Senior Trip, Day 1

Since nothing had gone smoothly in the runup to the senior trip, it was no surprise to have the bus nowhere in sight at the time we were supposed to load up and leave. Apparently the driver’s sheet read differently from mine.

Then we had to contend with a big race at the Dover Speedway, directly on the route we were taking to the Delmarva Shorebirds game. I followed the bus driver’s advice here and routed around it, but I had no idea just how far around we were talking about. So instead of 2 ½ hours, the trip took nearly 4. Because we got to the park just as the game was beginning, and you can’t take outside food into the ballpark, the kids had to eat as we walked across the parking lot.

Once inside, the game was clearly going to run very long (1 ½ hours for 3 innings is a bit much) and the kids got restless quickly, so we decided to head to the hotel. Plus, I realized that, because I had (gasp!) decided to take time for myself the night before, rather than finalizing the rooming lists, that I had to do that while I was at the game, rather than, say, watching the game. I did eat something called, and I’m kicking myself for not really remembering, a cluckwurst, or something like that. It was a grilled chicken sausage with onions and peppers and it was delicious and it upset my stomach for the rest of the day.

Shockingly, the rooming lists did not work smoothly, as some people had placed themselves in more than one room and some had put themselves in no room at all, so I tried to make all the pieces fit, but ultimately decided that they wouldn’t. Then I discovered that we had one more room available than I’d thought. Problem resolved! So everyone got checked in, and was settling into my room when my phone rang and the desk clerk said, “The bus driver’s here and I don’t have a room for him.” Aha! That’s where it came from. Fortunately, the hotel just got him another room.

From thereon in, things went more smoothly. Dinner was fine, and then we bused down to the boardwalk. It’s senior week here, which I guess means that seniors from lots of Maryland high schools come to roost (sorry, still thinking about that chicken sausage). This yielded some of the most obnoxious and suggestive attire I’ve seen in such a concentrated fashion. I’m not sure which gender was more responsible for the general sleaziness, but it was pretty prevalent. On the other hand, it was nice out, everything was open, and it was fun to walk around.

There was a big line of people waiting to get into something called a foam party. I decided not to wait on it, but I’d love to be enlightened. I’m imagining something like an idea my frat’s social committee came up with, called a suds and dogs party. Suds and dogs was fratspeak for beer and hot dogs, but we were going to fill the basement with soap suds and bring all the campus dogs in and have a dance. Maybe it’s something like that.

Back to the hotel for some hanging out and bed checks. We get to hear from the security guards all about what happens to underage drinkers (they get kicked out and arrested if they refuse to go) and then finally to bed and hoping against hope for not horrible weather tomorrow.