My high-school-aged son plays percussion in his school marching band, this year the bass drum and gong, at the same time. His marching band took First Place in the Colorado state 4A competition yesterday, but not without having to surmount some difficulties. The roads were icy when we left the school at 6:45 am to head for the CSU stadium in Ft. Collins, 2+ hours away. Just south of Castle Rock, the caravan of 4 school buses, 2 trucks, 2 RVs full of food supplies, and many families in cars got stuck behind a serious accident on I-25 that involved a jack-knifed tractor trailer, a snow plow, and a panel truck. The driver of the panel truck had to be extracted with the jaws of life, while we sat on the highway for 1.5 hours.
Our band director was able to contact the competition officials and get our performance time switched from before the lunch break to after. However, we arrived with just enough time for the kids to sprint to the port-a-potties after being on the bus 4.5 hours, get in uniform and march in, with no practice or warm-up. They still managed to score second place in the semifinals and advance to finals.
After a good lunch and practice time, they were back to their award-winning form for their 7 pm performance at finals and took first-place. However, more trouble greeted us on the return trip. One of the 4 buses wouldn't start, so kids were crammed onto the remaining three for the cramped journey home, starting after 11 pm. Then the liftgate of the rented truck that my husband drove, which held the percussion instruments, broke when we got back to the school. So, heavy xylophones, bells, etc. had to be hand-lifted down. And, the broken liftgate motor drained the power from the truck's battery, so he couldn't return the truck last night. My son and I got home at 2:15 am, my husband at 3 am after the other truck driver took him to the U-Haul place to pick up his car. I'm moving slowly today, but I had to share my excitement!
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