My Summer...Vacation?

After all my training was completed in Maine I flew to Atlanta to start my next adventure for the summer.  This was my second summer working for Alive In You.  It's a Catholic service camp where youth groups come to a city and give a week of their summer to help others.  They may be working in a food bank, community center, painting homes, painting schools, or helping at local churches.  The first year my biggest job was going to worksites and taking video of the students working.  The video is compiled at the end of the week for participants to purchase as a memory from the trip.

This year I was in charge of multi-media.  DJ Skilz, our resident light/sound man, had gone back to graduate school and was not able to work this past summer.  I moved into his spot for camp in addition to still filming at worksites.  We had four camps this past summer.  Between June 10 and July 18 we traveled to Chattanooga, TN; Belle Glade, FL; St. Louis, MO; and Gramercy, LA.  The schedule for the summer was two weeks of camp, a week off, and then the last two weeks of camp.

While some of the staff went to the beach for the week of rest, two of us packed up and headed to Black Mountain, NC to help at FCA Girls Black Mountain camp.  Ok, I was going up to work the camp as the lacrosse clinician.  The other staffer with me was just giving me a ride.  She ended up being the softball clinician because of a last minute cancellation from the original person.

AiY had some interesting moments.  In the first two weeks of camp we had a total of three car wrecks.  I was slammed into at a stop light by this lady in a Camaro.  Another staffer backed into a car while he was driving the Budget rental truck.  And the third was a staffer who backed into a car at a stop light.  The one thing we all had in common?  All three of the other drivers had no insurance!

The lady that hit me exited the car screaming/crying please don't call the police.  Really?  I'm in a rental car that she just beat up the bumper on, "sure, I won't call the police."  Note:  That did not happen.  The police were called and a report was file.  My boss will be spending the next couple of months dealing with Alamo over the payment of damages.  It's upsetting that this lady had no insurance and the most she may had to pay is the ticket.

The lady that the Budget truck hit didn't want the police called either.  This led to a bizarre text message stating she was taking our staffer to "small claims."  Since the police weren't called for that accident, I don't think she realized she had no proof of blame.  And the last vehicle took off before information could be exchanged.  

There were some shining moments as well.  Every Friday was called Mexican Friday.  A couple of the older staffers would enjoy the flavors of a local Mexican restaurant on the last day of working.  Fine, so in Belle Glade this ended up being a trip to Tijuana Flats, but come on, it's so good.  The best was a restaurant we found in St. Louis.  It was a great way to end the three day madness of driving all around the respective city taking photos and video of the students.

At the end of the summer I flew back up to Maine to instruct a sailing course up there.  It was another VETs course.  The water had warmed up from May.  It was a balmy 61 degrees for dips.  On land it was rather hot.  Out on the water it was much cooler.  I spent a lot of time in my fleece.  This trip I took the Concord Express to and from Rockland from Portland.  It was better than the airplane.  They give you a decent size bag of pretzels and free wi-fi.

When I got to the airport to fly back to Orlando I was greeted with this, "You are flying to Orlando via Newark?  Come over here, we need to talk."  Apparently some large storm systems through the New York area had delayed a bunch of flights.  They already knew I was going to miss my connecting flight in Newark.  My choices were to spend the night in Portland and get the first available flight the next day, or fly to Newark and get the first flight from there to Orlando.  I opted to fly in Newark.  At least that way I was a bit closer to my destination.

I spent the night at the Newark airport.  I first tried the chairs, but they were not that comfortable.  I ended up sleeping on the floor.  When I went to sleep the place was empty.  When I woke up at 5:15am my gate was packed with people.  The first flight out was at 6:15am and I was on it.

I arrived in Orlando that morning.  It was a short trip in town.  Just enough time to work at Disney and make some gas money and pack my truck up for school.  Next stop:  Fripp Island, SC for a vacation.  I spent the next six days hanging out at the beach.  I played a couple rounds of golf, hung out at the pool and beach, went kayaking, and played pool.  It was a much needed slowing down from the summer.