We survived Roswell!

Day 3

As I'm writing this, we're on a mad dash to El Paso so that we can make it to Sams on time to get our food for the week (61 miles to go!).  Without it, we will have some pretty grumpy workers for the week (there is no might or maybe about it).  

We finally left Amarillo last night around 9:45 local time (11:45 MI time).  Our dinner stop took a really long time, not because of us, but the restaruant messed up 3 orders and completely forgot to bring them out, and then it took forever to get the dinners out. Kelly, Hannah and Cassie were great sports about the confusion, the managers comped their dinners and everyone else enjoyed a longer break from the vans.  Nathan, Brett and Joe spent some time trying to beat the claw machine, but it didn't work.  Baleigh also managed to back the 15 pass. van into a spot like a pro!  We did decide that Mitch shouldn't be allowed to play with spare change anymore after he missed a student and hit a random customer in the head with a penny.  He apologized and saved the penny tossing for parking lots. 

Jon and Kelly, Brooke and Cassie, Kate and Emma were the drivers and co-pilots for the graveyard shift from Amarillo to Roswell.  The wind was crazy and it felt like the big vans were sailboats on the expressway.  Our co-pilots were awesome and did a great job keeping the drivers awake. We saw a bazillion trains, one of which was about a mile and a half long. Kayla, Emma and Cassie spent the last 45 minutes making up jokes for each other and relaying back and forth over the radios.  By the end, they were laughing so hard, they couldn't even make it through most of the punch lines.   We didn't get into Roswell until 1a.m. local time (4a.m. in Michigan with the time change) and everyone was whipped!  

There's a guy in Roswell named Nick, that Mitch has known for 13 years.  Nick had just bought a motel during one of the early Mexico trips and it was the only place in town that had rooms at 3 am one morning.  Nick gave Mitch a great deal on rooms for all of the students and we've been going every year since.  The motel was/is very sketchy and not exactly the cleanest place to stay, but after being folded into the vans for 36 hours, sleeping on a flat, non-moving surface is all you really care about. And the showers definitely improve the attitudes in the vans. 

Well, last year we got to Roswell to find that Nick and his family had bought the Super 8 in town.  Nick still remembered us and gave us another great deal on rooms for the whole group and provided breakfast.  This year was the same and we are so thankful to this family!  They're not Christians (that we know of), but they seem to really like us and will occasionally join us for Sunday morning church in the parking lot. 

Sunday mornings are one of the coolest parts about our stay in Roswell.  We also do church in the parking lot of the hotel before we get started on the rest of the day.   Cassie and Kevin led us in worship, Scott gave a message about putting Jesus first in everything. Otherwise, we're missing the ball in everything.  Joe led communion and we spent some time in prayer before we loaded up in the vans again.

 We went to downtown Roswell and explored a couple of the museums and photo places through town.  Roswell is very much a tourist trap, but its kinda fun to explore and secretly laugh at the ridiculousness.  We grabbed lunch at Wendys/Arbys and jumped on the road. 

The trip has been going really well.  All of us as staff are really impressed with the students that we have along this year. They know how to move at rest breaks, they were up and packed and had the vans loaded on time this morning and have been friendly, patient and accommodating to everyone else.  Even this morning, when we didn't get to bed until 2 a.m. local time (darn time change!), they've been amazing!  Van 3 has consistently been the "Sleepy Van" (almost everyone has spent most of the trip dozing and not really talking) but today on the drive to El Paso, they're doing Harry Potter trivia games, sharing cat stickers, exploding their water bottles (Kayla does not recommend the super cheap ones from Wal-Mart) and laughing at Jim's comments.  Currently, there's a debate over the coolness/social acceptableness of Justin Beiber. Jim's losing.

Tonight, we'll unload our stuff at a host church in El Paso, go get our Sams order, grab dinner and make a massive shopping trip to Wal-Mart to get the utensils, smaller food items and supplies we will need for the week.  It's also the last chance stop for students to get anything else they can think of needing, since once we cross the border, we don't come out until the houses are done. 

This trip has definitely been very smooth so far and we're very excited to be serving with this group of students.  Thanks for your prayers!