The Biltmore, Buddies, and Bus Rides
Day 1: Getting There
The morning began with my father telling me to wake up at around 5:30 a.m. to gather my things and get ready to head towards the school. My bags were packed the night before, as well as my outfit already laid out, so I threw on my Taylor Swift '1989' hoodie, some sweatpants, pink Keds, a white infinity scarf, and my purple baseball cap. I carried my Hufflepuff drawstring backpack, pink duffel bag with "Allison" embroidered in it, and camera bag to the car and sat in the front seat of my father's vehicle. It felt strange to be departing from my house at such an early hour, but also the fact that I was alone. No brothers or sisters.
I watched the surroundings as we drove past the landscape, and my heart raced faster as we approached the school. This was my first every choir trip, and honestly it didn't even feel real. Was it a dream? Was it just a fantasy I conjured to escape the stress of finals? We pulled into the front entrance of the school, and my dad parked to let me walk to the side choir door. I said goodbye, and walked in with my hands filled with my luggage. (It was extremely chilly, so I definitely did not waste any time getting in.) I entered to the choir room, and there were only a couple people already there. Bag check didn't officially start until 6:30, so we had some time to kill. I chatted with Dalton, Elisabeth, and some others while more people started to stream in. It wasn't long after that I saw people walking around with yellow tags on their luggage, and I was confused to why mine didn't have that on it. Apparently they had just then set out the materials for baggage check! Once I exited the choir room, I witnessed a huge line that almost extended out the door, and I hesitated to join it. I had to force myself to wait in line, because, you know, you kind of HAVE to have your bags checked to go on the trip. I wrote on the tag and the chaperones looked through my bag. I was almost set to go! When a majority of people were there, we all gathered in the choir room as Mrs. El went over the rules and expectations for the trip. Afterwards, the men helped load things underneath the charter buses with Mr. Scott. My bus was "bus #1", which was primarily the bus for juniors and seniors.
I spent the trip to Asheville sitting next to Kaylie, while Vaughn sat in front of me and both Nikko and Arick behind me. The first stop we made was around Knoxville at a gas station/truck stop diner for a bathroom break. They instructed us not to buy anything since we would be stopping for lunch soon. Almost all of us went inside and populated this somewhat small place, and waited in line for a while to use the restroom. We loitered around the main part of the gas station waiting on everyone else to finish up, and one of the cashiers asked if we would sing for them. Cheerfully we obliged and sang "Christmas In About 3 Minutes", one of our Christmas choir pieces that we also planned on singing as an ensemble at the Biltmore. The cashiers and workers of the diner pulled out their phones to record us singing-- it was such a special moment. I truly felt part of the Christmas spirit when I saw some of the break down into tears and exchange hugs and high fives. But we still had hours left on the road left to travel, so off we went again trekking towards our destination.
We stopped at a central location for lunch where students could walk to wherever they wanted as long as it was within a reasonable distance from where the bus was parked; we had one hour to eat and get back. Kaylie and I crossed the street with our choir director to go towards Cracker Barrel, and I do not regret our choice. I had french toast with a Dr. Pepper, while she had coffee, vegetable soup, and apples. It was relaxing to be able to sit down and eat a wholesome meal separate from most of the people on the bus. (Love the people on the bus, but sometimes they can be a tad bit too much.) I managed to eat 3/4 of my meal before feeling I would explode if I ate another bite. We paid for our food and looked around the shop part a while, and then left just in time to make it back to our rides at the appropriate time. The rest of the time to Asheville there were no stops.
The sound of dialogue from Elf was drowned out by the talking of those on the bus, or it disappeared completely as I drifted in and out of sleepy state. The mountains were so beautiful, as well as all the natural things we passed on the way to North Carolina. I spent a lot of time staring out the window or trying to take pictures, but pictures couldn't even do it justice. We crossed the state line of Tennessee into NC, and sooner than you could sing a choir warm-up we were pulling up to the hotel. Our designated chaperone handed my roommates and I our four room keys in a tiny envelope with each of our names on it: Hailey, Kaylie, Aislinn, and mine. The elevator carried us up to the fourth floor, and our room was room 400, the first one on the left. (For the most part, all the girls were on the fourth floor while the guys were on the third.) In the time we had to spare before the first activity, we unpacked and watched Spanish television. I changed into jeans to hopefully look more presentable than if I was in sweatpants.
The comfy, funky-patterned charter buses aided us in heading towards Asheville's Fun Depot where we would be playing games and eating dinner. Dinner came first after playing a short game of mini-bowling with Gracie and Kaylie, since it seemed as if our driver made a wrong turn somewhere and we ended up being slightly later than we intended. We had a "buffet" style of pizza and spaghetti. The slices of pizza were huge, greasy, and you almost had to stack the pieces on top of each other for them to fit on the plate. The cards we used already had credits on them to use for games and such, but the way it worked was kind of confusing. I played bumper cars, mini-golf, skee ball, and other arcade games with Gracie throughout the nights. In addition, I rode in a 4D roller coaster simulator that was pretty cool, but it also made my eyes hurt. Others also climbed the rock wall, rode around on the go-kart track, or participated in laser tag. By the end my card didn't have enough credits or money left on it to do anything so I just walked around taking pictures. Exhausted, Mrs. El did a head count and we were back in route to the Hampton Inn hotel.
My room settled in for the night: put on PJs, ate snacks, took showers, and started to charge our phones and set alarms for the morning. Tomorrow would be the day that the most activity happened. I fell asleep after watching the last twenty minutes of The Polar Express.
Day 2: Being There
Hailey woke up the earliest to take a shower, and I heard her two alarms go off. I stayed in bed for a while because I knew that our alarm was supposed to be "The Circle Of Life" from Lion King and I hadn't heard that play yet. When I opened my eyes for the first time, I noticed Hailey was already dressed in her Vocal Ensemble outfit and was working on her makeup. This inspired me to get out of bed and start getting ready to go down to get breakfast. Aislinn and I went to breakfast first, while Hailey waited on Kaylie as she showered. We rode the elevator down to the first floor and walked towards the almost empty lobby to get some food. My plate consisted of cereal, pineapple, and a biscuit-like thing; we carried our food to our room to eat so it would take less time and we could also get ready. The other two went down to eat, while Aislinn and I both changed in our VE attire. I unfolded the dress and pulled it out of the bottom of the duffel bag, flattening out the wrinkles. The dress came down to a little bit above my ankle, with its goldish hues in the bottom part and a black, velvety, long-sleeved top portion. Aislinn tied the back of the dress for me after she finished curling her hair. The four of us were ready by 9:30 a.m, and that is when we met the choir in the lobby to warm-up before boarding to the Biltmore Estate. Strangers around us watched as if we were providing entertainment for them.
At Antler's Village Mrs. El practiced the arrangements we were to stand in, and we ran through how everything was going to go down. Our 30 minute performance took place under a gazebo in the shopping area of the Biltmore, and passer-bys would stop and listen if they felt inclined. L.O.V.E., M.O.V.E., and Vocal Ensemble all sang two pieces each, and we finished with "Christmas In About 3 Minutes". The weather was actually incredibly nice and I at some points felt kind of hot in my VE dress. The boys and girls were each assigned a bus, and they changed into their nice clothing for the rest afternoon. I wore a pink sweater, scarf, and dark jeans with my friend Britt's flats since I forgot to bring shoes other than the ones I wore for the performance.
Lunch was eaten at the Deerpark Restaurant at the Biltmore, and let me just tell you, it was really fancy. Lights were strung across the ceiling of the place, and there were round tables with elegantly wrapped silverware and those fancy glasses with stems on them. Every time I would try to drink my water out of the glass, part of it would drip into my lap from the condensation on the outside of the cup. I don't remember much of what was discussed during lunch, except maybe the fact that Luke and Hailey pretended to be married and acted as if everyone at the table was their children. I also remember that the mashed potatoes were some of the best I have ever had. Our server had a thick accent, which made it hard to understand what she was asking most of the time, but overall the service was wonderful.
Oh yeah, we also went to visit some place called the Biltmore. It's kind of big, I don't know if you've heard of it. Who am I kidding, it is MASSIVE! My first thought when the bus pulled up was that it reminded me of Hogwarts. Dirk and Scott handed us our ticket and audio tour pass as leisurely made our way into the lovely mansion. I found it odd how the audio tour was done: they gave you a remote-looking object with buttons numbered 1-9. You would press the number that corresponded with the room in order to hear an audio recording of a guide explaining the significance of the room. You had to hold it up to your ear the whole time... it wasn't very loud, or efficient. I started out listening to and holding it in my left hand, while I used my right hand to steady my camera and take some pictures. This proved to be difficult, especially as I tried to alternate from taking pictures on my camera and phone. I eventually gave up on listening to the audio part and just soaked in the surroundings. I'm so thankful we went at Christmas, because the decorations just made it THAT much better! The tall ceilings, large windows, ornate designs on literally everything, breathe-taking chandeliers, spiral staircases, and everything just amazed me. My favorite parts to see would probably have to be the bowling alley and the swimming pool (seen below).
Dinner was at like 5:00 according to the itinerary, but I can't remember if that is the exact time we sat down. We ate The Blackbird, another fancy smancy place. There were slips of paper with our names on them that we had to find and take with us in order to get our food. We had placed our orders weeks in advanced, so these name tags helped them identify which food went to whom. I sat at a table with Matt Porter, Maura, and Gracie. This was another location where all 60 or so of us seemed to fill the room. Probably my favorite part of that night at the restaurant was when Coleton, who was sitting by the window, waved at strangers passing by, and even attempted to take a selfie with one. It worked! The girl gave him her number via using her fingers to describe each phone number digit. Coleton showed her the screen of his phone to confirm if he typed it in correctly.
The Flat Rock Playhouse where we would be seeing "A Christmas Carol" was about an hour away from the restaurant, and it took everything in me not to fall asleep. I bought a Sprite from the concession stand just to keep my eyes open. We waited outside for the doors to open as rain drizzled on the blacktop, making the atmosphere that much more chilling. Everyone was anxious to get inside to warm up. We all settled down in the theater and awaited the start of the show. The cast, set, costumes, and every aspect surpassed what I was expecting. I was blown away by the performance and almost cried on several occasions. Back to the hotel, it was late. We went to sleep eventually.
Day 3: Leaving There
This morning it did not feel so easy to wake up early, it was likely because I was drained from the day prior. My other roommates went down to breakfast without me while I gathered my stuff and showered. The end of the trip approached too quickly, and we moved our bags from the great room 400 to the bottom of the charter bus. It was suppppppeeeerrrrrr chilly, which was a stark change from yesterday's 60 degree weather. My friend Kaylie (the one I sat by on the way there and shared a room with) was dropped off at around Sevierville, so I sat alone the rest of the way home. For lunch I had a personal pizza from a small Pizza Hut that was combined with a Burger King and gas station that contained anything you could ever think you might need. Rain fell from the sky at a steady pace, making it slick going back to the bus. Most everyone including myself slept a lot on the way home lacking much to do, and the chaperones rolled Big Hero 6 on the small TV screens on our charter. When a character would raise its voice, or a song I knew would start playing, I would automatically jolt up and awaken.
The bus made it to MJHS after 2:00 p.m., and it was frigid. The ground was coated in ice, and snow/sleet covered parts of the ground. I shivered as I stood outside waiting to get my bag and head to my dad's car. I hugged my friends goodbye, helped finish cleaning the trash out of the bus, and went home with my sister and dad.
This trip was one that resulted in lots of laughter, good food, and new or rekindled friendships. I got to visit a new city, and finally go on a choir trip- which I had waited four years to be able to go on one. I wish I had more time to do it all over again. Asheville, you were magical, and I will never forget you.
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