Wasn’t that the lyrics of a song in the late 70s ?  Well, whether it was or not, Indiana’s calling as we finished our first day of travel to National Science Olympiad competition in Bloomington, Indiana.

Coming from upstate NY, there is probably no easy way to get to Indiana.  I am sure there are parts of it that there are no easy ways to and Bloomington may be one of those parts.  So at 3:30 PM on May 17th, the charter bus with 21 high school students between the ages of 14 and 18 and seven coaches/chaperones set out from Endwell, New York.  Final destination:  Bloomington, Indiana and the campus of Indiana University.

The first stop on the trip was about two hours out.  Traveling west on NY Route 17/ Interstate 86 (where 17 meets interstate codes) we stopped in Hornell, NY for dinner.  Thankfully, I was use to the area because my son goes to a small private university about 17 miles west of Hornell.  Hornell is big city to Andy and the rest of the students at Alfred University.  By 6:30, all had eaten and we were on our way again.

Do you ever wonder what people on a bus trip do?  While, these days on a charter, movies are the big thing. We had the “pleasure” of subjection to “Starsky and Hutch,” “Batman Begins,” and “SpaceBalls.”  As you can tell, the intellectual quotient of the movies was not in question.  There was none!

The rain was hit and miss then hard and steady.  At 10 pm, after watching three movies on the bus, we were outside Cleveland and at the Fairfield Inn for the night.  Unfortunately, there was a bit of stored up energy but the kids used it up quietly for the most part.