Old Sul Ross - Sul Ross - Home - e-mail me

 
Illustrations
Sul Ross Trip images - 1 2 3
One bus. Twenty people. Two to a seat. Fourteen hours.
Sounds like fun.
Intro - a fourteen hour bus trip? images - 1 2 3

The coolest thing about Sul Ross was definintely that we got to miss three days of school.

The uncoolest thing was definitely spending fourteen hours on a cramped bus two to a seat.

You haven't lived until you tried to sleep in a bus seat. There's just no way. You can sleep sitting up (which hurts your back), leaning forward (which hurts your back), laying on the person next to you (which hurts your back), or laying down and sharing your seat lengthwise (which hurts your back).

My back hurts.

Blastoff - we're off! images - 1

We packed stuff on Wednesday morning, during the first hour or two of school, and then boarded the bus and took off.

Smith said that we weren't going to stop for four hours, because he wanted to get there as early as possible (before midnight). I bet we would stop after 90 minutes, Kyle bet two hours, and Danny bet the full four.

Kyle won - we stopped 1 hour 59 minutes and 47 seconds into the trip. Bastard.

Refuel Station - a picnic images - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

We got to have a nice picnic. Some food, and a playground, which was cool. Kyle spent most of his time trying to see how fast he could go down a slide. I gave up after it shocked me.

I discovered a swingset, and learned that if you jump, land on your toes, or your feet hurt.

I also learned that chicken soaked in Pepsi is not as good as it sounds.

We packed up and left once again, after Lyly and I wrestled in the sand. She got sand in her pants, and in my shoes.

Perihelion - a CD player is your best friend images - 1 2

I spent most of the remainder of the trip reading my book and listening to my CD's.

Heed my warning, friends, a book and a CD player are your best friends on a long busride.

Your friends get tired, the people sitting next to you get annoying, and the scenery gets flat. Music and a book will never fail you.

Landing - the prude ranch images - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

When we got there, it was already past 11 o'clock. Everyone was tired, cranky, and not sure of what to expect.

The boys room was basically a brick room with metal bunk-beds that nobody trusted to sleep on. The showers had no pressure (but thank God we had hot water) and we had a heater - damn good thing, because I am impossible to get out of bed if its cold.

The girls room was nicer. They had sturdy beds, and a nice bathroom, but only two showers, and they outnumbered us two to one easy. Ha-ha. And it took them until the second day to discover the thermostat controls 'hidden' behind the open bathroom door. Girls. Go figure.

We all called our bunks. I got a top bunk, next to Kyle, and right under the heating vent. And above Mr. B.

I complained that he snored, and he complained that I tossed and turned too much. We learned to live with it.

He did snore, though, but only the first night. One the second night Erger took first, and the last night, Smith had an all-our snore-fest.

Boring - I study for UIL images - 1

Next morning we got to get up and study. That is, everyone but Kyle. He stayed in bed until 8:30. Then he took a shower, and climbed back in bed.

I got up (under threat of a cold shower), took two computer science tests, and made a 50 on one, and a 42 on the other. That sucks. It's because I just started Computer Science, and I don't know anything about APVectors or matrices, and I suck at doing loops. So those are the two things I hate - loops and vectors. (Psst - guess what's going to be on the computer science test?)

I decided to put Math and Calculator off until tomorrow, because those events weren't 'til Saturday, two days away.

Fort Davis - Steal a rock from 250 million people images - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

So I took some tests, drank some hot chocolate, and then we piled on the bus and went to a wretched little Mexican restaurant.

Then we went to Fort Davis, which was pretty cool, and if you take a rock with you, it's a Federal Offense, because you are stealing from all of the American people. Isn't that cool? One rock, and you stole it from 250 million people, all but one of whom have no idea?

I didn't take anything, but Kyle brought up a question - if you bring a rock in, and toss it there, and pick it back up, are you committing a federal offense? We didn't ask the ranger.

Yonk! - The World's Biggest Yonk images - 1 2 3

Background: Yonk - verb: a mix of 'yell' and 'honk'. One day, somebody was yelling and honking outside Jessica's window, and in a moment of confusion, she told her mom someone was 'yonking' at her. The word was born.

How does it tie in to our Sul Ross trip? We stayed the nights at the Prude Ranch, which is surrounded by mountains. One of the mountains had been 'tagged' by previous visitors, who placed big white rocks spelling 'ACB'.

I think you know where this is going.

Kyle and I decided that we have to leave a sign of our being here, by making the world's biggest YONK.

We got together some people, including our sponsors, so it wouldn't look like we snuck away in the dark of night to deface a mountain. Because that's just not true - we snuck away and defaced a mountain in plain sight and light of day.

It wasn't easy, but the fact that someone already hauled the rocks up there made things alot easier. We just changed the ACB into YON, and added our own K.

(You can tell, the K is smaller. But we were tired and lazy. And Rachel almost sat on a cactus.)

And, of course, we had to give due credit to the man who drove for 14 hours straight to get us there - that's what the JL is there for.

Amazingly, we were not wrestled out of our beds in the morning to change the rocks back, but Melissa did talk to someone who was the original speller of ACB, so it looks like next year we're gonna have to fix our Yonk.

Campfire - and Marshmallows images - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Afterwards we had a campfire. It was pretty big, and we roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and ate undercooked chicken.

Kyle and I stole some lighter fluid, and dipped food in it and tried to burn it. It didn't work too well. We also got some packages of Coffee Creamer, but those weren't much of a show either.

Then I got a headache, got sick, and went to bed early. I woke up later that night, and we all listened to Mr. Smith snore, with an occasional uprise of 'Gentlemen..!' and 'Go to sleep.'

I maintain he did this in his sleep.

Competition - Debate, mostly... images - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Next morning we had to get up at 8 o'clock. Kyle refused to get up again. We had to play RATM's 'Wake Up' next to his ear. He punched the radio. Good aim for being asleep and under a blanket.

Once everyone was up, we had to get our ass to Sul Ross college. I didn't know Sul Ross had a college. I thought it was going to be at a school, but it was a college. Small campus, around 11 buildings or so, but nice.

My event wasn't until 6:30, so I got to watch Kyle debate, and Rachel and I walked around for a long time.

Then I got to go do Computer Applications, which I don't really like, but it's pretty neat. I got to play minesweeper for awhile. I got fourth place, surprisingly.

After that I had to run to Computer Science. Remember what I said I hated? Yup. The whole test, nothing but APVectors and loops. Argh. But I got second place, so I guess I didn't fuck it up. Gotta study, man!

Then we found out that both Kyle and Lyly advanced to Semi-finals, and so did Jessica and Patrick's CX team, and we went home.

Day 2 - More of me. images - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Next morning we had to get up early (6:30) and we didn't get much sleep - you could hear Smith and Erger snoring through our headfones - and most of us were listening to Limp Bizkit... but through some miracle we did.

We had a donut and pepsi breakfast, and showed up in time for me to take my 8:00 Science Test (suprisingly I got like, 3rd place in chemistry, and 5th place overall. Wow. Thanks, Spurgers!)

Then I practiced Math and Calculator. I sucked it up in both. Not my fault on math though, the math test was almost all Calculus, which I know nothing about.

Damn math.

One of the funnier things that happened was Jessica's pizza. She turned away from her plate, and me being hungry (and resourceful), I took a bite.

Her, having eyes, noticed that a significant chunk of the pizza was missing. She blamed Kyle who was sitting right next to me.

So, I knew what I had to do. Every time she turned away, I would take a bite or a piece of pepperoni, and she would turn around and blame Kyle, who was getting into it too.

Finally, she stepped away, and I started to go for the pizza, when she turned. From her angle it looked like I was just blocking Kyle from her view, so she started yelling at him. Trying to keep my cover, I opened up my trenchcoat so she couldn't see anything, and so she could see that my hands were no where near the pizza.

I didn't know how I was going to take a bite, when I realized Kyle was kicking me and holding the pizza near my mouth. I took a bite. Jessica yelled at Kyle. Kyle laughed. So did I.

Because it was funny.

Then Michelle made the mistake of leaving her little Lobo stuffed toy (a little stuffed wolf with the Sul Ross logo on it, I guess it's the mascot) and her camera on the table... I took little Lobo to the bathroom and cleverly positioned him above the toilet, with a little toilet paper in his hand and took a picture.

Michelle never mentioned it...

Then I sat there for awhile, until the award ceremony. It turns out I had a twin there. Tall, thin guy with glasses and long curly hair. He was mistaken for me three times. Finally I talked to him. His name is Ryan Clark, and he's a pretty timid guy. I got my picture with him.

We all got some awards. Lyly took 2nd, and Kyle took 3rd in LD, and Princeton took first place overall, so Smith was a happy one-legged fat man. There were some more awards that I don't remember.

We left quickly, and drove for two hours before stopping to eat dinner at Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut - and torture images - 0

We don't know how it started, but our conversation quickly switched over to the topic of how we would capture and torture people who broke into our house.

Lyly seems to prefer needles, Meyassa blunt objects, and Alyssa medieval torture techniques. I prefer inhumane testing.

We also had a really cool waiter guy who refused to accept my tip... oh well. He wanted to know what all events we had, and shook the hand of everyone whose event he liked, except for me, because he shook my hand without any reason, except for the fact that I was different and cool. That was cool. Hope he reads this.

Hellbound - the trip back images - 1 2

Then the rest of the trip was spent praying for sleep or death - I didn't care which, I was so tired.

Most people slept, usually one to a seat, or two laying beside each other. A few people took the spot in the back of the bus, laying on top of the luggage - they got alot of room to spread out, bastards.

I finally got comfortable laying halfway on the floor, halfway on my blankets in the space between the seats, with one leg up on the seat, and spent the remaining four hours of the trip like that, asleep, listening to Limp Bizkit.

I was awakened rudely every half an hour though, by the sound of the bus running half-off the road as Smith tried to pick up his CD player off the floor. I'd sit up, and listen - one buzz meant we're just on the shoulder, we're fine. But two buzzes, and that means we're in the ditch, so assume the position and kiss your ass goodbye.

Threatening me with impending doom is a pretty good way to keep me awake.

Home - we made it images - 0

When we got home, I realized that I was giving three people a ride, plus their luggage.

We filled the trunk with mine and Kyle's stuff. After I jammed my blankets in, I realized the trunk wasn't going to close by any human means, so I said fuck it, and drove off with it open. Nothing fell out, by the grace of God.

Half the back seat was filled up with luggage, with Lyly sitting in the remaining space, and we piled luggage on her too. Kyle and Rachel shared the front with a pizza box and a large pillow. Being the driver, I had plenty of room. Hehe.

The End - I sleep. images - 1

We dropped Rachel off first. Her dad's girlfriend was there, and she didn't want to go. We made her.

I don't know about her, but Kyle and I clearly heard some sort of noise from her dad's bedroom. We made no conjectures, dropped the bags, quickly said goodbye, and got the hell out of there.

Then we dropped off Lyly, and Kyle, and I got home to end my day, just to find my parents getting up for work. I said my hellos, summed up the trip, took a shower that drained all the hot water, and went to bed.

And that, my friends, is that.

Thanks to Mr. Erger for the pictures, Mr. Smith for the driving (sort of), GlassDog and Yahoo! for the design idea, to the pizza hut guy for being cool.
Also thanks to everyone on the trip, and the people I forgot.