We hit the road by 4:30am.
About 20 minutes in our bus started to beep.... Our bus driver Kenny, pulled over to check to see that the AC shut off as well as the lights were going dim. He shut the whole bus off, reset the system, and we were off again......
7 miles later it happened again.... So we pulled over. Tony, one of our chaperones, was a garage supervisor for metro transits, so he knows a thing or two about busses..... Apparently, a voltage regulator needed to be replaced. We tried again, made it to the next pilot truck stop in Spiceland, Indiana, where Kenny was able to plug in the bus and arrange for a new bus to come pick us up.... But we had about a 2.5 hour wait.
Thank goodness for the Denny's at this stop.... Everyone was able to sit down to have a nice hot breakfast (or malt for some)..... We killed time by also playing some frisbee in the parking lot, and trying an experiment with some of Clara's silly puddy- apparently if you smash it with a hammer it will shatter!
Smash it with a hammer- please note the saftey glasses!
Kenny had the bus plugged in to charge up the voltage enough to drive the bus back to Indianapolis to get the bus repaired so he can head our way again to be our driver home.
Jamie and Ken, two other chaperones ( who we like to call frick and frack) were also very helpful in supporting Kenny in this technical endeavor! Jamie even washed the windshield while Ken helped direct a car out of a parking spot so we didn't block them in with our "plug in parking spot" situation.
The kids were all so patient and willing to be flexible with this new schedule.
Some think they jinxed it by talking about past bus problems on our New Orleans trip......many some seem to think it is my fault (Pr. Mollie). Is it a coincidence that I was on the trip two years ago when our bus broke down in New Orleans.....then no bus problems last year when I didn't go on the AMR trip.... Yet here I am on this trip...and BOOM....bus problems..... Hmmmmm sure makes a girl feel good ;-)
It didn't help my case that when we got on our new bus with our new bus driver Dave, that 10 minutes in a car pulled up next to us asking us to pull over..... NOT AGAIN....... The driver of the car came out and pointed out to our bus driver that a hub cap nob of some sort flew off one of the wheels. When we asked if this would be an issue, Dave reassured us that it was only a piece of metal that makes the bus look pretty.... So now our bus would not be as pretty.... PHEW!!!!!
Van drivers exchanging their digits...
And Dave our bus driver
We are a few hours behind schedule but still in good spirits. We should be arriving together the vans around 3:30 and to the college for check in around 5:30ish.... Just in time for dinner.
So all is well, we are all safe.... And eager to get to Bluefield so we can start our week tomorrow!
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