Wednesday, June 1st

My time at home for a week was sweet, relaxing, special, and much needed but today was the day to take off for STP.  I had been anticipating this day for so long, and it was finally here.  We woke up bright and early at 6:00 am to head off on our adventure for this summer in Garden City, South Carolina.  Excitement yet nervousness filled our car.  We weren't quite sure what to expect all we knew is that it was going to be a great opportunity to grow and learn along with making new friendships, fun, and laughter.  We had to prepare our minds for this 24-hour trip ahead of us.  The drive started off well with bracelet making with my friend Kari and I.  It was fun to see the different combinations of colors come together from the multiple intertwining strands of thread.  It’s always enjoyable to create something simple yet bright and colorful.  To pass the time we asked questions about one another.  The boys we rode with were Eric and Tyler.  One of the questions we asked was which name would you choose if you could rename yourself and we found that Tyler would be called Robbie so that is now his new nickname.  I hope he remembers to answer to that when we call to him.  It was so interesting to listen to everyone’s unique answers.  The boys were in front while me and Kari were rock'n the backseat.  We took wonderful, peaceful, and much needed naps to pass the time and woke up in complete confusion as to where we were.  Thank goodness for the boys ;) !  They clued us in to our current location.  We received a little taste of the south when we stopped at Subway for dinner because everyone had southern accents.  I won’t be surprised if we all develop a bit of a southern drawl after spending two months in South Carolina and if so I won’t complain ;) .  It was always refreshing to step out of the car and get a bite to eat, very much appreciated.  We listened to awesome music on the last few hours of our drive consisting of Tenth Avenue North, Jars of Clay, Yellowcard, Hawk Nelson, and Relient K.  Finally after hours upon hours of driving we reached our destination for the night at the hotel in Louisville, Kentucky around midnight.  We were all very exhausted and instantly plopped on our beds letting sleep take over us!