Day 5: Wednesday, 6/5/2024

 Day 6, and the end is near. But first, a full day. As we know, a full day begins a waffle.

We began our day with a concert with Project Transformation. This is a program that (to significantly oversimplify) allows college students to work with underserved children. They have a day of activities, beginning with breakfast...well, and yesterday beginning with us while they were eating breakfast! The host sites are frequently churches, and we were in the youth hall of Grand Prairie First UMC.

Because of privacy concerns, we are not able to post any pictures that include the children, which is understandable but also a bummer, because they were so much fun! I even taught one of them an impromptu drum lesson on the djembe. They of course thought these big kids hung the moon. Like I said...I wish I could post pictures so you could see.

We returned to the hotel to change (we've been able to do that more than usual on this trip because of the location of our events and the hotel, and that's a real luxury when the other option is changing on the bus!). A little time at the hotel to gather ourselves, and we headed for an afternoon at 6 Flags. I know this is mirrored wrong. I'm old.

I don't ride the teacups because it makes me dizzy, but they are making it look like fun!

When most of your group is riding roller coasters, it's helps to have a Designated Survivor. In addition to being the one who survives to run the government, the designated survivor also holds on to personal items (though there are other ways to deal with personal items, and I want to believe Ellen was stuck like this the whole day).

This was Luke's first time on rollercoasters. We decided to start with the Texas Giant. This is a before picture, but he was smiling just as big after.

People who are riding rollercoasters should probably have BBQ for lunch, right? That is, people who are riding rollercoasters and also small woodland creatures. That squirrel just walked right in. Seen here asking Michael to buy him a brisket sandwich and souvenir cup.

After lunch I switched to another group. Grady and Lex weren't rollercoaster people either, so we decided to go on the Shockwave. It's a fairly mild ride that only goes upside down twice. I had instructed the youth not to scream because we have 2 concerts on Thursday, but also I may be partially deaf in my right ear. Grady's subsequent review of the event: 10/10. Lex's review: 10/10. Grady isn't sure he'd like to continue with ambitious rollercoasters, but Lex is now hooked.

More of our kids on the shockwave. This coaster was the first big coaster I ever rode...and the one that hooked me on coasters!

They did so well on that one that we headed over to the Texas Giant. He's all smiles here, but Grady declined to go around again. He made it, though! Of course, I feel like Camille and I deserve kudos as well. For some reason people seem surprised that we rode all the big ones. "Look man, just because we're older than you doesn't mean we're old!"

I'm not sure why CJ is making that face. But let me just take a moment to tell you this. CJ is the real deal. I love the way he cares for our youth, including my kids. We're lucky to have him.

Every day, Cole and Gwyn have asked for a shout out in the blog. My rule is that if you ask for it, I won't do it. So...no shout out for them.

Luke...does this count as a roller coaster? There are technically rollers under the logs.

Ansley is distracted by Dippin Dots. But then again we all were.

Awwwwwwwww....too short to ride this ride.

Ride! Ride! Ride! Ride! Ride! Do it again! Do it again!

Ooooooohhhhhhh....one too many rides.

A few moments later...

Almost got thrown out of the park because I pulled out my phone before we were in the station...but honestly. We were waiting outside the station for the folks in front of us to load/unload. I had time.

How was it, guys? Shout out to Wesley who is now a bonafide coaster junky.

Mariann...who held your hand on this ride...and how did that even work?

The day was drawing to a close, but I promised a friend I'd go on the Pirate Speelunker ride. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was cool inside, so it had that going for it.

A little *too* cool. Like...what even is this? The music didn't make it better. This is supposed to be a pirate ride. It was just...weird. I legit wonder if drugs were involved in the creation of this ride.

Last of the day. Lucy and I usually ride coasters together, but we didn't do that all day long until the very end. I had promised Grady I'd do the runaway mine train, and we had just enough time to make it happen. And then when we came around to the station, they let us do it again without getting out! Not my favorite coaster, but good partner here, and great friends. A solid end to a great day at 6 Flags.

After 6 Flags we went for a chaperone dinner. We parked in front of Walmart, so naturally everyone went to Walmart. I went with my group too. We looked at legos, and then I went and found some sunglasses...because mine were still in one of the runaway mine cars. Womp womp.

I delayed the start of thank you note writing this year. I'll let you know how that pans out, but early returns are good. But the time has arrived. We took a moment to gather our thoughts...about what we were enjoying and why it was important...and then we started writing folks to thank them for their role in making that happen.

We didn't finish, but we made a good dent. Then I sent everyone to bed. We'll finish them up on Thursday. I went around to check everyone into their rooms. I haven't told you about the smells of rooms. I have a number of thoughts on the subject. But I encountered a new hotel room smell. It was...brownies.

These are hotel microwave brownies. I wasn't clear on the ingredients. I know there was some milk from downstairs (had been stored in the refrigerator). While CJ and I were checking the room in, the final brownie was in the microwave. We left before they tried them. Since I'm writing this the next day and have had a conversation with them about it, I can tell you that as yummy as they look here, they were actually really terrible. Better luck next time, guys.

And that's it. Wednesday is done. It was a good day among good days. Tomorrow we sing in Dallas and then head to Shreveport. Until then...

Peace and love,

John