Day 18: The Exact Geographic Middle of Nowhere

Hello!  Steven finally let me have my laptop back, so I can type an update again.  As you may have read in the last post, Aaron and I gave the keys to the tour to the Officers and members of the Leadership Development Program.  Literally, they have the keys to the bus, the money, the tour books, the laptop (on occasion), the GPS and anything else we can find to put on their plates.  They’ve been doing a pretty good job of it, with some predictable bumps along the way.

                Our goal is to give them a little more “ownership” of the tour while also giving them some practical leadership opportunities.  The concept is pretty simple:  we handed them our things and said, “get to it”.  The toughest part has really been on us, trying to teach them how to manage the tour without actually doing it for them.

                Yesterday was the first day of it.  Aaron and I dreamt this up the night before, trying to find something that would engage all of them and keep their interest during the last week of the tour.  It is always the toughest week, as they have “been there and done that” for much of the tour, making their focus a little harder to keep.  As we were leaving our wonderful hosts in Edmonton, we brought Head Chorister Noah Carpenter and Assistant Head Chorister Steven Kelly up to the front of the bus and we told them our plan. 

                At first, they were a bit excited about it that was, until they saw how much we were actually giving them to do.  I can never remember giving this much responsibility or freedom to the boys before.  They literally had to find the rest stops, plan the lunch locations, keep tabs of all the boys, 100% of the time, set-up all the hotel arrangements and room assignments, get the boys to the pool, provide lifeguards (don’t worry, we were still lifeguarding as well…), buy necessary supplies at the local Wal-Mart, find a dinner location, arrange to have the bus ready, clean the bus (including mopping the floors and wiping the windows) and get all the boys to bed with their lights-out.  They did a tremendous job.

                Throughout yesterday, Jacob Gordon and Allexzander Sanders did a very good job of assisting with the tasks, as they were the tour partners of Noah and Steven.  (One of the biggest things I have been trying to teach Steven and Noah is the art of delegation.  We are really trying to get them to utilize the rest of the officers as they complete their tasks.)  In an effort to give some other boys the chance to be that close to the action, I have asked Landon Owens and Isaac Volker to be partners for the day with Noah and Steven.  Since they sit in Aaron and my seats in the front, it makes it easier if they are together up there.  (In case you are wondering, Aaron and I now sit in the middle of the bus, hogging four seats, instead of just two now.)  Tomorrow, we will probably allow two other members of the leadership team to have their shot, assuming all goes well today.  It’s been a good test for them and they are really responding well to the challenge to watching-out for others and their needs.

                So when Steven last left you, we were on our way to Joey’s Seafood Restaurant for dinner.  It was a very nice dinner and the boys did very well.  Many of the boys tried various types of seafood, including crab legs.  They enjoyed it very much.  After dinner, the boys headed back to the hotel for some time in the awesome pool at the hotel, complete with a water slide.  Boys love those things!  This hotel was only opened in November, so it had that “new hotel smell” to it still. The pool towels were also very soft…I liked that.

                After the pool, the leadership team made the rounds and put the tired travelers to bed before getting a little shut-eye themselves.  We didn’t have to be out of the hotel until 11:00 the next morning, so we decided to continue with this experiment further and had the older guys get the boys up at 8:00 so they could do some more swimming before breakfast.  This was only a quick little dip in the pool, but the boys loved the idea of getting right up and in the pool.

                Breakfast followed right afterwards in the hotel breakfast lounge.  Of any meal to date so far on this tour, I think the boys did the best at this one, and hardly any staff was there.  (Maybe they don’t need us anymore…L)  The officers took special care to help the younger ones and remind the older ones to leave the area better than we found it, which they did.  They even did a great job of staggering the boys to the line from their rooms so it wasn’t as chaotic down there.  Each room packed their things after breakfast and loaded the bus.

                The rest of the drive to Regina was relatively “Iowaish”.  Not really a lot of scenery to observe compared to the view outside our window only a few short days ago.  The boys did a nice job with their games and their rest period.  Our arrival to Regina was a little early, so I was able to find some internet and catch-up on some purchase orders and email printing.  (This was probably the best email day of the tour, thus far – thank you!) For those parents that were able to attend the informal parent gathering at Russell’s in Big Lake, I was able to chat with them for a while and bring them in for a sneak-peak at the boys warming-up before the concert.  These things are a crap-shoot sometimes, as you never know what kind of internet signal you are going to have at these sites.  I’m glad it all worked-out and I hope you all had a good evening.

                The concert went wonderfully, with the audience very happy with the boys performance.  After some hand-shaking and “little old lady hugs” afterwards, it was off to the host homes for some much deserved rest.  Many of the boys, dare I say “most” of the boys, were witnessed heading across the street to this little ice cream parlor they had there.  Lots of smiles on the boys faces this evening.

P.J.