The Bandos in Hershey Park - Post #219

Hershey trip, written rather quickly because I'm lazy and watching YouTube videos and because Vinnie was complaining.

We got to the school at 6:30, and I found Rachel, Jackie, and Tom outside the coach bus. Tom and I sat behind Rachel and Jackie and in front of Jess and Nick. On the ride there, we played BS with Rachel and Jackie, stopped for ice cream (or breakfast) at a McDonald’s, slept, and generally made idiots of ourselves.

When we got to the park it was super hot. I lost Rachel, Jackie, and Chelsea when I waited for Tom to be done meeting with his chaperon, Rachel’s dad. Unfortunately, Nick lost Jess and Erin and we couldn’t travel in groups of less than two (and he was looking depressed and besides, it was his birthday), so for about to hours we wandered around with him looking for them. That was boring, but Tom was there so that made it fun. =)

We finally found them, and it was weird. They went off on their own little way and Tom and I went to get lunch. We sat in the back of an air conditioned room eating chicken and fries and talking about random stuff. Some time later we turned to go, but realized it had started pouring and we didn’t even notice.

When the rain died off we went on the Scrambler and the Carousel, then it was time to meet up for check-in. Rachel was rather irritated that we hadn’t been with them, so we stayed with them afterwards, going on the Wildcat, a wooden roller coaster, and the Sky Coasters, a slow hanging seat that carried you around the park.

Then we rode to the hotel and got our rooms. We went swimming in the hotel pool for about fifteen minutes, then had to get out because of another storm. I went with Tom to hang out in his room with Jess, Nick, Erin, and Bellemare and to help Jess straighten Bellemare’s hair. Curfew was at eleven, so I hung with Jackie, Rachel, and Ari and watched TV until we all fell asleep.

The next day we got up, Ari took a shower, and Rachel and I played cards until we realized we were late for breakfast. We hurried down there and were the second to last room there. I ate quickly with the three of them and then sat with Tom for a little while because he had saved me a seat. Then he went to pack the drums on the bus and I went back to the room to hang out and take insane pictures with Rachel, Jackie, Ari, and Chelsea. He came up afterwards and we talked about how the girl on MTV’s Made was an idiot for leaving her old friends when she got a makeover.

That day we performed in a tent. It was boiling hot under the stage lights, but still a lot of fun. We make jokes and laughed up on stage, and really enjoy playing the music. Then we sat through the chorus’s performance, which was pretty cool. There was some fuss on the bus about Jackie’s lost bag, but we found it and it was okay.

After all that drama we hung out with Rachel, her dad, Jackie, Ari, and Chelsea the whole day. Somehow I rode every ride they chose. The Great Bear did a loop and had no floor. You sat in a seat and hung your legs down. I cheated and closed my eyes the whole time. I figured out halfway through that it wasn’t bad, because it didn’t hurt. It was easier than swim practice. With your eyes closed, the only way you noticed loops was the shift in gravity. The Storm Runner was crazy. It shot you out like a gun, went almost vertically up then right back down, and did two corkscrew turns. All I could hear at the second before the drop was Tom saying, “Iona, don’t open your eyes!” The Lightning Racers had two coasters that raced and was probably my favorite. Tom and I went in one and Rachel, Jackie, and Chelsea in the other, and we waved to them whenever the coasters passed. We lost, and when we were pulling in, a little boy waiting in line said, “Aw, come on Thunder, you could’ve done better!” It was mildly found it hysterical. The Mighty Mouse made me think we were going to be thrown out on the tight, sharp turns, and I flew up on every bump because the lap bar didn't go down far enough. The Claw was fun because I made Rachel sit across from me and we made faces at each other the whole time, whenever our stomachs jumped. On the pirate ship, a little boy in front of us said the high parts made his “tummy tickle” which, again, made us crack up. We got lunch at a buffet set up for the group.

Then it started pouring, and we lost the girls in the rain. I dragged Tom out to run in it and, as a result, got him soaking wet. We went into a few stores, and he left to go to the bathroom. We met up with everyone and walked out to the bus. I was kind of sad that I didn’t get a chance to buy an oboe Christmas ornament we’d seen the day before and was saying so when he pulled one out of his pocket and handed it to me. Apparently he’d snuck out to the store when he said he’d gone to the bathroom and bought it for me. Amazing, right?

That night at the hotel Tom came up to hang with Rachel, Jackie, and I. We watched A Cinderella Story and he laughed so hard when one of the evil stepsisters said “fish” that he almost fell off the bed. Then Jackie thought the commercial that said ‘Boatloads of Fun’ said ‘Buttloads of Fun’ so we wound up with ‘Buttloads of Fish’.

After curfew when Tom went downstairs, the four of us rambled about nothing in the dark then finally fell asleep.

We woke up terrified because Jackie’s phone alarm was way louder than we expected. She and Rachel showered, then we watched a prom queen episode of Made until we realized we were late for breakfast. Rachel’s dad fooled us into thinking we were the first ones there when, in fact, we had been moved to another room. We went in and I sat down with Tom, who had saved me a seat again. We watched a dance-off between Dan Cameron, Dave Van Fleet, Geoff McCallum, and Matt Bellemare vs. Caitlin Caffery and three other girls. The guys did it to 25 or 6 to 4 and the girls to a Britney Spears compilation remix. The guys walked into the crowd to give autographs halfway through the song, which was mildly entertaining, and they ended up winning.

Then we left to go to chocolate world. That meant a 3D show where we got wet (Tom and I realized we should have listened to Douglas Adams and brought towels), then free chocolate, then a ride through the chocolate making process with giant singing cows, then free chocolate, then shopping. I bought chocolate for the people at home, including a giant box of Kissables, which I adore. Then we got pizza for lunch and left.

On the way home everyone was exhausted, especially Tom, who called a butterfly a butterfry and found it hilarious. It was a lot like that the whole ride home, being stupid with everybody and playing BS with Nick and Jess.

We stopped at a Wendy’s for dinner, then we were back at the school and the trip was over. It was so much fun, three amazing days with the bandos being free and having fun. I wish it had been a longer trip, but hey. There's always next year.

--Joyce