June 10- 17, 2016 - Choir Tour to Colorado

Colorado Rockies with High School Choir

Plymouth Matins

10 - 17 June 2016

On Friday morning, June 10^th, my daughter Alle and I piled all of our bags in the car and drove to our church at the crack of dawn. We are not usually morning people, but this morning, we were leaving with about 70 other people for the week-long Plymouth Matins Choir Tour to Colorado. I had been training to be a chaperone of 65 high schoolers for about four months prior. We learned how to lead our small group of eight kids in discussion, how to address difficult issues that might arise during tour and how fun and intense it can be to hang out with a large group of teenagers for a week.

Each person had a luggage bag, a backpack for on board the bus to help pass the 12 – 14 hour bus ride to Colorado Springs, and all of their bedding since we would be sleeping on floors for parts of our journey. Piled on the lawn at Plymouth at 6 am, our stuff, the kids and all of our sleepy loved ones were a big group. Our minister blessed us as the sun rose and we piled onto two large tour buses which took us everywhere for the week.

We slept, drove and watched movies. The chaperones were up in the front of the bus, so that as kids came up for snacks we could chat with people and ask the names of people we didn’t already know. We made a few food and bathroom stops and arrived in Denver for dinner.  We distributed money to each of our kids in our small groups and they got to eat wherever they wanted along the 16^th Street Mall. They scattered into groups of friends and the chaperone group went to Burger 5208, getting lost a few times along the way to find it.

The only downside was that after dinner, we had another hour or so drive to Colorado Springs to the First Congregational Church that was our home for the first part of tour. We arrived there pretty late, in the dark and had to set-up in a number of small rooms downstairs. I shared with about eight to ten friends, including Alle and it turned out to be comfortable and fun -- Sort of a non-stop sleepover for about four nights.



After the driving, dinner, more driving and setting up at the church, the chaperones met to talk about the next day and then we met with our small groups. Everyone was exhausted by this point, so we talked about the plans for the next day and went to bed at 1 am.

The next three days in Colorado Springs included hiking in Garden of the Gods,

singing at two retirement homes,





and shopping downtown. Our meals out included driving back to Denver to eat and bowl at Lucky Strikes,

eating in an airplane,



 and a lovely meal in Colorado Springs at Phantom Canyon.

We also took the buses up into the mountains and had a tour of Cave of the Winds, which was a set of inner tunnels through the mountains.




Some of the people on tour had headaches and felt dizzy in these first few days of tour from the altitude changes.

The best day for me was Sunday when the choir was part of the church service



and gave an afternoon concert. They sang well and sounded great.

The service about forgiveness was inspiring. Our small group discussed any person we felt we needed to forgive in the evening and it was our best discussion topic for the week.

On Tuesday of the following week, we finished up our breakfast foods in the church kitchen, took turns taking the buses for showers at the neighboring YMCA (which turned out to be about an hour round trip!) and packed up at the church to make our way up to Boulder



and then the Rocky Mountain National Park for the rest of our tour.  We all piled onto the buses again



and drove to Boulder for lunch. We enjoyed the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder for lunch and shopping. Each group of kids ate at different places and everyone shopped for souvenirs. It was fun to see what people came back to the bus with.  From Boulder, we made our way up the mountains to YMCA of the Rockies, where we were staying for the remaining three nights of our week.

I loved YMCA of the Rockies. It is a huge complex of cabins and buildings housing everything you might want at a summer camp. We ate at a dining “hall” which held 1,500 people and there were three to four of them at the camp. One night we made s’mores at a fire ring and we got lost trying to find our fire ring because there are about twenty of them sprinkled around the complex. There were probably over 10,000 people there along with us, but we were always able to find each other. The hiking was wonderful and very accessible. Each day, we were able to do a hike, do any number of camp activities or just hang-out. Here's a group at the sand volleyball courts. 

I could have spent many more days there.  One afternoon hike,

we hiked up to a place called Bible Point where you could leave your questions or issues in a message and mail them to God (mailbox provided).


The view to the surrounding mountains was fantastic.

Another morning hike was up to a near-by (well, ten miles round trip) lake and we watched a moose cross the lake.

One other positive about the trip was the other chaperones. I really enjoyed meeting the other parents and staff who were on the tour.

Perhaps joining a group and trip like this is only appealing to certain kinds of parent, but the other adults along were an interesting, engaged, competent and loving group of people. It was a pleasure to work with them and be able to interact with them during the week.

I wished that my small group could have met more often, earlier and discussed deeper issues. We often met late at night and sometimes we were too tired to talk as much as I would have liked to. It was still worthwhile to hike together in beautiful scenery,

hear the kids sing together, and to discuss spiritual issues in a separate and lovely place as a group.

It’s a unique opportunity to pull ourselves out of our busy lives and spend a week together as a group of 70!