This morning the New Orleans group departed the good ole Pear Tree Inn located in Cape Girardeau, Missouri around 8 AM. We were in Arkansas by about 9:30. We were in Arkansas for awhile and then we passed into Tennessee for about 20 or so minutes before reaching Mississippi around 11:00. Honestly, the drive was beautiful! We got to cross over the Mississippi River and everything along the freeway was green. Oh, and the temperature was between 70-80 degrees the whole time! Even now here in New Orleans we are sitting around 75. So the drive continued through Mississippi and while there wasn’t many exciting things we did see some interesting town names like Pope and Coffeeville.

Around 3 we stopped at Walmart to buy the rest of the supplies for the donation we are making as a group. The donation we are making is for Voices of the Experienced. We raised $200 and with that money we were able to buy sports bras, shampoo and conditioner, feminine products, underwear and toothbrushes with toothpaste. This organization focuses on providing resources and restoring the civil liberties of those being released from prison, in an effort to foster opportunity and reduce recidivism.

We got to our location, Camp Restore, around 6:15. After dropping off our stuff in our bunks (we got tempur-pedic mattresses!), we got a tour of our home for the next week and then got to eat pizza.

As a last little note we wanted to share some of our favorite memories of the journey from Oshkosh:

Clare: “My favorite part was when the semi cut people off so they could stop trying to get ahead of us before their land ended!”

Emily W.: “My favorite memory was the really long bridge” (Context: This bridge was 26 miles long, in Louisiana, and basically you were just crossing water the entire time)

Ann: “The 26 mile bridge”

Jackie: “My favorite part so far was all of the laughs and getting to know each other on the ride down.”

Kalee: “Also the beauty of the bridge.”

Madison: “I just loved getting to know people so far and connecting already! (along with the stretching breaks of course)” (Context: During rest stops Madison and Kalee, sometimes Karis too, would do yoga stretches)

Olivia: “Jam sessions in the van!”

Karis: “Disney jams in the car!”

Emily T.: “Getting to know everyone and watching out for one another! Also crossing the really long 26 mile bridge was pretty cool!!”

Natasha: “Driving through the states, getting to see all of the beautiful sites, but especially when we got to the 26 mile bridge because seeing the Gulf of Mexico was a completely new experience for me.”

If you can’t tell we liked that bridge, well most of us did anways.

Keep on the look out for more updates from Vanna White and Louisivanna!!