Area III- Part II

After driving from College Station to El Campo by way of Houston (we added an extra hour to our trip on accident), I knew that our time in Area III would be interesting, if nothing else. Indeed, I was right!

Jeremiah and Kaleb were impressed by the Big Buck contest that Edna FFA holds every year. After our presentation, we watched Mr. V score a 120 point buck. They pay out $300 to the winners of the contest! How cool is that?! We enjoyed a nice meal with the Louise FFA officers and a great chat with our friends at Tidehaven before heading to the Firkins house for dinner.

Mr. and Mrs. Firkins and Haley were so sweet to us! They made us some delicious cookies and even brought our clothes to the cleaners (something we were definitely in need of). Of course, the coolest thing about Brazoswood was their full-service meats lab! We even got to enjoy some of the end result…lots and lots of homemade beef jerky. We munched on it all the way to Brazosport and even on our way to Clear Springs. That night, we got a little free time to ourselves. So, we made our way on down to Galveston to play on the beach. I am pretty certain that Blaze enjoyed the rendition of “I’m on a Boat” that we sang to his voice mail while on the Galveston ferry. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we made it to my grandma’s house for chicken and dumplings.

The next day, we were introduced to the rest of the Clear schools: Clear Brook, Clear Creek, and Clear Lake. They were GIGANTIC! It was so interesting to visit schools so different from the ones that each of us attended. That night, we made our way down to La Porte to hang out with Ms. Campise and their chapter officers. All I am going to say is that the Walmart in Deer Park was lacking several rolls of saran wrap after we left…

We had an AMAZING time in Chavez. Those were some of the most enthusiastic and appreciative students that we have had the opportunity to talk to. They even gave us all kinds of chips, drinks, and a signed picture of their officer team! Area III must know how much we love to eat, because Huffman loaded us up with tons of cookies and Hawaiian Punch. The cookies even had blue and yellow m&ms in them; how awesome is that?!

I have never laughed so hard in my life as I did that night at Iguana Joe’s, as Kaleb tried explaining his dating philosophy to the Crosby ag teachers. That in itself was quite an experience. The Crosby FFA members were a great group of students, just like the ones at Kingwood. Both were incredible students with a ton of potential to do some wonderful things in the future.

After a quick trip to Pei Wei, we were headed back home for the Thanksgiving break. To all of the participants at the Area III LDE contest: you did a fantastic job! I also would like to thank East Bernard and Burton for allowing Layton, Aron, and I to visit your chapters on Monday. It was so nice to be back in Area III!

As for now, we look forward to seeing all of our east Texas friends we make our way down to the home of the 1st Vice President himself, good ole Area IX!