Notes from the bus

Here is what I wrote on the bus.

Well, it’s hard to believe it’s been a year less five days since I wrote in this blog, but here we are once again, traveling past a gasoline truck on the NY State Thruway, bound for Elizabeth NJ. We got off to a remarkably smooth start this morning, with all students and staff (even Mr. Carroll, who had to run to Oshawa to pick up his forgotten passport and was slightly stressed out as a result). We had the tourguides, so we didn’t have to go anywhere to pick them up, and we were changing bus drivers in Niagara Falls, so we didn’t have to detour thru Mississauga to do that either. To top that, our bus driver for #2 (the best bus by far) suggested we take the 407 over the 401, and that proved to be a brilliant call. It’s not quite 12:00, and I think we’re approaching Rochester – we’re going great.

The only real difficulty I’m having is that I got so used to being on bus #1 last year, that since my demotion I’ve been a little confused. I keep telling the kids from bus 1 to get on bus #2 – I even scared some people as I was helping to load luggage this morning, thinking their suitcases were going on the wrong bus.

Border crossing was uneventful, with perfectly respectful silence from all for the border guard – it would have been a shame if someone had mouthed off and ruined the trip for themselves or others, but thankfully everyone was great. We had to get a few Visas stamped, but other than that, no difficulties.

So here on bus #2, it’s Mr. P, Ms Gaudet, Mr. Carroll, myself (Mr. Morose, for those who don’t know the narrator), Katie, our Impulsion tour guide, and Vic, our bus driver. Oh, and a few kids. I don’t know the name of the other tour guide, or bus driver – let me see if I can find out. Courtnay is the tour guide on bus 1, and Jack (not Captain Jack).

We started the films with The Lord of the Rings (I brought the complete, extended director’s cut edition of the trilogy), but at risk of mutiny, we are currently watching Pirates of the Caribbean Part 2, which seems to have a bit more attention paid to it and a bit less whining. I was shocked to realize how few kids brought movies. May have to pick something up or swap with the other bus, as I don’t know what we’ll watch on the return journey. Maybe someone will even read a book!

That’s it for now – we’re planning to break for lunch around 2, depending on arrival times etc, so I’ll add an update after we eat some roadside food.

Well, we stopped for lunch in Binghamton, which the bus driver identified as having some of the best variety. We wound up parked in a Ponderosa, where most of the staff ate, which was next to a Wendy’s, where most of the kids ate. The food was actually decent – in preparation, I had written the word swill in the paragraph above – I had to remove it. It was a little further down the road than intended, but we’re still making excellent time. It’s 5:07, and the GPS is predicting a 5:58 arrival at the hotel, dependent on traffic and the continuing lack of it – we’re moving right along.

Somehow or other, we wound up naming our bus Ghost”Bus”Ter, so when I went to peruse Mr. Wistow’s movie selections, Ghostbusters seemed like the logical choice. The scary thing – our tour guide wasn’t born when it came out. Luckily, Mr. Carroll was. The rest of us? I prefer not to mention that.

I got the photo of the trip this morning, and along with Chris’ permission to upload it. It’ll be up sometime tonight – I’m not sure how the photo upload will go this year, as I have a slower connection and a better camera.

Apart from a few kids who haven’t quite figured out the meaning of “sit down when the bus is in motion”, we’re having a perfect trip behaviour wise. Of course, it’s always when we get to the rooms that we get the real test.

I’m personally looking forward to the Jersey Gardens outlet mall – hopefully I’ll have some money left when I’m done.