The wheels on the bus go 'round & 'round

Ah, the joy of riding a school bus for 2+ hours with a bunch of guard girls. The trip to Cincinnati went quickly; the ride home seemed to take forever.

I did something I vowed never to do: I rode the school bus to Cincinnati, Ohio last weekend for the band competition at Colerain High School. It's not that I necessarily mind riding a bus, but school buses do not have the leg room for tall people like me. My legs don'tt fit in the seat unless I sit sideways. And noisy kids for three hours, well...not exactly my cup of tea. However, with the long week of preparing for and greeting my Chinese guests John and I both agreed that it was not safe for us to drive to Ohio so tired. We were afraid we would get there, but struggle to drive back home. We were right; way too tired to be driving home at 1 a.m.

Kelly Daniels, one of the guard directors, applies Liz's makeup on the bus ride to Cincinnati. The girls start getting ready long before arriving at a competition.

Once we arrived at the high school, I got to see more backstage preparations, as I usually arrive a bit later and immediately sit with friends in the bleachers. Liz and the guard girls put makeup on during the bus ride. I actually enjoyed my bus ride to Ohio. I got to talk about my favorite subject: China. There was one gal in particular, Tori, who wanted to hear all about the visitors last week and my trip to China. The time flew by. We arrived about 11 a.m. and the kids had to get dressed almost right away. There were 29 bands performing during the day and only the top 10 bands would go to finals. Mark and the band members dress outside in the grassy areas. The guard dresses on their bus or in the school; it just depends on a school's particular facilities.

There was a lot of standing around and sitting on bleachers with very little leg room. But the Royal Command & Guard came out of preliminary competition with a 1st place in their class and the trophy for best color guard and best percussion. That was wonderful with such competition. We went into finals as one of the 5 top bands. The group, me included, rode to a local mall after the performance because there were quite a few kids feeling sick and they needed not only some rest but also some food. We had a 9:15 p.m. finals performance.

That's Mark on the left getting dressed with the rest of the band before heading off to warm up prior to prelims.

Our score improved again and we were against bands much larger than the RCG. We were happy to take a second place overall for the color guard and 5th in placement. The color guard should be proud; they were competing against some big dogs! The ride home wasn't pleasant as the trip there. By 11 in the evening my hips were sore from having to sit all day in uncomfortable settings, my foot was throbbing, and the bus was too hot. Yikes! 2:15 a.m. couldn't come fast enough for my sore body. I did keep reminding myself that the bus ride did save me gas money. What a way to celebrate Sweetest Day.

Comments

[Member of the band]

GO PERCUSSION!!
woot!