4-03-08 A very different day indeed

Well this morning was very different indeed. We were scheduled to wake up at 6:00 and be ready to go by 7:30 or 8:00. We woke up late but we were still on schedule as Sydney and Jeff began their ride to Athens very early in the morning. Tim, Tyrone, Jacob, Justin, and I stayed behind at the hotel room to work on data entries for the Internet and our journals. After that Ally, Tim, Mr. Thomsen, Drew, Pat and I headed for Athens, Georgia for a ceremonial tree planting at Chase Elementary. It took us a while but we caught up with the riders and just as we did it started to rain really hard. Due to weather conditions we pulled the riders off the rode in Akin  as it was raining so hard we couldn’t even see the road. When we were driving towards Georgia we got backed up in traffic because a cow was on the highway (laugh out loud), which also caused us to be late to the school.  The coolest thing that happened today was the police escorted the riders from Watkinsville, Georgia to the school, which was 7 miles away. When we got to the elementary school, we met Mayor Heidi W. Davison, the principal of the school, some news reporters and Dick Field the environmental coordinator.  We helped the kids plant a tree and then had lunch at the school.  Over lunch we discussed the city's environmental concerns and the programs they've created. I was very impressed about this event, it was well organized and the little kids were very enjoyable.  We couldn't stay long as we had to be in Marietta by 5PM, so we got everyone into the vehicles and headed off once again.  It took us about 2 hours to get to Marietta, Georgia where we stayed in the Courtyard Marriott, which is very nice indeed.