Last week, my youth group went on a mission trip to Knoxville, TN (in that general area, no one really knows where we actually were ;) ) We drove through Memphis, then through Nashville, then to Knoxville, then to the TEAMeffort camp. We spent the week there, then came back home, going the same route in reverse. But the fun in between the long car trips went a little like this:
The first night, we stayed in Memphis. We got to our hotel around 4:00, dipped in the hotel pool, and then went out for a burger at 'Kooky Canuck's'. That was pretty neat! They were actually featured on "Man vs. Food" for their 6 lb. burger. Yes, we saw one. and yes, it was HUGE. Then we walked around Memphis, went on an old trolley (!That was really cool!), went in a mall, walked into a couple of stores, then went back to the hotel because it was Saturday night in Memphis - I don't think I need to explain more ;)
We then woke up, drove to camp, and went to chapel. But because of the time change, we didn't stop for supper before we got to camp. and then chapel didn't end until 10:00, so we were all half-starved by the time we had a chance to go to Taco Bell (our choice for the evening). Then we remembered that curfew for camp is at 10:30. Wonderful. So we raced over there, only to find out that the lobby was closed and we had to go through the drive-thru. Just Great. So all 12 of us pile into the 14 passenger van and crawl through the drive-thru. Amazing. we all ordered (thankfully, it was on one bill - the Air Force was paying for it!!). Complicated. But, amazingly, we all got our orders back perfectly. no sour cream on a plain taco, no soft tacos when you ordered hard. Wow! those guys in there were AMAZING :D haha :):) So then we went back to camp and crashed in our beds. What.a.night. :)
The next morning was the first work day. You see, this is a 'normal' Christian Camp, except they assign each youth group a different work site. Some people work on houses, in back yards, on churches, put roofs on houses, build sheds, ect. My youth group was blessed with working on a church. And I say 'blessed' because we weren't working outside in the TN heat (however, there wasn't any AC in the building, so it was still HOT). The church itself was already built, but we were doing jobs like painting, mudding, putting up sheet rock, and holding up compressed cement on the face of the church. When we got to the site, we were each assigned our jobs to do that day. I was assigned mudding and sanding. But somehow I got switched to holding up the cement boards, which was actually nice because I got to work outside where there was at least a little bit of a breeze :) After that long day, we went back to camp, but not before we made a necessary stop at Sonic to get a cold slushie. :) We went back to camp, showered, ate supper, went to chapel, and then decided we were hungry, so one of our leaders brought us some McDonald's fries :) excellent.
The second day of work was basically the same : Wake up, eat, go to work site, work, take a break to eat lunch, go back to work, finish the day's work, go to Sonic, go back to camp, shower, eat, go to chapel, went to Wal-Mart (that was crazy!) go to bed:)
Wednesday was pretty cool :) It was the same as our other two workdays, but for lunch, the pastor of the church brought us pizza - which was a nice replacement for the sandwiches :) We went back to camp and after chapel we went to Taco Bell again - only this time the lobby was still open, so it wasn't as ... complicated.
Thursday = best day of camp :D
There wasn't a work day, so instead we went Whitewater Rafting! that was so.much.fun :) Then we came back to camp, but the scenery on the way was beautiful! I could have definitely got used to the mountains and tall trees! When we got back to camp, we showered and cleaned ourselves up again for the last chapel. The last chapel was really cool! We got an opportunity to 'lay down' our bad scaffolding (i.e. things that are in our lives that basically shouldn't be) at the cross. We really opened up spiritually as a youth group that night - which was awesome. By the time all of that was over, it was 11:30, which would've been fine, except we didn't eat supper. So we snuck past the staff, piled in the van, and crawled out at IHOP. All was fine until we saw each and every staff member walk through the doors. Apparently it's their 'tradition' to come to IHOP every Thursday night. And who would've walked up to our table other than the director of the camp. But it was okay - they thought it was just as funny as we did! :) So finally around 1, we all went back to camp and slept like rocks.
Friday is sight-seeing day. We went to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge to walk around, see the shops, and do some other cool things like "Ripley's Mirror Maze". that was FUN :) [warning: that place is very expensive for what you get]. But we made it back to camp in time to pack up for the next day's journey to Nashville.
On Saturday morning, we woke up and left for Nashville! Once there, we found our hotel and dropped off our trailer with our luggage (it was too early to actually check in) , then went downtown to see Nashville! We walked around, went in shops, ate at a cute little cafe, then went to the TN Titan's Stadium! Then back to the hotel because of the rain. Then another girl in our youth group, Ashlyn, and I decided to go swimming in the outdoor pool (by this time, it had stopped raining! After showers, the group decided to brave the weather again to go see a movie - Despicable Me - it was a really cute movie (recommend it!) .
[so I'm not really sure of the order of the day's events, but it went something like that]
Then on Sunday, we woke up early (too early if you ask me) for the looooonnnngggg drive back. but we made it - and here I am at home on the computer typing this :)
