When a trip starts off with tornado warnings, it is a given that things are not going to end well. For my camp CIT trip the 40 or so CITs piled into a bus and headed to Hershey Park. We arrived in Pennsylvania and while listening to the radio the station went to static and a warning went off for rapid tornados forming near our area. Ironically, those tornados were nothing compared to what was ahead on the ride home.

My camp group and I arrived on Friday and left Sunday night. We spent Sunday in Chocolate world and filed onto the bus with our bags and bags of chocolate. While loading onto the bus we noticed our bus driver, who we nicknamed “Turtle”, appeared to be overheated with bloodshot eyes and his clothes and body practically melting into his seat. Rumors spread among the campers about the bus driver and why he was the way he was. An hour later the rumors stopped and half the chocolate in our bags was gone. We were singing songs, throwing food, stuffing our face and dancing in the middle of the isle. Another hour goes past and people are becoming sleepy. Our hair was a mess and chocolate was all over our faces. It was around ten PM when we started to hit the bumps on the side of the roads that tell the driver that they are drifting off the road. After a half hour of hitting those bumps our CIT leader asked Turtle to pull over. We were told to leave the bus in pairs of two and not ask questions. We walked into the Pizzeria across the road. We were all sat down and our CIT leader informed us that Turtle was unable to drive us the rest of the way home. We were stranded in New Jersey with no way home and the police on the way. This brought out the side of me not many of my friends knew. Ever since I was little I would have anxiety attacks. Full on panic there was no calming me down. This was a cause of my OCD and I hid it the best I could by making jokes and being weird but I always knew that parts of it was still with me. I purchased a cup from the man who owned the pizza place and filled it up with ice that I would eat, over and over and over again. I couldn’t be away from my family in a dangerous situation. It was like I was dying inside and my world was falling apart. The police had arrived and after three more cups of ice and pacing back and forth for twenty minutes we received the results. Turtle ate too many big macs. He gave himself food poisoning and overheated himself inside the bus. He was unable to drive us home. After I heard the results I chuckled to myself and I felt a part of my panic slip away. Then once I realized I wouldn’t be able to home for another day it came back. My friend Ryan who plays every sport known to man whipped a Hershey soccer ball out of his bag and called for a game in the parking lot. I felt a whole lot better with my friends running around in the parking lot while my group leaders settled sleeping arrangements. We had a new found energy in us to run around and have fun and while I was playing and chatting with my friends I didn’t even know what panic was. A couple hours later we crashed. People were sleeping in the parking lot because the Pizzeria owner had to close up shop. We had discovered the nearest hotel for us to go to but Turtle had a while more before he could drive us. My friend Mattie and I were sitting in the parking lot talking about camp and what our parents were probably thinking when our leader told us to all get back in the bus. A van was coming to lead the way for Turtle to the hotel. Mattie and I were selected to be some of the kids riding in the van. My counselor was with us and made sure to inform us that she had a knife in her pocket just in case. We took off for the hotel and the van arrived around ten minutes later. We got out and noticed, the bus was not behind us. My group leader was furious and called our other leader who told her that they couldn’t keep up with the van. That’s when I turned and took a good hard look at the hotel. It was stunning from the outside, marble columns and beautiful greenery. We did not enter until the bus finally arrived. Now it is around 2:30 and the 40 of us walked into the stunning hotel to discovery the most elegant hotel any of us had ever seen. We all stood there with our mouths hanging open as classical music played in the background. I burst out laughing at the kids who appeared to be in a chocolate hurricane now standing in what could be Queen Elizabeth’s room. We finally arrived in our hotel rooms around three and were up at 7 to get into the new bus sent to us by the bus company with the new driver who’s name was Felix. Everyone was a bit loopy and tired so the ride home was interesting to say the least but when traveling home I realized that I can do things on my own and that sometimes the unexpected can lead to one of the best adventures of