You might want to make a sandwich, this is gonna be a long one

I am kicking back in my cot at the YMCA in Port Arthur, TX. We made it. Now, to backtrack. Really, get comfortable, I have a lot of catching up.

I spent the remainder of Sunday packing and repacking, as I knew I would. I feel like I packed a little too much, but I think it might be okay now that I reorganized (more on that in a second). We left on Monday around 8 am and began driving to Texas. The caravan was made up of Earth 5's two Dodge Ram trucks (brand new), and Earth 4's van and cargo van (which carried our stuff as well). We drove for eight hours, with each certified driver doing a two-hour shift (the process is a little convoluted). Before we left Denver, we stopped at a grocery store to get breakfast -- bagels from the truck bed. For lunch, we pulled into a little rest area and made some sandwiches. The first night, we stayed at a Holiday Inn in Amarillo. Dinner was from a Popeye's Chicken near the hotel. I was a little disappointed -- I haven't had fast food in about five years. I feel like a recovering addict, I'll have to start my count all over again. I may not start it until AmeriCorps is over, though, because the next morning was breakfast at McDonalds.

The next day, we headed toward Dallas. For lunch, we stopped at another rest area again. Then came the fun part of the trip; we were given rather roundabout directions to a Holiday Inn Express. We actually lost part of the caravan for a good chunk of time on our way to Dallas. We were going to be early to the hotel, but we couldn't find it. I finally called 411 to get some more information on where it was located. It turns out that the Holiday Inn Express was no longer -- it was now a Baymont Inn & Suites, but Google Maps and many other places still recognized it as a Holiday Inn Express. Having found that out, I managed to get the phone number for the hotel and we finally arrived. For dinner, we had a smaller budget than normal so I managed to convince everyone (by being a bit of a brat about it, I'll admit) to go to Wendy's for their 99-cent Value Menu. It ended up working out well. We spent most of the time at the hotel hanging out in the pool and hot tub area.

Things are beginning to settle in though. The Spring Breakers left today, so we've reorganized the room where we're staying. I originally was just going to continue to sleep on the floor (it would hardly be the first time that I've done it), but I conceeded to a cot so that I can put all of my bags underneath it. This has helped me to feel like I didn't overpack as much as I thought I had. It's far more organized and clean looking. I should be able to maintain this arrangement for five weeks. Oh ... except that it's four weeks, now. Gosh. First week already gone.

Our first day of work was yesterday. We met our sponsor in the morning, Uliana. We also met a few of the guys who are construction supervisors. They took us to the work site, where we were immediately put to work ... so to speak. There were ASBs there with the Perry Point team, both already established in roles and responsibilities for building the three houses that are going up right now. Siding is really the only thing that's currently going on at that building site. There are other houses going up in a few other areas of Jefferson County, so we may end up going to those sites at some point. But yeah, our first day of work was a little awkward because there were too many hands at times. After lunch, I and a handful of others on my team had resigned ourselves to not getting our hands on any construction that day so we reorganized all of the matterials that were in the back of the site (scaffolding, siding, 2x4s, etc). I got very dirty. My boots were probably the muddiest out of everyone there. But I haven't been that muddy in a long time, it felt really validating. I kind of felt the urge to just play in it every now and then. Yesterday was also a little stressful because of a little drama that occurred during grocery shopping. But it was all resolved, so things are starting to smooth out. Our TL is the best, that's all I have to say. Dinner was really late last night, but Travis and Nikki made some awesome stir fry, with a ton of rice.

Today went much better. We were first on site, so we started working right away. We put up a bunch of siding on the side of one house for the first half of the day. We finished it after lunch and got started on part of the front of the house before we had to wrap things up. Then, we came back to the Y where everyone did their thing for a bit. I went for a run. I still need to map it out, but I think I covered a pretty good distance. There's a big neighborhood right next to the Y, so I ran all around it. The lack of hills, high humidity and being down at sea level helps of course. Our team rounded up at 5:45 so we could head out to a park for dinner. I had done a Google search to try and find some parks in the area that had outdoor grills because we wanted to do a cook out with burgers and hot dogs. I finally found a place that was a little under 20 miles away: Sabine Pass Battleground State Park. It was apparently the sight of a very short Civil War battle.

Well, you could have fooled me. We drove for a little while and I kept getting concerned that we were lost or we weren't going to find it. It also seemed that the more we drove, the more hazy and overcast it became. We were going on a picnic, it was inevitable that the good weather was going to disappear. It's Murphy's Law. Part of our journey took us right through the heart of Chevron's massive industrial refinery plant. It was creepy. When we got to the park, any aesthetic appeal that the place could have had was destroyed by the plant. The park itself was a little creepy too. There were still parts of it that were boareded up because of damage from Hurrican Rita. Still, we managed to get the grill going and feed everyone. We did burgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers and turkey burgers. I had a regular burger, a veggie burger and half a hot dog. Despite the intense creepiness of the area (I believe House of 1000 Corpses was referenced), we still had a lot of fun. The entire team can recite Forest Gump, particularly Harrison, who does an amazing impression of Forest.

I've noticed already that my team as a whole seems to be really good at taking things in stride and making the best out of less than ideal situations. Everyone has a great sense of humor, so that definitely helps us along. But things are never too negative or dramatic. Of course, it's our first week on spike. Give us chance to get to know each other and the Storming Phase will begin, right? Well, I hope not. No one seems to want to step on anybody's toes, so I think even if there is drama it will be dealt with constructively. *knocks on wood*

Speaking of knocking on wood ... my next concern that I need to address is finding a place to sleep for spring break. A bunch of people from different Earth teams are going to New Orleans for our extended weekend break that's coming up this weekend (it's only about a four hour drive from Port Arthur). I was originally going to go with several people and book a hotel room, but that kind of fell through. Now, I'm just willing to sleep on the floor of someone's room. I just need to find a willing unit member. Hopefully it'll come together soon because I would really like to go. If I stay home, it won't be a big deal. But I don't know the next time that I'll have the opportunity to go to New Orleans, so I would really like to attempt it now. We'll see what happens, I guess. If anyone has any contacts down there, let me know!

Okay. I think I'll be off to bed for now. I might be doing some ISP at the Y tomorrow morning, so I should get a little sleep.