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Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
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And later, as you are driving up and through the hills in Kentucky, explain how Boyle's Law works and offer to give a demonstration... -dave |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
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Common sense is key. The trouble makers know they are watched. Quiet time from 12am to 6am would be good. (Extend if needed) Don't do gender areas until quiet time or after last late night stop before midnight. Common Sense. |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
I would like to suggest the Bagel System. But to do so, I would have to explain the Bagel System:
An over-exuberant parent got some bagel stores to donate their day old bagels to our team for our bus trips to Richmond and Georgia. And by "some" I mean 3 big trash bags full of bagels. Richmond proved that we would have an obscene amount of bagels left over, most of which were thrown out. Now, at the end of Peachtree, we still had way too many bagels, so the teacher chaperon and I came up with The Ence-Foster Bagel System, which went like this: Foul words- must eat two old bagels. Horseplay (shoving, hitting, pushing, biting, pulling hair, etc)- must eat four old bagels. Questioning the Bagel System- must eat two old bagels Questioning why you can't question the Bagel System- must eat 4 old bagels Having no pants on- must eat 100 old bagels. Now, that's the only rules we dealt with because, despite what Dave said, we did not separate the team by gender and did not call a curfew and we've been known to slip in a few PG-13 movies (wooooo!). However, you can create bagel penalties for any rule you create. The Bagel System was really popular (believe me, when we stopped for dinner, I barely got to eat because I had to keep answering questions about it, such as what words constitute a foul word, every time I tried to take a bite, I would hear "Hey Heidi, does #$@ count?") I will admit now, that the Bagel System was corrupt. People were encouraged to tell on their peers, which they did, and we even had a double-crossing stoolie in their midst who got benefits for his miscreant ways. But overall, the Bagel System did more good than bad, and we had some sweet-talking, non-violent behavior on the way home, because, believe me, nobody wanted to have to eat bagels that had been sitting in the storage area under a bus for 3 days... "New diesel flavored bagels, yum!" The Bagel System aside, my other recommendation is to make sure that all of the kids will eat pizza and if not, try to find a area that has several fast food places to stop at so that they can have some choices (we have very picky eaters and there tended to be big battles over dinner places). Oh, and try to encourage the buddy system at rest stops as rest stops can often be high crime areas with a lot of strangers coming and going, and you know, the world still has way too many sick people in it. Doing a seat check is a good idea, but I recommend doing the check by names, not numbers because it's easy to miscount. Oh, and one last thing, take extra trashbags and make sure the students (and adults) clean up after themselves!) Heidi |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
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Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
If you can get the majority to agree on it, watch an entire trilogy or series of movies such as:
The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Harry Potter, Back to the Future, The Mighty Ducks, Beverly Hills Cop, Star Wars (all 6, muhahahaha), Indiana Jones, Terminator, or films made by a certain director. All great ideas in my opinion. |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
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Heidi |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
"Dish" would be an excellent movie.
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Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
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-Clean up is key. Do a spot check of the bus and make kids throw off trash at every stop. -We had a "lights out" policy at midnight, basically, no bus lighting, no movies, no loud stuff, but kids could still watch movies on laptops and play games. -Food, we were told to eat beforehand, and then we did breakfast in the morning. This was for a 10 hour trip. I'd set up a lunch & dinner stop too, snacks can only go so far. ;) -It's sometimes mandatory to stop every few hours to let the driver take a pee/drink/cig break. Use this time to let the kids run around, get somehting to drink, and just stretch the legs. -Don't be affraid to have parents "switch" seats with bad kids to break up loud groups. -Generally, we had movies that both the parents and kids wanted to see, although we wern't allowed Disney movies for some odd reason. I'd recomend TV shows myself, since they tend to work better on the road. Get someone who has the DVD sets of Family Guy, The Simpsons, etc. Oh, make sure to agree on everything before hand, such as movies and things. Pack more entertainment than you'll need, people like movies, just not the whole bloody trip ;) |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
We haven't been on an 18 hour bus trip but Telephone can be pretty entertaining for a while.
If you haven't played it's best at a dinner table with a ton of people. One person whisperes something to the person next to him, and then that person passes on the message but changes one thing. We did this at a restaurant after one of our competitions and we eventually had 4 or 5 messages running around the table at once. |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
Our team dietary needs/preferences are diverse and complicated during travel. We make it work with a combination of
Miss Information's suggestions Rick Tyler's Scout system and placing some of the responsibility on the person that has special needs. If a traveling team member has to eat every 2 hours, then they have to make arrangements/provide the snacks/food that will keep them healthy until we stop for the next meal. So it works. Even though we are from Texas, barbecue is not at the top of our list for places to eat at - we try to find restaurants or areas that provide a large variety to select from. When our parents provide sandwiches and breakfast foods, they are careful to fit the team's dietary needs and are way cool for doing so. It gets us through. Side note: we like the bus. The team grows very close during this special time together - baked beans or no. :) |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
Speaking as somebody who has fairly rigid dietary requirements - please, please have at least some choice.
Also, I don't think anybody has mentioned this... but if you can, avoid places with lots of smoke. I know in some states smoking in restaurants is entirely illegal. This is not the case for every state. No matter what your opinion is on smoke in public places, please understand that it is a painful thing to deal with (the smell) on a crowded bus. |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
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Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
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Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
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So, back to you Andrew, if your team knows ahead of time they are going to be stopping at a pizza place, there should be no problem because they know ahead of time and can prepare for anything (I certainly did not mean to imply your idea was bad). Our team tends to just drive along until the head chaperon decides it's time to find a place to eat and tells the bus driver to stop. In this case, I still highly recommend trying to find a mixture of fast food places. Heidi |
Re: Suggestions for 18 hour bus trip
Having done 27 hour car trips from NJ to Texas several times (6) and a 17 hour NJ to FL four times with my family (7People (Includes 1 friend)(we go non stop)) I deal with long car trips, easiest thing to do is bring a blanket, pillow and whatever you need to get comfortable. Bring a lot of snacks just for you, do not plan to share much. Bring chargers, back up chargers and back up batteries, bring busy work, like school work. Now one thing to remember, TALK AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE, with no talk there is little chance of arguments and when you hit hour 20 and someone honestly believes that Kirk only had 3 fin... anyway just ignore people, if they get on your nerves complain to an adult. Honestly it may be the weenie way out but it works. Another tip, BUY SOMETHING NEW, I don’t care what it is, a new game, a new CD, a new movie, or battle bots from the dollar store, just buy something new. With something new you have a much lower chance of getting bored then with something old because it has that new feeling. Watch special features on movies, even watch em with commentary. Another tip, get as much rest as possible and before this trip starts wear the most comfortable thing you have, I don’t care if it is neon green, wear it!
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