Home > Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Homeward Bound

Green 5 made it all the way back to Sacramento, California just before sunset on Wednesday. Six days, six states, two vans, and the Lost Tribe of Green 5… What a ride!

We started out a day early because of the tropical storm warning for St Bernard Parish that forecasted lots of rain for the area. AmeriCorps didn’t want us to get stuck in the Parish if it were to flood, nor did Camp Hope want us taking up space in case residents would need to stay at Camp Hope since the volunteer housing doubles as an emergency shelter.

Oh well, being forced to leave on Friday night instead of Saturday morning pushed us four hours ahead of schedule for what would have been our first day of travel. We spent Friday night at a fabulous hotel in Beaumont, Texas, where the kindness and hospitality of the service there really made Che smile.

We didn’t even get on the road to Austin until 9:00 am because of the short day of driving ahead of us. After driving for four hours we still had the whole afternoon to hang out in Austin. We visited the Alamo, which Orlando said is supposed to be the best movie theater in America, walked around downtown, checked out neat areas of the city, and then had an amazing dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

We drove for at least 8 hours the next day and still hadn’t made it out of Texas! We spent Sunday night in Amarillo. Jared and Orlando went to a steakhouse with members of Green 6 and took a group picture in a giant armchair. The steaks were amazing and just what Orlando had been craving.

The drive from Amarillo to Denver took us back an hour as we passed through New Mexico. From the beautiful landscape of New Mexico up through rocky slopes of Colorado, this was one of the most beautiful routes of our journey. We stopped at Garden of the Gods, just outside of Colorado Springs, for about an hour of running around and snapping pictures of the beautiful orange rock formations.

Jared and Leann stopped at the National Figure Skating Museum. After we went through Colorado Springs it wasn’t too long before we hit Denver. Unfortunately it was a cold and rainy night in Denver and no one had the energy to go out into the city so most people just ordered Chinese food from the comforts of their hotel rooms.

Driving out of Denver the next morning was a winding route that took us through the Rockies. The early morning sun beautifully illuminated the mountains, giving everything a crisp, amber glow. After seven months in the hot, humid Gulf, the signs of changing seasons got us all excited. We gasped at autumn colors up the mountain and pulled the van over to run around in the snow.

Before the day was over we nearly got attacked by a giant dinosaur in Dinosaur, Utah. We made it to Salt Lake City at sunset we all enjoyed the city skyline humbled by the mountainous backdrop. Our hotel was only a few blocks away from Temple Square and the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

Our last day of driving was the longest. From Salt Lake City to Sacramento was just under 10 hours of driving and with added bathroom breaks and stops for gas and meals it seemed much longer. Skirting around Great Salt Lake basin that morning was a interesting drive through lands that were dusted white with salt (not snow) and were completely deserted.

There weren’t really any other interesting stops along this last leg of the journey. Jared finished East of Eden by John Steinbeck at some point in the middle of nowhere and insisted on stopping at a book store in the first sign of civilization: Reno, Nevada. We pulled over for the first bookstore we could find and Jared ran inside for a copy of Grapes of Wrath because he couldn’t go another 200 miles without more Steinbeck.

While this blog could be wrapped up right about now, it would be leaving out the part in the road trip where we all got completely cranky and tired of one another. It should come as no big surprise that seven people with different personalities that are put on a team at random, who travel together, live together, and hang out together for 10 months and then are cooped up in a van together for 6 days without any personal space whatsoever would have moments like this at least once in a while. Just like any family we get on each other’s nerves, we fight and it’s because of our conflicts that we learn how much we really love each other.

No one really remembers what the conflicts were about, such petty grievances that are no longer of any importance. Part of the struggle came from having an extra support vehicle that we had to drive back to Sacramento with us which meant splitting up and having everyone drive more shifts. It wasn’t until the last leg of the trip that all of Green 5 was in the van together for the first time because the other team we were traveling with drove the support vehicle.

At that point the mood changed. It was just us. We were only an hour or so away from Campus which meant the end of the road trip we had been anticipating since we were first made to fly down to the Gulf instead of drive. As if nothing had happened we all were back to normal, goofing around, filling each other in on different things that had happened between the two vehicles. It was a great catharsis and nothing that had gone wrong on the way mattered anymore.

As soon as we got back to Campus we were all eager to unpack our stuff and get settled into our rooms again. We were the last team to arrive and were greeted right away by Jeanine, our Unit Leader, and several other NCCC staff and Corps Members from our class. What a wonderful feeling to be back!

On Thursday morning we had our last Community Meeting. The tasks for that day included cleaning out the vans, taking them to the car wash, and coming up with creative ideas for our team banner that is tradition to make at the end of the year. We had so much fun doing those little chores, finding lost treasures that had been buried in the van for who knows how long, chugging extra cans of FEMA water we found in the back, and playing Frisbee in the parking lot. Everyone was in a great mood.

Even though the last couple of days have been a complete change of pace filled with paper work, learning about post AmeriCorps opportunities and preparing for our last project Debrief, time still feels short. That is probably because we have less than a week left. Some of us seem eager to go home, others are not yet ready to be done. A few Corps Members and Team Leaders from others team have decided to do an optional one month extension round down in the Gulf after graduation. Still, nothing is quite a reality yet.

- The Tribe