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ON THE
BUS
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There has to be a bus leader / team
leader on the bus. This will be someone who will NOT get lost, will
KNOW HOW to get back to the bus, and will have a phone that will
always ring, and not go dead. So the phone has a big battery, or
spare phone batteries.
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The Team Leader will pass out a clip
board and on it EVERYONE will write down their SEAT NUMBER on the
bus, their name, cell phone number, home phone number. Why? Because
when the team leader gets back, he/she can see who is missing, by
looking for empty seats, and then cal the person / phone number
associated with the empty seat. Do not rely on saying, “who ever is
missing, please raise your hand.” As a team leader, and bus, you
will leave NO ONE BEHIND.
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BEFORE everyone leaves the bus, the
team leader passes out a 3x5 note card to everyone, and everyone
writes down on THEIR card the cell phone number of the team leader,
the company name and number of the bus, and where the bus is
parked and waiting for them. Each person keeps this card. So if they
get lost, they can ask a DC resident, how do I get to THIS location
( parking lot So and So near intersection of This street and That
street ). A local will be able to point you in the right direction.
Plus the lost person, or delayed person, or injured person, can
easily call the team leader, and say I'm 10 minutes behind, I'm
here, I'm staying overnight in a hotel with friends and will get a
ride back etc...
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ON THE
GROUND & WHAT TO TAKE
1. Money. Take at least $100 and I'd
say take $15 in one dollar bills or 1 dollar coins and take $5 in
quarters. Or take a whole role of quarters ($10). Take the rest of the
money in $20 bills. You will need dollars and quarters to buy anything
from vending machines, merchants, markets, etc... and these use dollar
bills and quarters. Plus you need money for cab fair, if you can't walk
that far back to the bus and you want to take a ride.
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We're going to talk about what you
need to take with you, so lets just start with a very comfortable
back pack or big purse / shoulder bag. What ever your favorite is,
get it.
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The first thing that can make you
miserable faster than anything else is the weather. Will it be
sunny, hot, cold, cool, wet or all of the above? Make sure you
dress appropriately and bring the right cloths, if its going to
rain, make sure you bring a light weight water proof coat you can
tie around your waist, or stuff in your back pack. Sunny?
Bring a hat and sun block. You know how to do this. I
don't need to spell it out for you.
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Water Water Water. Bring water.
About 3 liters would be good, especially if its going to be hot in
DC. DO NOT GUZZLE a whole bottle at once because then you'll be
looking for a bathroom and those will either be hard to find or very
very disgusting. Good rule of thumb, drink a mouthful about
every 5 minutes before you get thirsty, or when you are thirsty.
Instead of the water passing through you, it will get absorbed into
your body and used. If you guzzle a bottle of water, 3/4ths of
it will be going down the drain in short order. When your
bottle is empty, do NOT throw it out. You might have to REFILL
IT from a drinking fountain, you might give the empty bottle to be
refilled by someone who did NOT read this helpful list.
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Food, you'll get hungry, so either
plan on fighting with a million people for food in DC or bring your
own. Apples, oranges, other fruit or food bars, granola bars,
trail mix that you make, nuts, candy bars, junk food... what ever
you like to take with you when you need something to eat. Bring it.
Just make sure its NOT something like chocolate that will melt or
something like bananas that will get crush.
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If you are eating and drinking, then
you'll have to use the bathroom. Think PORTA POTTIES.
Think NO TOILET paper, think disgusting, dirty, stinky. So if
I were you, and especially if you are a female of the human species,
I'd bring some of my own toilet paper, like a half roll, and wet
wipes or hand sanitizer or something you can use what your butt
might touch and something to clean your hands from everything else
around you.
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You are going to need a working cell
phone. Do not be stupid. Bring your cell phone and bring a
small wall charger. Charge it up at home, and keep it
plugged in on the bus (120 volts, most busses have them).
Ideally when you leave the bus, you'll unplug your phone and now
take it with you with a 100% perfect battery. Your cell phone
will be your communications back to the bus and to home. Plus
you might take photos, video and other documentation of your trip
with your cell phone.
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Walking Walking Walking. You are
going to walk all around DC and walk back to the bus. You'll
be standing on your feet all day. Make sure you have darn
comfortable shoes and socks on. Good shoes that you know you
won't give you blisters or sores.
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THINGS
THAT WILL BREAK, GET SORE, DIE, GET HURT etc...
1. You're gonna get thirsty and hungry, but we talked about that
above. Bring food, water and money. That will take
care of it.
2. You're going to find porta pottie
with no toilet paper and that are disgusting. Bring some toilet
paper and wet wipes / hand sanitizer
3. Your phone battery is going to
die. If your wall charger is small enough, bring it with you so
you can charge it a bit and make a phone call if you have to.
4. One of the most important things
that will go wrong is your skin. Your cloths might chafe, or rub
and you might get a rash, a sore spot. You might get blisters on
your feet or sore spots. You'll probably get sunburned. So
make sure you bring SUN SCREEN to keep from getting burnt, make sure
your cloths are very comfortable and that you know how they will feel
after a long day and make sure you bring some medical or surgical tape,
or bandaids or blister kits to protect, pad or cover spots on your skin
that might get sore, blistered, chafed or scraped. Nothing will
make you miserable faster than the weather, and the next thing that will
make you miserable is something wrong with your skin.
5. As far as getting too hot / cold
/ wet, read above about bringing the correct clothing. Then read
about having cab money to get you back to the bus quicker.
6. You are LOST. You've not a
clue where you are, where your bus is nor what time it is. So
bring a watch, don't depend on your cell phone for the time. Make sure
you have a card with you with your bus number, the name or company of
the bus, and where its located. If you are one of these people who
get lost, then stay in a group of people who do not get lost. Do
not go off on your own. It would be good advice for people who get
along and like each other to form groups of 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 8 or 10
and stay with each other for the trip. That makes it more fun, and
you can take each other's picture and you can all share your video
etc.... If you have a really smart computer literate child who is
not with you, you can call him/her and say, I'm at the intersection of X
and Y and they can find where you are on google maps / earth and then
tell you where to go to find your bus.
7. If your camera / video batteries
are going to die during the trip, bring extras ! or keep it off when you
are not using it.
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