TWB July 9th 2022 Experience: 2022-07-24

Day 21: St. Louis

Hello from the best group ever… the Grumpys!

Today we woke up at 6:00 am to Dallas' infamous “Wakey Wakey” and dew soaked sleeping bags. But some people, William Puckett and Katherine Taylor, were woken up earlier by raccoons double fisting Will’s granola bars. Once we got on the bus, a trial was held on who deflated Rocco’s sleeping pad. We still aren’t sure who did it… maybe the raccoons. Finally, once court was dismissed, everyone napped very hard. Grant woke us up to some beautiful orchestra music. The cooks served us bagels with cream cheese and fruit on the side. While some people tried to watch Finding Dory, the girls in the back were vibe-checked because their energy drinks were causing chaos. Next thing we know, the bus air conditioning shuts off. Uh oh. People (Quinn) threw up due to the heat. (He's okay, don't worry.) All the seats had puddles in them with sweating kids in a 101 degree bus. We stopped at a Walmart to cool off and figure out what was next for our bus. While at the Walmart, we played a balloon-popping challenge where we got real close to our group. Literally. The Bashfuls were our champions. We loaded back on to fetch our new bus for the day. We had to unload everything on the current bus to our new bus, just to have to do it all again tonight. We are so thankful for Dennis (temporary new bus driver) who drove us to the St. Louis Arch. We took pictures at the huge arch and walked around. We sat down beside the Mississippi River to listen to research from Kiersten Sadler about the arch. On the way back to the bus, we held hands the whole way in a huge line. We definitely turned a few heads in Kansas City. Then, we headed to Walmart for the cooks to get meals for our trip. They were in and out in 15 minutes. Very impressive. Many people bought a famous drink from around here called Ski. Erik said they were pretty average, but good. Finally, we headed to our campsite near Carlyle Lake so the cooks could make a wonderful hamburger helper dinner with bread, salad and watermelon. We finished the night with a sing-a-long that had a lot of people in tears. It is hard to believe we only have a day and a half left with each other.

We’re off to the races tomorrow!

The Grumpys