Grad Adventure 2007 - Day One

Thursday morning at 7am we loaded the vans and made our way to Seattle. I didn't really know what to expect or what we would be doing, but isn't that the way all road trips should be?

Right from the beginning, the mood of the trip for me was influenced by the Flight of the Conchords.


We listened to a number of their songs on the first leg of the trip and I couldn't get the songs out of my head (partly because Ben and Spencer kept singing them too throughout our time).

Our first stop was Tom and Christine Sine's house for lunch.


We had an excellent conversation about the future, being creative with one's faith, and different perspectives on life. I wish we could have spent more time with them, but they were getting ready for a weekend retreat. Shane managed to tag along on this grad trip too, and he really enjoyed the Sine's dog almost as much as Jessie from California.

We then went to Seattle Mennonite Church where we were to camp out for the next four days. The staff there were incredibly gracious and friendly. We connected with the Community Pastor and talked about ways we could work with their existing programs while there. On Thursday evenings they have a program called Stop, Drop, and Roll (I think?!). Basically they open up their kitchen for the homeless people in the area to come in and make their own big potluck supper. Our group went out and bought some veggies to contribute to the meal so that we could have a chance to interact with them.


Meeting after getting settled in. Notice how tired I am?


But not too tired to juggle (look at that smile)!!!

The meal was to took place at 6pm. At about 3:30 Shane and I hit the road to pick up our 15 passenger rental van. As we left the parking lot I said to Shane, "You know, I kinda don't want to be back by 6. I hope we're late." "Why?" Shane pondered. "Well, I think it would be interesting to see how the group would react without me there to 'lead' them." I then explained the concept of a 'Leadership Vacuum'. Well, pretty quickly it was quite apparent this whole rental van business was going to be a fiasco.

The day before we left Shane's dad, Les, came up with the excellent idea of renting a van in Seattle (I wish I had thought of that earlier!!!). So he called around to a number of places to try and work something out. He reserved one van at Thrifty's, but he didn't realize we needed it for the whole trip; not just the end when we went to Oregon. So we tried calling them to get it earlier and they kept giving us the run-around and putting us on hold and no one was giving us any confirmation that we even had a van rented. So that morning Les found a 15 passenger van at another place, put it on hold, and gave me directions. So that's where Shane and I went. It was located in the back of a tire place, and there was no one at the counter but a sign saying, "Gone to the Airport. Be back shortly". I needed to get some cash anyways, so we went and found a bank. Then we came back, and still no one to help us. So we sat around and waited for awhile, and finally this guy comes in with a bowl of nachos and goes in the back. Was this the guy?!? Shane told me he was just sitting at the desk eating. I can't believe he didn't even say anything to us, while we're sitting there obviously waiting for someone to come.

So I go to the counter and say we have a van on reserve. He looks down at his nachos all frustrated cause he was really looking forward to eating them rather than helping me! I give him my last name and Les' last name. Then he says, "There's no reservation here. We don't even have a 15 passenger." I'm thinking, what?!?? I'm looking at the paper Les printed off for me from the internet, this is the place and they do rent out 15 passengers, but this guy keeps saying, the biggest we have is 8 passenger. So I give Les a call, and once I said, "Hi Les," the guy starts shuffling around and I realize something is up. I hang up and the guys like, oh, Les, yeah, from Canada, we have a 15 passenger outside for him. What?!?!? What kind of business is this?????? So he runs outside, runs back in, and he's like, I just have to find the keys. Well, of course, there aren't any keys around, so he calls some other yahoo, "Hey, remember that Les guy from Canada who called today about the 15 passenger. I can't find the keys...." Then he hangs up and tells me that Les was told the van wouldn't be ready until tomorrow. Some lady had rented it, taken the keys, and it would be ready tomorrow at 11am. There are a few things wrong with this scenario:

1. Why would the lady take the keys, but leave the van out front?

2. At this point it is about 5pm. Did the lady rent the van only for a few hours?

3. Les knew exactly when we needed the van. He would have remembered if they had said it wouldn't be ready the day we needed it. He wouldn't have even reserved it if he knew that!

So I said, "Forget it, we're going somewhere else." And the guy says, "Yeah, that's a good idea." What?!?!???!? What??!?!?????? Who is this nacho idiot????


My mental state

So by this point, I haven't had much sleep, and I've been driving a lot, which is a terrible for me as most people know. We drove to a few places and no one had a 12 or 15 passenger van. Then we decided to go to Thrifty's, where there might possibly be a reservation for us, but was never confirmed.


So I pull in there. All the other car rental places had no business and I had no difficulties talking to their sales people. At Thrifty's, there's a lineup of people. I stood for probably 20 mins before I talked to someone. Then he had to run outside to see if they had any vans. Finally he comes back and starts typing away. After about 10 mins I ask, "So, umm, is there a van for us?!?" "Oh, yeah, just getting the paperwork ready for you." That was exciting, I had thought we might have to go back to that craphole place and get the van tomorrow.

After all the paperwork, with much celebration I made my way to the van, hopped in, and wait a sec...where are the keys??? I fish around for awhile. Nothing. I go inside and interrupt someone. They come out with me and look for the keys. Nothing. She goes back inside. She comes back with another guy. He looks for the keys. Nothing.

"Looks like we'll have to get another van ready for you." Oh brother...I'm starving at this point (and oh yeah, it's about 7pm which means we've totally missed the meal at the church!).


The meal at the church.

Shane and I ran over to Taco Bell while they got another van cleaned for us and made up new paperwork. After eating we get back there, go inside, and of course, no one that I was dealing with is there now. The guy is like, "Huh, what paperwork, another van, huh?!? Oh, I must have thrown it out when I was cleaning up." My goodness! He starts typing away and comes up with more paperwork for me...but oh, guess what, the van still isn't ready! So we go outside and wait, and wait, and wait. And finally our van is out and waiting for us and we jump in and drove off into the sunset! What a fairytale ending...

Unbelievable. So we made it to the church at about 8:30pm. The meal program is totally done, and we missed it completely (which is funny considering the comment I made earlier to Shane). They filled me in on it, and we discussed it more the next day.

The rest of that evening I just wanted to drop, I was so tired. We goofed around for a bit, got some food, and I went to bed before everyone else.

Then the guys came in the room talking loudly, waking me up, which I wasn't too happy about, but I don't think they cared.

End of Day One.