly a lovely flapping sound fills the air, and I feel like I'm driving over the little warning dents on the side of the road... Yep, sure enough, I've got a flat tire. And I'm the last car in the convoy, so no one notices when I pull over. We jumped for the cell phones and the rest of the cars pulled over at the next exit. It's not a huge deal, Price kids don't get licenses without knowing how to change a tire, and I've changed several in my day. Not on the side of a highway in the dark, but at least it was the passenger side tire, so I wasn't actually in the traffic. So here we are, 5 women/girls standing on the side of the road... we unloaded my (very) full trunk into the grass, pulled out the spare (a donut, of course) and all of the tools. Yeah, turns out that the tire iron that came in my trunk DOESN'T FIT THE LUGNUTS ON MY TIRE. Kinda defeats the purpose if you ask me, but I'm no expert... so then we had the least helpful highway patrolman EVER stop by... he was on his way to work, so he didn't have his car, but he gave the tire iron a couple of tries, said "It doesn't really fit the lugnuts" and left. Thankfully, the Meyer suburban was stocked (Kevin was a boy scout) with an entire set of socket wrenches. And an air compressor to air up my (flat) spare tire. So in no time at all (yeah, ok) we were back on the road. We did manage to get to the campgrounds before 11:00 (10:45 counts) and we had tents all set up by 11:30 or so. After some brief discussions over sleeping quarters ("Do we have to have an adult in our tent?" "YES" "Do we have to sleep in a tent?" "YES") we headed to bed, hoping the next morning would bring better (or at least less eventful) experiences!

And, of course, God blessed us! I got up early, drove my car to the Walmart in Sullivan. I arrived at 6:50 to find that the tire place opened at 7:00... perfect! I had time to grab Hardee's for breakfast! :) They had my tire fixed in less then an hour (during which time I bought myself a t-bar for my car) and I even made it back to the campsite in time to go on our float. Meanwhile, the kids ate breakfast, broke down camp, and swam in a swimming hole right by our campsite. Despite predictions of rain all day, we had beautiful weather for floating- the sun was out most of the day, and it wasn't too cold. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves, and we actually hung out as a group quite a bit. We would stop and swim or play catch or shoot each other with water guns pretty often. Adults stayed with their youth, youth got along, and no one drowned (though Charlie almost did: he got run over by a raft)! After showers and changes of clothes, we loaded back up in the vehicles and had an uneventful (thank God) trip back home. And Josh and I didn't even end up with one bag of unidentified, soaking wet clothes! So, despite a rocky start, the trip was a success and I think everyone had a good time. The best part was looking out at the congregation from the choir loft this morning and seeing the red glow coming from the youth pews (hey, we passed the sunscreen around twice).