I had one of the best experiences I am sure I will ever have the week of October 16-24. I went back to Indianapolis, Indiana for the National FFA Convention as part of the 80 voice National FFA Chorus. There are hundreds of kids that try out for this awesome group each year, and so the competition was pretty intense. This became evident to me when I listened in and tried out for some solo's. The people that were there had truly amazing voices, and I felt privileged to be among them.
I started my trip at 4:30 a.m Saturday, the 16th. I was alerted to some construction delays that would be happening on I-15 that morning, so I decided to leave half an hour earlier than I had planned. I went to Brian Shelley's house and picked up him, and his friend James. They rode up with me to bring the car back to Springville when I was dropped off at the Salt Lake International Airport.
We Began the trip, and ran into no delays. That was my luck. So, I was at the airport almost 3 hours early. I went in with my bags, and the ticket/baggage counter wasn't even open yet, so I sat and waited for the time when they opened, checked my bag, and cruised through security with no problems. I was at my gate before a lot of the shops in the terminal even opened, so I sat, read my scriptures on my I-pod touch and waited for the Quiznos to open so I could go and get some breakfast. It finally opened, I went and had one of the best breakfast sandwiches I have ever tasted, and then returned to my gate with my orange juice. I watched the Airbus A-319 pull up to the gate, and we shortly boarded.
I was fortunate enough to choose my seats online, so, of course, I chose a window seat. At this point, It was still dawn, and the sun was just coming over the peak of the Wasatch mountains. Beautiful. Next to me was a little business woman, so I had room that I could move with. It is hard to fly as a fluffy person. No room.
We pushed back from the gate, and taxied to the runway. We took off going south and turned toward the west, eventually circling around and heading north east. We headed over the mountains, right over the Uintah mountains. They were already snow capped. It was one of the most beautiful sites I had ever seen. It made me wonder how people can think that it all happened my chance.
We landed in Denver at about 9:00 a.m local time. The flight was only an hour long. I got off the plane and headed to my next gate, which was just down the concourse. Denver is a pretty fun airport, it was fun to play on the moving walkways.
My flight from Denver to Indianapolis boarded at 11:00 a.m and we departed on time. I was sitting next to a pretty cute girl, about my age. We talked the whole way. We landed in Indianapolis at 3:45 p.m. I headed from my gate to the baggage claim, walking with a kid from Wyoming. He was trying for a seat on the National Officer Team. We waited for 45 minutes for our bags to get there, and headed out for the Green Line bus to take us into downtown. There were 2 girls on the bus with us that were also there for the National Chorus. We were dropped off right at the corner of the hotel that I was staying in. The Hyatt Regency Indianapolis. We walked into the hotel, which was huge, and I checked in.
I took my bags up to my room on the 6th floor. When I got to the room, there was some baggage there, and from the looks of it, I was the 3rd out of 4 to arrive. I changed out of my official dress, which I had flown in, and came out of the bathroom. In walked a shorter, lean kid, who asked me my name, and he told me his was Adam. He was from the state of South Carolina. We called each other by our state names. There was me, Brandon from Texas, Andrew from New Mexico, and Adam. I could already tell that this was going to be a party.
