It has finally arrived, the trip all the boys have been talking about. The day after Thanksgiving we get up at our normal time. At 5:20 in the morning for us and 5:45 for my son. He is so excited, he actually did the morning routine faster than normal. The battle we go through every day of this child's life did not exist on this very day. Anyway, that's a whole separate blog. I was up late the night before packing because I still had the holiday at my house. We also had some of our closest friends visiting from another state and there was nothing going to have us miss their visit. So late to bed, early to rise. But I was organized. Holiday was done, house was clean and packing up the truck first thing in the morning went well. Nothing was forgotten. So we eat and head out to meet the group at the den leaders house. We are on time but have to wait for the others. Finally everybody arrives. We are now running late, no time for coffee which is not received well by some. We have to be at the Orient Point Ferry at 9:00 a.m. for our 10:00 departure. We have a high speed convoy out to Orient Point. We pulled in the parking lot as the clock turned 9:00. So, all is good. The ferry leaves on time and in an hour and 15 minutes, we will pull into New London, CT. We convoy out and head over to the ship. Timing is going very well. We arrive at about 1:00 p.m. By now, we are starting to get hungry. Good thing we all planned on going out for lunch. Oops...change of plans. It turns out, some people brought sandwiches (just in case)and wound up eating them on the way. So only 2 families needed to eat. So on went the GPS and into town for food we go. On a previous wrong turn, we passed through there and remembered seeing some possible options for lunch. So the 2 families park the trucks and start walking. We come across some local people and ask for suggestions on where to eat. We are sent to something that looks like a little hole in the wall because the food is fantastic. So, we tried it. The food was awesome, portions were tremendous and for the three of us including tip was less than $20.00. So full bellies, we head back to the ship. Just in time, they are letting us board early. So we start lugging in all the "gear". We bring it all to the "sleeping quarters". OK, the big room with floor to ceiling hanging metal cots sleeping about 50 people. We choose our beds (for a lack of a better word), throw our stuff down and off we go. We are sent on a scavenger hunt through the 4 ships. The boy scouts must complete this for a prize. We head off to begin the scavenger hunt, but we know that we need to be back for dinner at 6 p.m. It is brutally cold and windy outside of the ships so you actually welcome the close quarters of the ships. Single file and keep ducking down through some wickedly small doorways. If you were over a certain height or weight...forget going through these ships. Six o'clock comes around quickly. So we head back in the dark and cold to the Battleship. As we re-enter we are told there will be no more walking outside because things are freezing. So all activities will be indoors and the scavenger hunt will have to be finished the next day. OK, so we eat and do a fire drill(back out into the cold night we go!). Then we do knot tying, storytelling, meet a crew member from when the ship was commissioned and see a film about the ship itself. Then we get to watch the feature film..."The Incredible Mr. Limpet". When it ends, we are told that we have 10 minutes to get to the other side of the ship and prepare for lights out at 11:00 p.m. So change, brush teeth and set up the sleeping bags. Well they played Taps and lights were off...no joke. We weren't even ready. Oh well! It is so dark you can't see anything. Now try and climb up moving cots and get into bed. You are so close that the people above and below you are approximately 8" from you as you are lying on your cot.
Assume the position you want to sleep in because all movement creates creaks that echo throughout the room. You also have to be careful not to hit the other person as you roll because remember there is only about 8" between the two of you. So, again...pick a position and don't move! For 7.5 hours!! Now, can we talk about the snoring...wow...mostly men and boys were there. Do you have a concept of the level of noise? Needless to say, there was no sleeping for me and many others. By morning, it smelled "ripe" in there from the feet, morning breath and possible "pooting" throughout the night. So when Reveille played I was out of bed like a bullet out of a gun. I had been waiting for that song to get out of bed. FINALLY!! I thought it was never going to start playing!! I grabbed my toothbrush and hairbrush and went to the bathroom as quickly as possible. Oh, I forgot to explain the bathrooms. The first one they showed us was a actually the men's room. Although we were told that it WAS our bathroom. Urinals in the open with 2 stalls with broken doors. The boys had to be kicked out when any female needed to go. Once in there, you had to lift the door into place with your foot and then try to lock it. I will not even get into how disgusting it was either. Luckily, on the way to the mess hall, we found an actual ladies room. MUCH MUCH better, until the boys try to go into them. I think I've covered day one, if I forgot anything I will mention on another portion of this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment