Accelerant: Day Three

And here we go again!

Hi there blogging fans and welcome to my Accelernt Day Three post! Sorry these posts are coming like two days apart but with all these dumb pics to load (and our computer being slow) it's kinda hard to load the pics and write the incredibly LONG post in one day.

Anyway back to day three. This was, in my humble opinion, the BEST day of Accelerant eva!! It was soooo awesome!! But before I start squealing and jumping around the room, let me tell you about how this day got so freaking awesome.

We woke up usual time...after a night full of concerts and in hotel room hanging out. Yea, I forgot to mention yesterday that after we got back from the concert Jessie, Lydia, Carey, me and the rest of the youth group came over to Jessie and my's room and hung out. Seriously...there were SO many teens in there it was ridiculous! Mainly we talked, laughed and teased each other, but we did do some other things. We played over a hundred different card games...mainly gambling ones. Yea, we gambled...for potato chips. Lame...sorta...fun and yummy...yes!! It was sorta winner eats all. Libbie one a whole tube of Pringles! She was so happy. ;)

Anyway, we didn't get to bed until about one thirty...so when we got up at six thirty the next morning we were all really...REALLY tired. Lydia was almost dead on her feet, and so was I! But never the less we all managed to shower and get spruced up before it was time to head out for the morning service.

Like the day before preacher Tavner Smith was speaking. This time he was telling us about how to stay alive for God and how to stand firm and keep our faith going when we get out in the real world. You know...when things get tough. He was once again very moving and spoke right to us. Though I will have to admit that I was really really tired all during the service. I didn't fall asleep or anything...but all that late night hang out stuff was killing me at the moment. Sorry but this girl's not used to four or five hours worth of sleep a night.

Anyway, Chasen and J Prophet preformed again and that was SUPER cool! This time I drug Jessie up front and we manged to get right at the very VERY front! It was so awesome!

After the service another speaker came out (there was a different one every day) and said that today was the day when there would be special events for certain youth conferences. Yep. I didn't pay that much attention to where the other groups were going. But ours (the Georgia group which was actually rather small) was going to the most awesome place in the whole wide world! The Track...a go cart track!! EEEKKK!!!

Now you see why this day was so awesome!

Have any of you guys ever ridden a go cart? If so you guys know that go cart racing is one of the most awesome things eva!!

Sadly our town doesn't have a go cart track...at least not one that I know of...so I hadn't ever gone go cart racing. So this was a new experience for me.

Well anyway, we had to drive into Pigeon Forge to go to The Track. Along the way I was so tired I actually fell asleep along the way. Good thing for me it was a so so long drive so I had plenty of time to catch some zees.

When we finally arrived at the Track we found that the weather was over cast and very...very cold. So the idea of ice cold wind blowing through our hair wasn't exactly welcome. But the idea of free pizza and drink was.

Apparently the Track was hosting a pizza party for us youth peeps! It was so awesome...and so yummy! I mean they had every kind of pizza imaginable! They even had macaroni pizza! Carey loved that.

Well then it was time to ride the carts. And I was more than just a little scared. Like I've already said, I've never drove a go cart before. And so I wasn't quite sure how to do it. But after asking some of the other youth about it I realized that go cart driving is actually quite easy. And by then it was time to ride. But of course we had to wait in line. Which sucked. I mean really, waiting in the wind and the cold...ah no. But finally, after much waiting it was time for us to take our turn!!

Please note that I wasn't taking any of these pics. Mrs. Toye (one of the leaders) took these. Aren't they awesome!?

Well we all jumped into our carts and waited for the ok to go. Here's Mr. Steve and Mr. David (the male youth leaders) And here's me. Yea, if I look nervous it's because I was. I mean, I knew it was easy to drive but I was still nervous about spinning out or flipping over or the usual...just looking like a freaking idiot. Oh well. And here's Lydia! She was totally in love with the Track! Here's John and that's Zach behind him. He was, as you can clearly see, very happy about go cart racing. Here's Carey. She isn't normally that pale...but I guess the light was weird or something like that. And here's Jessie with a very cold me behind her. We sat in the pits for what seemed like forever (trust me, when you've got over twenty go cart engines blowing nasty fumes in your face time seems to slow down a little. But finally we were cleared to race and off we went! Here's one of Jessie with Mrs. Toye's husband and son behind her. And here's me!! I don't remember if this was after I spun out for the first time (I only spun out two times and both of those times some one pitted me. But anyway, dunno if I had just spun out or I was in the lead. I one quite a few races and I was so happy! Here's Jessie coming around turn! She was a natural go cart racer! Here's me again. No this isn't the same photo...it was just taken a few seconds after the other. My hair's crazy in this one ain't it?! LOL!

But go carting wasn't all they had at the Track. They also had a miniature golf course, bumper boats and bumper cars! Here's the whole youth group in the bumper cars! That was soooo fun!

We road on the go carts most of the time....but after a while we wanted to do something else. So we decided on mini golf. BIG MISTAKE!! This was the only non awesome part of this day. Mini golf is SOOOOO boring and for people who are already getting sleepy...it's the worse thing in the world! We only did half of the course before we all wanted to head back to the hotel and sleep for a while. Our leaders herded us out into the cars and we were heading home.

On the way home we stopped to eat. Yea, we were all really REALLY hungry by then. Most of the youth went to Arby's but Jessie, Libbie and I went to a Wendy's across the street. While there we laughed and talked about our adventures at the track. Libbie told us how Mr. David pitted her and made her get hit by another boy they knew named Josh. She said he hit her broad side. She was totally freaked out when she saw him round the corner! Fortunately he didn't hit her car to bad. He apparently just clipped the side so she was ok--but still it was a bit scary!

There were a LOT of wrecks on the largest of the go cart tracks....and sadly Lydia seemed to be at the heart of nearly every one! Once she crashed at the very high and very help deserted part of the track! She stayed up there for two whole laps before help finally arrived! Poor Lydia!

After dinner we packed back in the car and headed back to the hotel. We had a few minutes to rest and freshin up so we made the most of it. Jessie and I were the first to get ready...which was good seeing how Jessie needed to run to the small mall down the street to buy that knife for her brother. I wasn't too thrilled with walking out in Gatlinburg at night...especially since my phone was dead at the time and therefore we only had Jessie's phone. I mean, I know that having one phone is better than not having a phone at all...but I still like to have my phone handy.

Anyway, with Mrs. Lisa's permission we raised down through the hotel which was (as we later figured out) a complete maze. Seriously, there were tons of identical hallways and exits. So basically I knew how the third class folks on the Titanic felt as they tried to find their way out of the maze of cloned hallways.

We trudged out into the dark, me in front and Jessie following close behind. As I mentioned I wasn't too happy walking around Gatlinburg with just Jessie. I mean, I knew I had done it with the others...but that was different. We didn't have to walk through so many dark alleys then and it wasn't as late or as crowded. Trust me, this was Saturday night in Gatlinburg!

Well, trying not to sound like a worry wart. We quickly rushed to the mall, me looking in, behind and around every alley, bush or car. Some said I was over cautious and silly...Mrs. Lisa said I was smart. I've been to lot of self defence classes and they say that usually when bad things happen it's when you let your guard down...and I wasn't about to do that this night.

I knew that in the mall we'd be fairly safe...seeing how you couldn't round a corner in there without spotting a security guard or camera. But out on the street...not so much. I didn't see any questionables...but you never can be too careful. Well we made it to the mall and picked up Jessie's knife and headed back to the hotel.

We made it back fine and then headed for the evening concert.

Tonight it was Chasen followed by Mark Hammond (spelling) who was--by the by--hilarious!

From Left to Right: Me, Jessie, Zach, John, Chelsea, Breanne, Libbie, Lydia and Carey (sitting)

We laughed sang and worshiped all night long before finally it was time to head home. We were all kinda glad to go back to the hotel...mainly cause we were all dog tired by this point. But before we could go to sleep we had to get packing. Yep, that's cause the next morning it was time to head home to Mayberry! I could hardly believe how fast the weekend had gone! I mean really! It just flew by!

But anyway, we packed up as much stuff as we could (some had to be left out for the morning) and then sat down in sort of a daze, glad to have--what we thought--was most of the excitement of the day behind us.

We were wrong.

We were just about to change when suddenly Chelsea popped her head in and said she was going out for a candy apple with John, Zach, Breanne and Libbie and she was wondering if we wanted to come. I said I'd ask Jessie and the others real fast. At first Jessie didn't want to go, but after a few seconds she agreed. We had to wait on Lydia however, so we told the others to go ahead. So after Lydia had bundled up (it was SOO freaking cold that night) we headed out with Mr. Steve and Mr. David close behind (they had decided to go out and get some fudge.)

So we marched our little group up the now abandoned city streets until suddenly we were greeted by Chelsea and the others. She said that all the candy stores were closed and that we'd have to go back. We were all a bit disappointed and we were just about to head back when Mr. Steve announced he was going to head over to a vendor up the street a ways and get him something hot to eat. Mr. David soon followed course and in the end...so did the rest of us.

We trudged up the hill to a little bald headed vendor with a Doris Day voice who was just about to close up for the night. He said he'd keep the shop open a bit longer, just so long as we were buying something. So without question we started ordering.

Mr. Steve ordered hot chocolate, Libbie and Breanne funnel cakes, me a frozen lemonade (yea, I never know when it's winter) and Mr. David a sausage and some fries.

And this is where it get's interesting.

When the guy served up my drink he said the total was four bucks, to which I handed him a five. My change was a dollar even, and that was wierd. See normally change isn't dead even like that...usually it's got some odd change mixed in. But the price was four and I gave the man five...so I didn't quibble.

Then it was Mr. David's turn.

The price of the sausage was eight dollars, the fries were three. So overall the total should SHOULD have been eleven dollars. But when the final price was wrung up the total was EIGHTEEN dollars! Mr. David caught this immeadiately and insisted that it was wrong. Our sausage deeler was unrelenting...saying that they had an eleven percent sales tax up there. Mr. David said that may be true but that wouldn't be seven dollars of sales tax! The sausage man was unconvinced and insisted his price was right and that he was just really tired and prefered not to fool with this any more. Mr. David kept pushing and that's when all hell broke loose.

Suddenly the sausage deeler was screaming at Mr. David that eighteen dollars was the right price and that Mr. David should just get back to church (note not a WORD had been said about church, God or any other religious aspect until now) and that he wasn't giving back that seven dollars.

The whole youth group just stood back agape. This dude was having a freaking fit. Zach and John just laughed a little at it while Lydia, Carey, Jessie and the rest of us girls just wished we could go somewhere else. I mean, Mr. David was keeping his cool and all, but the other dude was obviously furious and I wasn't sure where this all was going. I just leaned up against the wall of a sun glasses shop and sucked on my frozen lemonade. Nobody dared get close to the action other than Lydia. She crept right up beside Mr. David and listened to every word that was said. The rest of us just stared at the scene from a reasonable distance. Every few seconds she'd rush back over to the rest of us and give us some nitty gritty into the drama. The screaming continued for what seemed like eternety but what actually was about five minutes before another costumer stepped up and told the sausage man that his price was wrong. Seeing that he was now out numbered he gave in and returned four of the owed seven dollars. Not exactly what Mr. David wanted but enough that he wasn't going to haggle it out with this dude anymore.

So we all quickly headed home, each of us either, laughing, talking or whispering about the now enfamous Sausage Man!! When we got back to the hotel we relayed our story to the other youth leaders. They listened with intrest and laughed at some parts of the sausage story dialoge and fell silent at others. It was pretty interesting to hear from Mr. David the full account (which is pretty much what I've just told you). It kinda became a running joke for the remainder of our little trip. I probably made it sound like it was the event of the century (which, trust me, it wasn't) but it was actually really funny. You should have seen it. Mr. David stand there cool as a cucumber while sausage man lost his freaking head! Funny stuff! :D You know...I still have that dollar the sausage man gave back to me. Just a little memento to remember the great Sausage War of 2012! Lol!

Well, after the sausage story had been relayed it was time for us to crawl back into our own hotel rooms and go to sleep (we had been hanging out in Lydia and Carey's room). So without further adieu Jessie and I both went asleep, cause after all...we had a very VERY long trip ahead of us in the morning!

So that pretty much concludes day three of Accelerant! I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about it! I'm off to shower and get all de-nastified. I've just finished my daily workout and to put it plainly...I smells. So I'm off to clean my stinky self!

Your Ever Crazy and at the moment Stinky Blogger,

Rebecca