Okay, first, I will give you an overview of the members of the Bible Bowl team.   All names are changed to protect the identity of the Bible Bowl Team members.

Our Drivers:

Van 1:  Mr. Ur

Van 2: Mr. Norris (at least, we call him Mr. Norris because he looks like Chuck Norris.)

Van 3: Mr. Tor

Competing Adults

Mr. Ur. (competed and drove Van 1)

Mrs. Ur, our team coach.

Mrs. Larz

Mrs. 'Norris'

Mrs. Tor.

Non Competing Adult

Mrs. Ming (she was just there to keep an eye on us hooligan kids ;). )

The Boys

Captain Amazing (14)

David (13)

Hobo (14)

Hombre-Loco (13)

Javis (10)

Matait (14)

Spaz (13ish)

Theynore (15 when it started, turned 16 on the trip back)

X-ray (10)

The Girls

Amber (11)

Annony (14)

Arwyn (12)

Bookie (16)

Cyrilla (15)

Leaf (15)

Tasha (18)

We met at T-- Rental Car on H-- Drive at 7:30 a.m.  The team had rented three twelve passenger vans.  We left around 8:00 or so.  I was in van three with Mr. Norris, Mrs. Norris, X-ray, Theynore, Hobo, Captain Amazing and Annony.  We drove (and drove and drove and drove) to Utah.  We studied during the trip:  thirty minutes on, thirty minutes off.  We ate lunch at Arby's (yum).  I was held in much sympathy by Captain Amazing because I do not get to eat there except on the Bible Bowl trip.  "You poor deprived child!" he gasped when I told him, shaking his head mournfully.  We ordered our food, then got the orders mixed up.  Oh well, we all got to eat anyway.

MORE driving followed until we reached Albuquerque, NM.  We ate at Pizza Hut and did NOT get orders mixed up because we just ordered a few pizzas.  There was a really freaky door in the back of the kitchen that basically said "Do not go out of this door after dark unless you have a death wish."  It opens into an alley, apparently *ominus music plays*.   We went to the hotel...it was...okay.  Hobo had to change rooms because his room smelled like smoke and he has asthma.  Poor dude.   All our rooms were SUPPOSED to be non-smoking, but...it didn't seem the former inhabitants had really cared.  We all got together in one room and played Mafia for a while before we went to bed.

I didn't get much sleep that night.  Some guy kept starting his noisy car, people were making noise, Mrs. Ming started snoring and Bookie tried to take over the bed.  *sigh*

So, in the morning, we went to McDonalds and ate food.  We left around 8:00 in the morning.   I was in Van Three with Mr. and Mrs. Tor, Mrs. Ming, Arwyn, Leaf, Amber, and Annony.  We studied until my brain felt like mush.  *groan*  We ate lunch in Clovis NM; I don't remember where.  Then we drove and studied our brains out some more until we got to Abilene TX.  We ate dinner at a Church of Christ there.  Captain Amazing, Spaz, Annony, and I sang together out in the parking lot.

We went to our hotel, which was MUCH nicer than the one we'd stayed at the night before.  I was in a room with Amber and Mrs. Larz .  All us kids gathered in one room and played Mafia together.  Then it was time for the last hour pow-wow.  Mrs. Ur explained some things, gave us our team shirts (hopefully I'll have pics of those soon) and handed out Smarties, instructing us to take one before bed and one with breakfast to make us good and smart. :)

Both Amber and I had our own pillows, so Amber took the three pillows that were on the bed and divided it in half with them.  "This is your side, and this is my side," she annouced.  We slept like logs the whole night.

MORNING OF TEST!!!   We got up, ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to ACU, where we take the test.  It ran from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  Then we went to the Bean to eat lunch.  After that, we went to the campus store.  They had laptops with internet acess that we could use there, so I was able to get online and stuff.

The awards ceremony was around 1:30 (I think, I was so excited I was DESPERATE to scream).  Here are the team results.

Individual Results

Elementary Division

X-ray - 7th (140 out of 250)

Javis- 6th (157 out of 250)

Junior Inexperienced

Captain Amazing- 5th (194 out of 250)

Joel- 23rd (102 out of 250)

Hombre-Loco- 16th (136 out of 250)

David- 9th (171 out of 250)

Matait- 4th (205 out of 250)

Amber- 3rd (206 out of 250)

Macy- 11th (162 out of 250)

Junior Experienced

Hobo- 4th place (232 out of 250)

Annony- 5th place (230 out of 250)

Cyrilla- 1st place (250 out of 250)

Senior Inexperienced

Leaf- 3rd (226 out of 250)

Senior Experienced

Tasha- 5th (226 out of 250)

Theynore- 2nd (239 out of 250)

Bookie- 3rd (238 out of 250)

Adults

Mrs. Larz- 16th (217 out of 250)

Mrs. Norris- 31st (177 out of 250)

Mrs. Tor- 14th (220 out of 250)

Mr. Ur- 10th (227 out of 250)

Mrs. Ur- 1st (249 out of 250)

Team Results

Junior Inexperienced 1

Hombre-Loco, Spaz, X-ray and Javis - 4th Place

Junior Inexperienced 2

Captain Amazing, David, Arwyn and Amber - 3rd Place

Junior Experienced

Hobo, Matait, Cyrilla and Annony - 1st Place

Senior Experienced

Theynore, Tasha, Bookie and Leaf - 2nd Place.

Okay, so that was all probably boring for you all, but I needed a record of it and somewhere to send people I know so that they can get the story of the trip and the results.  On with the more interesting stuff.

After much screaming and yelling and celebrating we took team pictures.  That took FOREVER.  Then we went to Mr. Gatti's and played there for a while before getting back on the road for Amarillo.  I was in Van Three with Mr. and Mrs. Tor, Mrs. Ming, Arwyn, Tasha, Annony, and Bookie.  We got in at 11:00 at night.  I was in a room with Mrs. Norris and Leaf.

Next morning we got up at 6:00 a.m....ugh....*stumbles around sleepily* and ate breakfast.  Then we drove, as usual.  I was in Van One with Mr. and Mrs. Ur, Mrs. Larz, Tasha, Leaf, Annony and Bookie.  We watched 'The Series of Unfortunate Events'.  That was the only movie on the trip back.  We entertained ourselves for the rest of the trip.  About three hours away from home we saw 65 dead deer, 2 dead elk, and (we think) a dead horse.  The elk appeared to be roadkill, as were most of the deer, but some of them weren't near the road.  Apparently they've had a very high mortality rate for the critters down there this winter because of lack of food. 

We ate lunch at an Italian restraunt whose name I can't spell and celebrated Theynore's 16th birthday.  The most amazing thing happened: Theynore was turning 16 and his order number was, guess what, 16!

We got back home around 7:30 p.m. Sunday night.  Then we had to keep our mouths shut for a whole week over the scores. *grabs duct tape and puts it over mouth*  mhph mmmmph mmmphhhhh!!!!  (translation - 'It was hard!')  But we officially announced the results this morning at church, so I don't have to keep silent anymore. :)

So, that is the trip in a nutshell.  There were a few things I didn't mention that were really cool for the team, but I didn't mention them because they wouldn't make sense to you all because they involve various Bible Bowl jokes.  Such as.... we're walking around with the team.....and then someone yells, "What's 3+1?"

"FOUR!!!!" we yell back.

"How many Y---s from the one family are here?"

"FOUR!!!!"

"How many fingers am I holding up?" (Guy holds up four fingers.)

"FOUR!!!!"

"What number are we yelling?"

"FOUR!!!!"

Yup.  That's the 'four' joke, and it probably didn't make any sense at all.  There were several other things they yelled out that equaled four, but I don't remember them all.

If you have a Bible Bowl team in your area, join it when you get the chance.  You just might end up having the adventure of a lifetime.