Continuing from our previous day, we had to be up early to get Nick over to my parents' house. This was because we needed to be at the High School by about 7:15. We got Nick comfortable, dropped off hims stuff, and told my parents to give him his Tylenol Cold but to wait to hear from us before giving him the TamiFlu.
We didn't quite make 7:15, but we were still there before 7:30, which was key. Jenn and I were chaperons, and had to help check bags. We, along with the other chaperons had to look for contraband and hang up uniform bags. I thought the girls would feet a little weirded out with me checking their overnight bags, so I mostly dealt with uniforms and carryon bags. We didn't find anything, which was no surprise, and most of the kids were checked in and ready to practice at 8AM. A few stragglers came late, but I by that time I had to leave to take the dog to the kennel.
I picked up more batteries at the store, and a Saucon Valley hat since I had nothing with the school name on it. I then grabbed the dog and dropped her at the kennel. Jenn called and asked me to bring a cooler for food, since the cooler the band committee had was too small. But, by the time I had gotten back, they found another one, so we left ours in the car. I then helped get uniform bags in our charter buses. The kids put in their own bags, and we staked out seats 3/4 way in the back of one of the buses. We were across from some of the drummers, and in front of most of the seniors. Before we left, Jenn called the urgent care facility, and found out that, luckily, Nick did not have the flu.
The kids were all on the bus and we were leaving by around 10:30. Something I noticed about these students was that they were pretty much always on time. If the band director said to be somewhere at a specific time, they were usually all there 5 - 10 minutes early.
The students were pretty quiet on the trip down. Jenn and I read books or shared her iPod earphones most of the way. We stopped at a reststop in Delaware for lunch for about 45 minutes. I got Kai a Pumpkin Spice Latte and Jen a Chai Latte at Starbucks. Jenn's Chai had sour milk, and she threw it away since we didn't have time to get another one. Kai said she liked her Pumpkin Spice Latte just fine.
We arrived in Townson (just north of Baltimore) for the USSBA Marine Corps Invitational, and the kids got changed into their uniforms. Kairi was excited but nervous, and most of the other kids looked the same way. I helped taking equipment onto the field with the roadies and Jenn sat up in the bleachers with the rest of the chaperons.
I moved up to sit with Jenn and watched the group play their hearts out. Musically, they did just as well as on Friday with each song. They played loudly and confidently. One of the trumpets had a solo and small dance during "Maria", and the entire band had a dance-off against the twirlers during one of the songs (I forget which). I didn't get to see the next band because I had to help get equipment back to the truck.I did finally make it back over to see the host high school band play. They did a baseball theme about iron men (Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripkin). There was a lot of choreography and props and stuff, but not really that much music involved, oddly.
Jenn and I moved over to be with the band as awards were announced. There were four divisions in total, and we were in the third division. There were three bands in our division, and I listened carefully as scores were called out. First, third place was announced with a score of 67 point something. I held my breath until we heard the name of another school. While I feel bad for those kids, I was happy we didn't come in last. Then they announced second play, with a score of 68 point something. Again, they didn't call our school. I think our children were in shock. Or maybe they weren't sure. The band director had enough time to signal to our kids to hold on. Finally, they announced that with a score of 70.67 (the second highest total school in all divisions), and sweeping all captions (best drum line, flags, etc., etc.) was, of course, Saucon Valley. Everyone was thrilled. The band director mentioned that while he had one first place with other bands in the past, this was the first time in his 33 year career he had a group that one 1st place in a USSBA competition.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to celebrate. After rounds of applause and hugging, we had to hurry back to the buses. by this time, it was almost 5PM, and we had to be to Baltimore's Inner Harbor in time for our 6PM boat tour. Congratulations, Panther band! You were incredible!
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