DAY 6

Well the day started out just "peachy". I woke up at 5:30 and started working on the blog and other paperwork . At 7:00 I get a knock on my door. Lo and behold Francis is standing there with his laptop asking me to print off a receipt which is suppose to be needed for our entrance into Gettysburg. No problem thinks I, I'll just plug in the 10,000 lb printer PJ gave us to lug around for just emergencies and get into the shower with plenty of time to get to the church to meet the guys at 8:30 which I had put on the cards that go to the guys and their host families. I must have that Linus cloud about me or something as now the fun starts. Although I can plug the printer into Fancis's computer, Francis's computer is dead. I go get the power cord and plug the laptop in so to recharge his computer. I plug the printer into his plug-n-play laptop, the computer won't recognize the printer. I try emailing the receipt to my laptop and never see it - "twice". At 7:10 Andy knocks on my door and tells me that we need to be at the church by 7:30 as that is the time that "somebody" had told the host families prior to our arrival. I haven't showered yet. Now is when the raincloud starts to drip. I jump into the shower which isn't really a shower but a new torture device. The water doesn't stay coming out the shower head but transfers back to the faucet after about just long enough to get shampoo in my eyes. I jump into my clothes and shoes, grab my gear, slip on my tennis shoes and grab a pair of socks to put on as we head to the church to which we are already 20 minutes late. We are on the bus and I finally let my breath out only to realize that I had left my socks on the office desk. Now wait it gets better.

We arrive at the church around 8:00 or so only to have everyone of boys waiting there for us. (embarrassing as I had written on their cards about how when you are late you are forgotten and we turn up late, just great!!)

After a great deal of apologizing we get on the road to the battle fields of Gettysburg. We're within 10 miles when the bus runs over a plastic road cone that had been knocked over by a truck and ended up in the middle of the road. Ok -well it plastic and shouldn't be a problem - wrong- rain cloud turns into a hard rain now. The plastic cone helps itself to the airlines on the bus which in turn knocks the air for the air brakes out, plus the steering and the electric generator. Andy does a great job of getting the bus to the side of the road so not to stop traffic. Here we were in the middle of Pennsylvanian with a broken down bus with 31 boys on it looking at a 4 hour wait. Could this be the start of a thunderstorm? No wait - a sliver of light - there it is- a radiator shop across the highway. $33 dollars and approximately 1/2 hour later, my new "good buddy" at the radiator shop has us repaired and headed down the road to Gettysburg

We arrive at Gettysburg to a short movie about the war and have lunch at Pickett's Buffet. Looked as if all they did was cater to bus charters. After lunch went we treated to a tour of the battlefield with Mike - a guide for the battlefield. The first 5 minutes into the tour we all figured we picked up a "dud". We were wrong. Mike turned out to be a fantastic tour guide. Had the guys and me eating out of the palm of his hand within the next five minutes. Tour was great! Little did Mike know that he was dealing experts - no not me the boys. These guys know their civil war history. Mike also told us about the 150 anniversary celebration of the war and that we ought to see about singing for it. Francis is already working on the details.

After the tour we did a little shopping and headed back to the church so the guys could hook up with their host families. Must say that these guys must have gotten their shopping savvy from their mothers as they know where the deals are. Well we've made it another day and hopefully a little more rested after tonight before we head for New Jersey.