Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Suntrek Trip #1 - STS Coast to Coast

Lafayette, CO - So, I've been home for a week now. Settling very well, thank you, into my usual patten of waking up, hitting the gym, smoothie, coffee, working on chores, avoiding chores, feeling guilty for not doing my leg exercises, doing a few leg exercises to excise the guilt, fixing Suwei a bit of lunch before she starves to death, working on photos, eating dinner, watching the Daily Show, and heading to bed. The result...more photos ready!

This set of photos are from my first tour. It was a 3-week, charter tour from Los Angeles to New York via a southern route. A good portion of Suntrek's business comes from charters, which are a little different than the standard brochure tours. Basically a charter is a custom made trip for a specific group. The group, in this case, was from STS, a company that organizes tours for European high school students looking to improve their language skills. So on July 6th, Ben Larson (another Suntrek leader) and I, headed out to LAX to find 23 Swedish students between the ages of 15 and 19, plus two chaperons... "Asian, Asian, Asian, Blond! Is that them? Nope. Asian, not sure, Blond! Nope." This went on for a while.

Although it took them awhile to make it through customs, we did manage to locate the entire group, get them back to the hotel, and get the pile of Suntrek release forms filled out before midnight. From there the trip was simple...put them in a van, drive them around the country, and make sure they have fun...easy! Here is what our route looked like:



View Larger Map

According to the commercial driver's log I kept in the van, we covered 5064 miles (8149 km) of the USA. Here are some of the photos:


The group just starting out in Santa Monica, CA.


Limo Ride in Vegas. For the limo Soundtrack, click the link below about 60 times. Which one of you guys was running the CD player?



A night out in Monument Valley, AZ






Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde National Park, CO





Durango CO, Sante Fe NM, Roswell NM, Honey Island Swamp LA, Carlsbad NM, Wytheville VA, & Washington D.C.

There are more photos and stories in the slide show. Just click the link below. In the meantime here's a song from my collection, that reminds me of this trip. Music appreciation hour students!



Suntrek Trip #1 - STS Coast to Coast

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