Today we woke up abruptly to trash pandas in our snacks, guess we should have hid those better. We jumped on the bus and we're greeted with an assortment of muffins and green grapes.
Delaney started us off with great research on Kansas University. Then we learned lots about Kansas State University thanks to Annie until Ben chimed in because of his enthusiasm to share about the oil wells, don't worry Annie got to finish her report, and Ben gave us some interesting facts about the wells.
We excitedly ran into Walmart for last minute fourth of July necessities, while the Sneezys bought today's lunch & dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. Some participants scrounge around for cold medicine to tend the cough bug. Some, for the first time, went to the electronic section scrolling on TikTok to cure their screen withdrawals.
Dallas cured the buses boredom by surprising them with watching Cars 1 (they were only able to watch 2 & 3 yesterday). While some passengers enjoyed the movie, others used this time to catch up on some needed sleep. As we crossed new state lines, trivia was done for the bus’s state map. With days counting down people passed their cowboy hats and journals to be signed by the entire group.
.HEIC)
.HEIC)
Before going up the arch, we spent our time to learn about the history and culture of St. Louis, we even got to meet people roleplaying historic figures from the city. We were then split into groups of five to load the small rickety trams. Some had more fun than others and many participants conquered their fears of heights, claustrophobia, and even elevators! When we reached the top we all pressed our noses against the glass to admire the St. Louis skyline and to assure our vehicles hadn’t been towed, don’t worry, they weren’t. After being crop dusted by our nervous glitter bombs, we headed back to stable grounds to explore the gift shop. A popular gift shop choice came in the form of a 4 pack of local root beer and house made fudge. As we headed back towards the vehicles, Dallas had a paparazzi moment while being interviewed by the local news. She talked about our trip and we got to wish the people of St. Louis a Happy 4th of July.
Even though we are miles from home, we still got to have the traditional 4th of July cheese burgers, mac and cheese, and baked beans. Everyone bundled together in the shelter as we all enjoyed our last sit-down-trip-made-meal together. Our campsite was being occupied by other people so the Sneezys had to cook on the street by the vans.
We sang loud and proud to our patriotic anthems to celebrate the 4th. Many tears were shed as we were getting closer to going home. No one wants to depart from the friendships that we’ve made. People used their free times by playing spike ball, throwing a frisbee, calling home, frog catching, and taking pictures in their 4th of July apparel.
