First, the trip to NYC to see the Lion King.
It's about a 3 hour drive, and we took 2 Coach buses (50 people per bus, 100 total.)
Somewhere around exit 4 on the Jersey Turnpike, our bus pulled over unexpectedly. He called the other bus and told them to pull over too. He drove up to the other bus and the two bus drivers stood around and stared at the bus for a little while.
We all kind of started freaking out. We had reservations at B.B. King's restaurant in Times Square and then the play. This trip took months and months of preparation and lots of donor dollars to get going, and Broadway does not stop for broke-down buses. So the bus driver has the brilliant and illegal idea to put all 100 of us on one bus and drive into the city. We agree because we are desperate to get there on time. They tell us the other bus will take half an hour to fix and they'll catch up to us after the play.
We pulled in only ten minutes late to our meal, and walked over to the restaurant. My grown badass gangster boys held my hand through Times Square under the guise of "keeping me safe" but I know they were terrified. It was so cute.
Some eating lunch pictures:
We ate and then walked over to the play. It was, of course, amazing. Lion King on Broadway is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
But we came outside at 5pm to ONE BUS. They said our old bus was totaled. If we had stayed in it any longer, it would have caught on fire. Awesome. They say it's now in a bus repair shop outside of Princeton, New Jersey...with all our stuff in it.
They say another bus is "on the way" to pick us up and take us home. It's a New York company though and they won't take us past New Jersey. So we'll have to take this bus to Exit 1 on the Turnpike, and change to a Baltimore bus there. After we go to this repair shop and get our stuff.
It's 5pm. We stand in Times Square with 90 kids FOR TWO HOURS waiting on this bus. We couldn't let the kids wander around (we were told the bus would "be there any minute") At 7pm (the time we were supposed to be getting home), the bus finally shows up. Waiting in Times Square should have been really stressful, but the kids were great. They made games of counting how many people were wearing all black and trying to make mean New Yorkers say hello to them. It was pretty funny.
We then made the 5 hour drive home (that's right...FIVE) and got back just after midnight.
Everything seemed to go wrong, but nothing actually bad happened and we had a great time. Definitely one of memories. Thank you to everybody who sponsored a child for this trip.
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