camel lips Posted July 29, 2006 Share Posted July 29, 2006 (edited) We had two marching members that were driving the equipment truck sharing the work load.How they made it through the weekend with little or no sleep,loading,unloading,,marching and performing and then driving 26 hours(round trip) I have no clue.These are truely two remarkable individules that have earned a ton of respect with this corps in just the last two seasons. Please don't do this! Drivers must be rested.Too many corps have had accidents, including deaths because of it. Sorry to be a critic. Plus drivers don't load or unload,thats the corps job. I believe that one of the reasons we had no injuries this past weekend is even though we own our bus, I hire paid professional drivers and on long trips like last weekend we had two.They're friends and they split the money of the one driver between themselves.They're paid well, fed and well rested. The equipment van has 2 drivers and the first driver out misses the show(usually me) to be rested. Love you guys too much. I don't want to see any bad things happen. :) From my understanding this was sort of a one time deal in order to do this show and to be able to do the MBI.With fuel cost and travel cost's being what they are,,,,,,we had to cut corners on this trip in order to do both. I think the plan is to hire proffesional drivers for the next two bus trips although I don't know that for sure. Edited July 29, 2006 by camel lips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff danchik Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 From my understanding this was sort of a one time deal in order to do this show and to be able to do the MBI.With fuel cost and travel cost's being what they are,,,,,,we had to cut corners on this trip in order to do both.I think the plan is to hire proffesional drivers for the next two bus trips although I don't know that for sure. Go to a local school bus company or find someone who works for one.They pay their drivers nothing,and all have CDL's. Offer them a far salary and someone will jump at the oppurtunity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTux Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 MarylandA weekend to remember i was talking to someone on staff from the corpsvets at the gate while the skyliners were on the field if we needed to wait until 3 int he morning to perform we would, because everyone had to travel so far to get there, and it would have been a waste to do a standstill in. Also, to add to MonValley Express's bus breaking down, i drove one of the sunriser trucks, and our other equipment truck traveling behind broke down on sunday, thank god, in the dry, on I-95, anyone else have any travel problems? glad to hear everyone got home OK...... Tony B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunContra1 Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 i know everyone got home safely, but with corps members driving the trucks, yeah it cut costs, but being a young guy, i can do a 30 plus hour no sleep drum corps weekend, just don't expect me to get up before 11 on any given ay during the week, but corps, no sleep makes a better emotional show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlondeContra Posted August 6, 2006 Share Posted August 6, 2006 Today was an experience, I never want to repeat again.Approximately 11:00 just 4 miles from 695 our bus blew a front tire.After shuttling people over to the school and trying to get some rehearsal time in we were rained out.Then we had to shuttle to the stadium.Since all we were able to practice was some music, we had to do a standstill and leave.Of course on the way to our vehicles it down poured again.For 3 hours I tried every number I could find for road service to get the bus fixed or towed. I finally had one of the parents with us take me to the airport to rent a 15 passenger van that was to be reserved and it wasn't there when we got there.So with some redoing the back of the pickup and squeezing people everywhere,we headed home. Now I have to drive back to Baltimore and return the mini van I did get, try to arrange towing to a garage monday and then get the bus back.My priority was to get everyone home safely.After going through the ordeal we had, we did the best we could at the time, it could of ended much worse.A couple people didn't make it, and for once absentiesm helped.We're going to need some time to regroup and get over this experience, but we're safe.Kudos to Terri the bus driver for getting the bus under control and safely to the side of the road, the Maryland State Police who stayed with us until we could start shuttling people, I believe the Corps Vet fed my members,sorry I wasn't there I was still with the bus so I'm not sure but a big thanks to you, and finally MCL for use of their podium.Tough day eh! Jeff-that day was quite an experience and I'm just glad we still got home that night and we (mostly) got everything worked out. Sucks that we didn't get to go over our marching and actually compete but I suppose it was better that we went on 2nd and got back to loading up the equipment *rolls eyes* and that's just a whole other story about packing in all that stuff with all of our members. Thanks to everyone who was there to support us and sorry that the contra cuties didn't meet up with our 'fans' Hopefully we can catch up with some fellow contra players at DCA's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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