(Why is Jesus in the subject field?  To get by my uncle's spam filter.)

IN WHICH We Continue Our Journey In The Loudest Vehicle Known To Man, Arrive At Our Glorious Destination, Meet Our Young Charges, AND We Begin Our Travel To The Basketball Game.

"RRRRRRUMMMMMMMMMMM," Jason's car continued, as we sped down I-476 toward New Jersey.  We were making excellent time, and it looked like we would actually arrive a little earlier than the hoped-for meeting time of 5 PM.  That's when we approached Pennsylvania, at about 4:15 PM.

"Are all those people stopped up there?," someone asked.  We quickly found the answer to be yes, as the people directly in front of us almost immediately began to stop.  Only some creative driving by Jason kept us from being rear-ended by a dolt behind us.  What made matters worse was Jason's growing need to visit a bathroom.  McDonald's was far behind us, and the beverages he had been nursing most of the trip were weighing heavy on his mind.  It's likely that a rear-ending would have had consequences for his upholstery as well as his bumper.

We made it onto the bridge over to New Jersey, after it took us about twenty minutes to go five miles, and not surprisingly, when we hit our exit to go to Pedricktown, NJ, the traffic completely disappeared.  This is not to say that Pedricktown is an unpopular place; it's just that people don't like to go there.

I had not brought directions of any sort, relying only on my memory, and I was very pleased when I discovered that I knew the way to his house exactly.  We pulled up in front of his door at about 5:02 PM.  We saw him at the door, but when we got out and stretched, no one came out to meet us.  We came over and knocked - apparently Mike had gone to put on shoes or pants or a cummerbund or something - and greeted both Mike and his lovely wife, Jill, who would be staying home for the evening.  Jason ran to the bathroom, with Josh right behind him.  I stayed in the kitchen.

There was dinner ready on the table for us and we quickly ate some.  I think it was lasagna, but I don't really remember.  Mike informed us that he was about two minutes away from really starting to wonder where we were, and then he figured that we got socked by the traffic.  After finishing the food, we went off to the church to meet up with the kids.  Jason and Mike drove, saving me from another near-death experience on the way to the game.

We arrived at the church, and the children were there, jumping off a low roof and playing in puddles of standing water.  Last year's crew was much older - the kids in my car were all teenagers.  But this year, youth had taken over.  Almost all of them were very young, painfully young.  Eventually the last stragglers arrived and I got in the van with Mike and five kids, and we pulled out towards Philadelphia.

TO BE CONTINUED

Part Seven

NHS Speech

"My View" Editorial

The October Surprise
|  Round 1 |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |
|  11  |  12  |  Final Bell  |

Journey to Jersey II
|  Intro  |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |

Journey to Jersey I
|  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |   6  |  7  |  8  |
|  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |
|  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |

An Epic Saga
|  Act  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |

Christian Rock Email

Freshman Room Draw
|  Part One  |  Two  |
|  Three  |  Four  |  Five  |