Six and 1/2 hours on the Bus 🚌 back to Greensboro and then a 90 minute drive 🚗 home 🏡 will conclude the Washington DC Loop.
Rental Car 🚗 turned in and Metro card used to get over to Union Station 🚉
The Harris Family 👪 is also still here but I’m comfortable in saying that they are having more fun.
A couple of Marion’s photos 📷 from Arlington National Cemetery and then pics of the Birthday 🎂 dinner.
For those of you wondering, the Bus 🚌 has stopped in Fredericksburg, Richmond and Colonial Heights so far.
Rawlings has a 20 minute break at a Truck ✋Stop (335-355) with a 24 Hour Little Caesars Express.
(4:20 am to 4:27 )- South Hill, Virginia – Change drivers. Only 2 & 1/2 hours left.
Planes, Trains 🚆 and Automobiles 🚘 – I think that was John Candy and Steve Martin back in the day. So far its been a personal car, ✈️, rental van, Metro Train 🚉, Bus 🚌 and then an Uber back to the Airport and finally 75 miles back 🏡🏠🏡.
No regrets here, the concert was both well done and performed for a sensational audience. Military is such a big part of my life and 👀 the Veterans smile with pride in their hearts 💕 was special to say the least.
Welcome 🙏 to North Kakalacky ! Possible next stop ✋ should be the land of the Blue Devils…
Durham, NC – the Bull City. Exit at 5:30, unlike the other stops ✋, this one is well off the Highway 🛣. It took a full 9 minutes to cut ✂️ across town to pull into Durham Station 🚉…
Made it to Greensboro and 1 hour later made it back to the Airport !! Fun 60 minutes of city bus 🚌, walking 🚶♂️ and finally an Uber !!
It was roughly six months ago that I had reached the conclusion that my goal of creating a Network that would benefit both the Academics and Athletic side of Carroll County High School was going to prove to be unattainable. Once I accepted the disappointment of that fact, I leaned into one of my mainstays in life, Finish what you start !
Thursday June 6th is the finish line as today is the Chorus performance up in Northern Virginia area.
The 75 miles of back roads between Laurel Fork and the GSO Airport have been navigated safely and in a couple of hours it will be time to board Flight ✈️ 5328 up to Reagan (DCA) Airport.
The fact that its a ✈️ out of Greensboro versus a long drive 🚗 is part of the closing strong strategy. The flight I had booked out to Oklahoma City for the Softball College World Series was not one I could get back but the kind folks at American Airlines were willing to let me exchange it for another day.
The only thing left on the calendar 📅 at that time was the concert in the Washington DC area so here we are.
Going back a few steps 🚶♂️ to why I didn’t get on the Airplane to OKC in time to watch Duke University compete in the WCWS. Brayden Smoot and Corrie Delp were set to compete in Lynchburg at the State Track 👣 and Field competition at Liberty University and I wanted to try to make their weekend as special as possible.
The weekend was as pleasant as it could be and the quality time with Coach Montgomery along with the Smoots and Delps was a memorable experience.
Allen Worrell took the two stories and hopefully later today they will appear in print in The Carroll News. They should end up near the Tennis 🎾 stories about Jabin Talley and Ethan Richardson up in Christiansburg a couple of days prior.
The hope was that each time that a donation was made or an event took place over the past four years that another couple of people would find their way to becoming part of the Dream Team. A team designed to encourage people and promote everything positive here in Carroll County.
Over the next few weeks I will take the time to write ✍ some personal Thank You notes 📝 to the folks that tried to join the mission along the way. We greatly appreciate the ones that tried to make things happen and we want to show our gratitude 🙏 to them.
11:00 am (roughly 8 hours from now) is the start time for the performance 🎭 by Patricia Lineberry’s group of talented performers. A group that I have seen firsthand a number of times over the past few years and have enjoyed every time. Yesterday I took the time to create a story about how relevant I felt this performance was but sadly I couldn’t generate enough interest from people to make the story noticeable.
Today will be a long and tiring day but it will be fun to witness the group one more time. The added bonus being they are performing for some of our Veterans.
There might be enough time to catch a nap before the Security Line opens up but I encourage anyone still reading to check back in.
Made it to D.C!
3 hours until show time !
2 Hours until showtime !
Our Group has arrived by their charter bus 🚌 and have made their way into the auditorium. The photos 📷 are struggling to upload so I might have to wait until later to post the bulk of them.
The parents that made the trip with the group are also now in the room as we get closer to showtime !
Patricia Lineberry is now going through the order of the songs 🎵 that our Chorus will be performing.
Stretching exercises are next up for the group…
Chocolate cookie 🍪 is the warm up song 🎵 and the group is already sounding great (10:20 am). Now its tough to not be thinking about Chocolate cookies…
Marion Harris is setting up to live stream on his Facebook page, starting at 11am.
Unofficial count on the number of performers is 36. 30 young ladies and six young men. Ladies are dressed in Black Gowns and Men in Black Dress Shirts with Blue Neck Ties.
Opening song 🎵 – The Star Spangled Banner… Followed by – Sing, Sing, Sing
Advanced Choir, Intermediate Choir and 9th Grade choir.
Unofficial count on Parents that joined the group for the 3-day trip is 11.
Today is the conclusion to months of preparation that included a trip to the D-Day Memorial in Beford, Virginia and the learning of Military related songs.
The tenth song of 12 was a number that included a tribute to each of the branches of our Military and the audience was asked to stand when the branch they served was mentioned. Stand they did, with a tremendous amount of pride as each group took their turn. The crowd today was heavy in the favor of the Army.
The 12th and final song 🎵 was the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The group was able to spend part of the day on Wednesday with the Director of the Army choir and the closing song 🎵 was part of the things worked on under the special guidance.
Patricia Lineberry and 36 of our Students did our Community proud! Months of hard work and dedication went into the rehearsals and the actual final Concert.
More photos 📷 from today will be added once there is more stable internet.
The next stop ✋ for the group today is the Arlington National Cemetery.
Right now Patricia Lineberry, her Chorus and some of their family members are in the middle of what I have to believe is quite the adventure up in our Nations Capital. The part of this story that saddens me is my inability to draw attention to their efforts.
This trip has been months and months in the planning stages. Every step 🚶♂️ of the way one could see the amount of hard work and attention to detail that was put into the fund raising and the scheduling.
Sunday afternoon the talented group performed a free concert on The Hill and they are now just a smidgen more than 24 hours from taking the stage for a performance 🎭 that should warm the hearts 💕 of everyone involved.
The missing ingredient in the equation is how one can get folks that are very busy to slow down long enough to appreciate the effort and talents of others. If someone out there knows the combination of the Lock 🔐, please let me know 🙏.
In the meantime, Thank You Patricia Lineberry for everything you do for our youth. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by me…
Special Thank You to Darrin Mathews for allowing us access to the Gymnasium.
The Fab Four as I dubbed them, from left to right, Emma Leath and Family, Alyssa Ervin and Family, Ashlyn Newman and Family and Greg Talley & Family…
This collective group each gave four years to our School and wore the colors with a great deal of pride. Each one is leaving The Hill owning the career marks in their sport and along the way brought joy to so many in our Community.
Having a student athlete break a school 🏫 record is a rare thing on its own, let alone having five records fall in the same Class. The Class of 2024 leave here as the leading point scorer in Basketball 🏀, the leading goal scorer in Soccer ⚽️, the leader in wins by a Tennis 🎾 player and the leader in both pitching victories and Strikeouts in Softball.
The photo 📷 above is one taken on my phone during the shoot. It’s a tease to the rest of the work done by Velvet Creed Leonard until we can get all of it out there.
Congratulations 👏👏👏👏 to each of these four Amazing Cavaliers and their Families !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 