TWB June 17th 2023: Day 2- New Orleans

Day 2: New Orleans

GOOOOD MORNING AMERICA! We woke up bright and early this morning at 6:00am. We were up before out wake up call, and were all ready to go by 5:30am, yes mom and dad WE VOLUNTARILY WOKE UP BEFORE THE COUNSELORS, they were shocked. While we stayed up later than expected due to the temperature and showers, we were SHOCKED at the cooler temperatures at night compared to the sweltering heat during the day. That didn't

stop us though!

We all packed up our things, rolled up our hammocks and sleeping bags, and headed on the road a quick, hop, jump, and skip away to the beautiful campus of Auburn University. We took a brief drive through campus, where we took a few BEAUTIFUL (like us) pictures at the Auburn University sign and had our first research presentation of the trip! We learned a lot of cool, fun and also funny jokes about: The state of Georgia (Bailey Thornburg), LaGrange College (Cole Horstmann), Auburn University (Ben Esarove), and the State of Alabama (Abby McClenathen).

After our AMAZING presentations by our wonderful friends, we loaded the bus and vans and headed to our new favorite store WALMART! We actually learned a fun fact today from out HAPPY friends is that the budget for breakfast was $1.50 per person, but we kept our hopes up regardless. We had a nutritious breakfast and yogurt, bananas, and granola, but learning that fun fact about the budget some people had different ideas and purchased boxes of donuts, Cheez-its, and Twinkies. Some people also bought some really cool Auburn attire, WAR EAGLE.

We do have a mystery we are trying to solve though- someone can't stop snoring! It interrupted our sleep on the bus and at the. campsite, but we haven't found out who the culprit is just yet. A few more days of investigation will show us who the perpetrator is. We will keep you guys updated!

We needed proof of what time we woke up!

Abby was cracking us up with her Alabama jokes!

Cole Horstmann doing his research on LaGrange College

Bailey Thornburg telling us all about Georgia!

Ben memorized all of his!

Cullen made some new friends!

I think we are at the wrong school!

Photobomb!!

TWINSSSSS

Sometimes when you forget to do the research you have to use your resources!

Lots of bonding occurred on the road today, people connected more as they began to become more comfortable with everyone and being around this many people. Some that hadn't spoken much the first day due to jitters began talking a little bit more so we are all coming out of our shells! Micah ended up winning a contest on the bus seeing who could get everyones name correct and he spent hours studying and WON! We shared countless stories and learned about one another all day. We can't wait to see how close everyone gets by the end of the trip!

Lunch today was a traveling lunch and the same as yesterday- ham and turkey sandwiches, cookies and chips. (a cooking mishap left one van without any chip so we decided to eat paper towels instead, you live and you learn and that is what this trip is about!) (JUST KIDDING- we did not eat paper towels)

SLEEP CAM!!!

I wonder if they can breathe?

Our next stop was in Mississippi (spell that two times fast) at another rest stop along with a research presentation about The State of Mississippi (Kallie Abbott), before continuing on our way to New Orleans!

Who needs a sign when you have US?!

Do we resemble anything?

It took us a HOT second to figure out how to read these!

Kallie telling us all the fun facts!

Finally after what felt like longer than the original rendition of American Pie, we arrived into the HOT and HUMID New Orleans, Louisiana. Not a single one of us fully prepared for the heat, we were told it was going to be hot but as soon as the doors open on the vehicles, we immediately had sweat dripping down our face and other parts of our body we will not discuss. We walked up to the river walk where we had a few more research presentations about: The State of Louisiana (Andrew Bain) Bourbon Street (Will Carter), The St. Louis Cathedral (Asher Watson) Jackson Square (Cade Horstmann), and the Mississippi River (Cindy Peterson) which had the perfect back drop. We then went as a group to take a picture at the famous Café du Monde, The St. Louis Cathedral, and then lastly headed tp Bourbon St. where we were then set loose and had our first free time to roam the streets of New Orleans in the heart of the French Quarter. We split into groups (more than six in each group) and had so much fun exploring the famous streets and its branches. We were shocked at how different New Orleans is in comparison to most of our hometowns. The culture was immensely different to that of the smaller towns in North and South Carolina that we hail from. A few people were fortunate enough to stop at Café du Monde and eat some delicious beignets. We are going to test the difference in those with the ones at Disneyland. For educational purposes only of course! Others spent time in the local shops and bought shirts, aprons, hats, and stickers. New Orleans was quite the experience!

Cindy teaching us about the massive river behind us!

Cooling off in the Saint Louis Cathedral

Photobomb from our friend!

Cafe Du Monde from "The Princess and the Frog"!

Our wonderful counselors!

Mr. Andrew Bain with Louisiana

Asher finished his research in time!

Cade getting the audience hype about Jackson Square behind them!

Will teaching us all about the culture of Bourbon Street

After convening at the bus again, we road across the 23 mile, never-ending bridge while listening to Dixieland Delight by Alabama (not the state) on repeat.Tonight, we are staying in Fontainebleau State Park at the referred to as the "Taj Mahal". We didn't

believe the counselors when they told us how nice it would be until we pulled up and saw where we were staying. We had actual beds, INSIDE. We wish we could stay here every night. We set our dorms up and practiced for the nightly challenge, our own renditions of Dixieland Delight, WITH NO MUSIC JUST US! After practicing for what seemed like hours in the heat, the Happys cooked us an amazing dinner of chicken alfredo, caesar salad, and garlic bread. We even had dessert, ice cream sandwiches. (We see where the budget went and we are not sad one bit. The cooks and dishwashers also learned that burning noodles and spices in the pot are really hard to clean and get out, so the had to use some elbow grease.

After eating and socializing, we then performed our renditions. It was fun to see how creative and different every group was, we had many laughs during the duration of it. The Sneezy's won after the counselors voted. After some celebration, we then went our separate ways for showers and to sleep in beds for the first time on the trip! It's an early morning again (5 am early, hopefully this time we can sleep longer and not get up so early on our own.) tomorrow so it's goodnight from the BASHFULS!