A Night of Firsts

(Disclaimer: I started this post on Friday, Jan 18 and didn't complete it until Jan 20)

So Brack and I are in Pigeon Forge with the youth of CBC for the Strength to Stand conference. Needless to say it's already been a weekend of firsts....and we've only been going since 4:30 this afternoon.

Our first "first" is that this is the first time that either of us has chaperoned anything like this. There are 36 kids ranging in age from 6th grade to 12th grade. I must say, though, that we do have a really good group of kids accompanying us on this trip.

The second "first" is that I drove a 15 passenger van full of girls, yes teenage girls, all the way from Rome, GA to Pigeon Forge. I've driven 15 passengers before (I worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car) but never when it was full of people, let alone teenage girls. Thankfully Brack was there to keep me sane. ;-)

About the time we got to Knoxville, we started seeing snow on the sides of the interstate. Of course, the girls loved this and were trying to take pictures through the window, at night. :-)  Yeah, that didn't work. haha. We assured them that they would see plenty at our destination that they could take pictures of.

Finally, we arrived at the cabin. I am the 3rd and final van in our convoy. Nic Hann, our youth leader, is in the first, and Lacie is in the middle. As we begin our ascent up the mountain to the cabin, the snow begins increasing on both sides. Then we start experiencing ice. Yes, ice. Ok, so not only is this my first time driving a 15 passenger van full of teenage girls, it is definitely my first time driving a vehicle of any kind up a mountain covered in ice and snow.

Of course the story doesn't end there. We are about halfway up the mountain when we turn down the wrong road, which of course goes downhill. Well...of coursewe can't turn around because all of the spaces are either occupied or covered in ice. So what does that mean? It means that I have to BACK UP the hill that we just drove down. Yes, I said BACK UP...as in GO BACKWARDS....up a hill with snow and ice on each side without hitting the wall, a vehicle, or a cabin. I must say that, thanks to helpful navigating by my husband and God's grace, we made it back to an empty parking space and i was able to pull in. I only did this because, of course, I see headlights in my rear view mirror. Someone was trying to come down the road that we were trying to get off of.

Oh yes, it gets better. We finally get turned around and headed back out of the hole that we were in, when a big church bus, the vehicle that was coming towards us, decided that it was going to park right where we needed to get out. Oh some people. We finally get back to the main road and turn left to go up yet another hill. Of course, there is some ice on the turn so we have to cut it wide to avoid the ice. by the time I go, I've got this down from watching the first two vans. I'm feeling pretty good, but it was short lived.

Nic went down the hill fine, but Lacie had to stop and hit a patch of ice about midway down. She skidded and started heading toward the cliff on the left. When I saw, I got over and tried to avoid it, but low and behold I hit it too. Thankfully I was able to keep control and I went towards the wall on the right instead of the cliff. Give me a wall over a cliff any day of the week. :)

We finally made it to the main cabin and to everyone inside to eat.

Can't wait to see what other "firsts" God's gonna do the rest of this weekend!!!