Day 1: April 6
Harley and Dakota
We arrived at the school at 4 a.m.; we got our bags checked. Tom was the last one there, which is to be expected because it’s Tom.
We loaded the bus and headed outside to take a picture. Some of our parents were crying as we loaded the bus to take off for our 10-day tour of the Eastern United States. Finally, we all piled on the bus, leaving Mabel at 4:26 a.m. Sleeping on the bus the first day was really hard. I think we only slept for about 30 minutes of the two-hour drive to Wisconsin Dells.
When we got there, we woke to the song “Wake Up, Little Susie,” and this is how we would be awakened from every single nap for the rest of the trip. So it was a good thing we loved the song. We met our new driver Mike when we got to the Dells and took off for Chicago from there. When we got on the bus, we had to do “One Room Schoolhouse,” which is where we all sit together, filling up all of the seats in the front of the bus to listen to Mr. Wyffels talk about the stuff we would see.
When we arrived in Chicago, we went to the Willis Tower and took a ton of pictures in the glass overlook. We left Willis Tower and took off for The Bean, or Millenium Park, if that’s what you know it as. Mr. Wyffels gave us a tour of the park, but everyone’s favorite part was taking pictures at The Bean.
Next was Lake Michigan. We saw people swimming in it, even though it was only about 40 degrees outside. We couldn’t even imagine how cold the water would be. After taking a couple pictures by the lake, we headed off once again. Next stop, Notre Dame.
We reached Notre Dame, and as soon as we got inside we met our cute tour guide, Grant Otte, the basketball manager of Notre Dame’s men’s basketball team and a former student at Randolph High school.
After we toured Notre Dame, we hopped on the bus once again and headed to our hotel in Maumee, Ohio. We had to share the hotel with the Turkey Valley eighth graders. When we went down to the pool, it was so loud. The kids were all jumping in the pool at the same time, causing the pool water to go everywhere. When we decided we’d had enough of that, we went back to our room and got ready for room check and bed because we had to get up at 3:45 the next morning.
Day 2: April 7
Michael Selness and Cody Hershberger
Day 2 began with a wakeup call at 3:45 a.m., and we all loaded the bus at 4:30 a.m. to leave Maumee, Ohio. The next few hours were not very clear because mostly everybody was sleeping. The class woke up to “Wake Up, Little Susie” to get off the bus to eat breakfast at a travel plaza. While driving through Pennsylvania, we took a surprise detour to go to the Flight 93 Memorial, where the fourth plane crashed in a field on 9/11. We were the first class to ever see this memorial. It was cold, windy, and icy, but worth the long walk to see the impact sight; a wall that had the names of the people that died and the path the plane took. We got back on the bus and headed to Gettysburg, while winding through the Pennsylvania countryside.
For lunch we stopped at another travel plaza in Pennsylvania. We loaded the bus and listened to “On The Road Again,” “I’ve Been Everywhere,” and the newly remixed “You and Me and a Dog Named Blue.” The bus turned off the four-lane highway and took a two-lane backroads to get to Gettysburg in the afternoon. We toured the city of Gettysburg in the bus and got off at the visitor center to watch a video about the battle. We then went to view the Cyclorama, which was a 360 degree painting of the battle. The class also walked through the Gettysburg cemetery. The girls and boys each acted out the firing of a Civil War cannon. The girls beat the boys easily by about two seconds. Speaking for everyone, the highlight was Laura yelling as loud as she could: READY! AIM! FIRE! We finished the cemetery tour and headed back to the hotel to drop our luggage off, rest, and walk through Gettysburg to eat. The class used the discovery time to eat and purchase souvenirs at a gift shop. We met outside the hotel at 7 p.m. to go on our nighttime walk of the battlefield.
The class all met up outside the hotel, but Mr. Wyffels and Robbie Schutte were not there. They came marching out in Civil War uniforms. Mr. Wyffels started yelling at us, like our sergeant, and Robbie performed the manual of arms. After this we lined up two wide and marched to the battlefield. We wandered through the open fields, learning where each line would have been and on what side the Union and the Confederate soldiers would have been.
We then re-enacted Pickett’s Charge and ran up to our chaperones. We continued the walk in the dark, cold night, which was lit by flashlights throughout Gettysburg.
The class formed a circle at the site of where the Minnesota regiment held up the line and endured massive casualties. Candles were distributed to everyone in the class and lighted in their honor. We then sang “Amazing Grace” to pay tribute to them and reflected on the past year and our future paths.
We made stops at monuments for Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and New York. Pennsylvania has the largest monument, and we walked upstairs to get to the top and look out over the battlefield. The New York Monument, commonly known as the Whispering Monument, is shaped like a half circle. It is unique because one person can whisper on one side by the wall, and a person with his/her ear at the other side of the wall can hear them. The walk ended with Mr. Wyffels telling us some battlefield stories behind the New York Monument. The class could then walk back to the hotel at their own speed in the dark, cold night.
Day 3: April 8
Peyton Zafft and Maddy Aasum
On day three, we woke up at our hotel in Gettysburg to get ready for a full day. Harley was surprised when she spotted a large dead beetle sharing her sleeping quarters. We went on a day tour with Jim Cole around Gettysburg Battlefield National Military Park. We saw many monuments, statues, Devil’s Den, Little Round Top, and Big Round Top. After touring Gettysburg, we went to a buffet called Pickett’s Buffet, where we all ate a lot of food. The food there was delicious, and there was a lot to choose from. We headed to Harpers Ferry National Park, where the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers is, and where John Brown’s raid took place in 1859. We got to walk around by ourselves, took pictures on Jefferson’s Rock, and walked up to the cemetery and looked around for a bit. We also ate some good ice cream after taste-testing all of the flavors. After Harper’s Ferry, we drove through Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains and took some cool pictures of us jumping off of the cliff. Deanna thought it was a great idea to walk on the wall, but realized her mistake when she suffered minor injuries after she slipped and fell.
After Shenandoah, we went to Charlottesville, Va., to get to our hotel and had a pizza and pool party to end our day.
Day 4:
Pierce Lind and Laura Vettleson-Trutza
On the fourth day of the trip, we started out at 6 a.m. and were on the way to Monticello, but were a little late because apparently a car was on fire on the road ahead of us. Once we got there, we couldn’t take the nature trail up because we were late, so we took a bus up to the house. It was lightly snowing when we got there. The snow allowed for us to get some really interesting pictures of the house and the nature around the property. After we had the tour of the house and the rest of the grounds, we had a little time in the gift shops and were on our way. By this time we were hungry, so we rolled into Richmond to eat at the Jefferson Hotel, a five star hotel. The lunch was a cold meat sandwich with water and iced tea. The dessert was cheesecake with a chocolate stick lying across of it, which was really delicious. They had three extra desserts, one was placed on each table. This lead to some interesting discussions at each table as to who should get the extra desert. I just wanted the chocolate stick, which I did get. After we all had enough to eat, we went to see the Saint John’s Church where Michael read Sir Patrick Henry’s “Give me Liberty or give me Death” speech. After loading the bus, we went to Jamestown. We saw the first permanent English colony, which was an island. We also saw the beach. The sun was just coming out, so it also gave us opportunities for some nice pictures. As the waves rolled in, some of us grabbed a few nice rocks and clamshells that were being washed to shore. We were given free time to look around and visit the museum and other buildings and statues there. Some of us went to take pictures by the Pocahontas statue and to mimic her pose, while others went to the museum to look at different artifacts. Mr.Wyffels assigned four of us as “chaperones,” denoted by giving us a sticker.
After our self-guided tour of Jamestown, we headed into Williamsburg. We got a night tour of Williamsburg, where we were told ghost stories from people that claimed that they actually saw the ghosts. No one seemed too scared by the stories until we walked by a shop, and a few people spotted a face in the window. They soon realized it was just an old and creepy looking mannequin head. In the morning we would see the rest of Williamsburg.
Day 5: April 10
Logan Richardson and Conner Gulbranson
On Tuesday, April 10, we started the day eating breakfast at the hotel in Williamsburg, Va. After eating breakfast, we left the hotel to go to Colonial Williamsburg. It is historically set in 1775. Once there we were able to tour the Governor’s Palace and then walk through the town and tour the historic buildings, such as the capitol and a powder magazine, which held gunpowder and guns. After the tour of Colonial Williamsburg, we ate lunch at William and Mary College. The food was great, and there was a lot of it.
After we ate lunch, we went to Shirley Plantation, which has been in the same family for over 11 generations. We got a tour of the house and the farm, and we played yard bowling. Our team won because everyone else struggled. After the plantation, we traveled to our hotel in Fredericksburg, Va., and had Subway for supper.
After supper we released balloons for Avery’s birthday. Orange and blue balloons held messages and birthday wishes. As they took flight, they formed a heart in the sky. We then retired to our room where the boys volunteered as make-up models.
Day 6: April 11
Nate Magnuson and Brenden Kerns
We started the day by visiting the National Marine Corps Museum in Quantico. We were able to see a lot of cool history about the United States Marine Corps. There were some different types of weapons that have been used in World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, and the Korean War. We also got to see some vehicles that have actually been in war. One vehicle was a helicopter that was used to rescue a group of soldiers in a battle. We visited the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Air and Space Center. There was a lot of different types of airplanes on display. The space shuttle Discovery is displayed in the building.
We then headed to Washington, D.C. after exploring the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Air and Space Center, and we toured parts of the city at night. Some of the monuments we visited included the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. We got to see the Capitol building at night also. We enjoyed the D.C. night walk, viewing the monuments and the lights of the city.
While visiting the monuments, Mr. Wyffels gave each of us the corresponding coin and thanked us individually for coming on the trip.
Day 7: April 12
Joe, Trent and Andreea
We woke up early in the morning again at 6:15. We had biscuits and gravy for breakfast at the hotel. After that, we got in the bus and drove to the Capitol. We had a nice tour around it and then went inside. We had a very nice and funny guide who just couldn’t make our Capitol tour any better. He answered all of our questions, made good jokes, and kept us awake. He told us interesting things about every room we were in, including the pillars and the paintings. When we went outside, we took a group picture in the front of Capitol Hill, which serves as a very nice souvenir for each of us for the rest of our lives. After that, we walked to the National Archives Museum. We saw the original documents: the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. The display area was dark and chilly, we had to enter in smaller groups, and weren’t allowed to take pictures.
Our next destination was then National Art Museum, where we were supposed to explore and eat lunch on our own. The museum impressed each of us; we saw paintings by Picasso, Monet and Michelangelo. All of us had lunch in the cafeteria in the museum. It was very good food, though expensive, and we enjoyed a nice environment. When we went on the escalator, the walls were full of pretty lights that just looked amazing.
We finally went to the White House, a place we all have been waiting to see for so long. When we got there, Pennsylvania Ave. was closed, so we had to stand on the other side of the street to take quick pictures. We were a little bit disappointed, and we moved on to the Blair House. While we were there, the Secret Service opened up the street to the public. We didn’t have enough time to get any closer, so we all settled for a walk in Lafayette Park. Mr Wyffels still made us follow a tradition that “all of our parents did’’ by taking a picture with the Andrew Jackson Monument with the White House and in the background. It was a very warm day, and that made us enjoy it even more.
We went back to the hotel. We had two hours to take a nap, shower, and get ready for another beautiful night spent in D.C. We all dressed up fancy and went to a nice restaurant called Gordon Biersch, where we had our own room to eat dinner. Joe and Andreea had tenderloin tips. Trent had the pasta, which he said was very good.
Finally we went to the Ford’s Theatre. We saw The Wiz and it was very good! It was very funny with a lot of action and good music. Also, we visited the museum where we were able to see the gun that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated with.
Day 8: April 13
Noah, Bailey and Tommy
The wake-up call came at 6:45, so we rose early to start the day. We all went to eat breakfast, then got on the bus. After loading we headed toward Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon was George Washington’s home. We got a tour of the house where the guides told us about the rooms. After the tour of the house was finished we had free time to look around his estate. We visited his tomb, where he and Martha are buried. At the visitors center, we watched a historic film in 4-D about the Revolutionary War. We ended our visit with lunch in the food court and headed back to the bus.
Our next stop was Arlington National Cemetery. We passed by two graves of soldiers who had received the Medal of Honor, on our way up to Kennedy’s gravesite. We saw JFK’s and his three brothers’ graves, as well as the eternal flame. Before visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, we saw Lee’Mansion and Audie Murphy’s grave. He is the most decorated soldier in American history. He fought in World War II. We then went to watch the laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was done by Mabel-Canton’s senior class officers Miranda Cox, Travis Vatland, Cody Hershberger,and Deanna Phillips.
We had just enough time to make it to the Iwo Jima Marine Memorial, so we went and took pictures in front the memorial as a class. We had people holding the Iowa and Minnesota state flags, and the Marines flag, as well as an American flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol. It was given to us by Amy Klobuchar, who is our Minnesota senator.
Everyone got back on the bus and went to the hotel, to get ready for our evening on the boat. When we got to the boat, we got our tickets, were seated and waited to eat. We anxiously awaited the other arriving schools as they boarded the boat. After we were finished eating, most of the class went to the observation deck at the top of the boat. We met other schools at the dance that were from New Jersey, Georgia, and Kentucky. Bailey and Noah started arm wrestling. They got other schools involved, but nobody was able to beat Joe. The “allegedly” strongest guy from another school didn’t even want to try to arm wrestle Joe.
After the dance ended, many of us added our new friends from New Jersey on Snapchat. When we got back to the bus, we went to see the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. We took a couple pictures there in front of the statue of JFK. The boys took the first picture, and then the girls took a picture after. In the Hall of Flags, Andreea and Veronica, our Foreign Exchange students pointed out their nation’s flags to the class. We went back to the hotel and got a good night’s sleep before the last day of the trip.
Day 9
Faith Raustad and Deanna Phillips
Wake up call was at 6:45, but our room was up earlier. Trying to get three girls ready in an hour or slightly less, depending on the morning, was difficult. The bus didn’t open for us to start loading bags until 7:30, and we left the hotel by 8:00. We had plenty of time for the hotel’s continental breakfast before leaving to see some monuments in the daylight.
Our first stop was at the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Wall. We split up into groups and took our last pictures at the Lincoln Memorial and a couple of the Vietnam Memorial. We had time to do name rubbings at the Vietnam Wall. We all met up at the Lincoln Memorial where some people shared the names and some information about the person whose name they had rubbed. After visiting the WW2 memorial and the Washington Monument, our next destination was the Holocaust Museum. We got an ID card with a name of one of the victims. As we went through the museum, it was quiet and reverent. The tour was self-guided and took about an hour to go through. At the very end there is an eternal flame, and around the edges of room were the names of different concentration camps. Below the names of the camps were rows of candles that people could light in remembrance of those who died at the camp.
After that we had our choice of museums. A small group of us went to the American History Museum. Our group ate lunch in the cafeteria in the basement. From there we tried to find the car area. We exited the museum after trying and failing to find Fonzie’s jacket. We started off to the Natural History Museum. A student was a few minutes late; Mr. Wyffels was very worried and went to find him by the new African American Museum.
We got to go for a ride on the subway after that, due to streets being blocked off for the Cherry Blossom Parade. We arrived at Arlington National Cemetery, where we got on our bus. Then it was nighty-night time, as we napped for a couple of hours. We played a couple of games after a stop for bathroom break and food. We tried to guess how many miles we traveled each day. We decided that we had travelled 2,800 miles. We counted semis during the song “Convoy,” and we shared our favorite memories from the trip. Later we stopped at a truck stop to change and brush our teeth for the long ride home.
Day 10
Miranda Cox and Travis Vatland
Day 10: the final conclusion to a once in a lifetime trip we all were gifted to experience not only individually, but together as a class. Between fits of intermittent sleep aboard the cold bus, mirroring the snowy weather outside, bodies haphazardly littered the various spaces provided. Our eventual wake-up call came at about 7 a.m. upon reaching Independence, Iowa, via means of the standard “Wake Up, Little Susie.” Breakfast was in the form of McDonalds, for nothing starts a morning better than greasy fast food. Upon finishing final munchings and frequenting the bathroom one last time, all boarded the bus once again for our terminating two hours, the majority of which were spent simply resting our perpetually weary selves. Phone calls were made to family members noting our forecasted arrival, and at about 9:30, a sight never before cherished so extensively, the small and familiar town of Mabel came within sight. For the ultimate time, all luggage was gathered, and families were once again united.
Ten days, one class, infinite memories. Though the experiences are gone, the reminiscences are something to be treasured forever. Through the endless laughs, the characteristic running on barely enough sleep to function day after day, the memorable nights spent together in the hotel rooms, the constant requests to hear Wyffels’ interpretation of “Mule Train,” the sharing in all the sights in the midst of too many eighth graders, the recurrent donning of the ever dreaded “On the Road Again” hat, the attempts to survive first in frigid weather followed by 80 degree sunshine, the overplayed playlist of songs, the worn-out lame jokes, again, specifically provided by means of Mr. Wyffels, and more, it is safe to say that the enjoyment that was had was immeasurable. All in all, perhaps the most significant of occurrences resulted in the entirety of the aforementioned in advancing us from the Class of 2018 to the Family of 2018.