We left at the beginning of school to head up to Anchorage for the first day of the Alaska State Championship for drama, debate, and forensics (public speaking). The trip itself was interesting. We were stopped by a recently fallen tree that some other drivers were able to remove with the chainsaws that they had in their vehicles. It then turned out that the pass defied the weather forecast and dumped enough snow that it was up past the bottom of Tifa’s (my Kia Sportage’s) doors. Plows had not yet gone through, but enough vehicles had gone before us to leave a bit of a path.
The trip to Anchorage took almost 45 minutes longer than I had expected, but I had intentionally left early enough to give us a time buffer, so I still had my team get lunch and relax a bit at the Dimond Center before heading the Bettye Davis East High School. As I had also let the tournament director know that we might be late if the road was difficult, my Readers Theater (RT) team got to go last in their group, so we arrived with plenty of time. There were four rooms with six teams and one with five for a total of 29 teams competing in RT while East was still in session. Once that round (and East’s school day) was over, we were able to bring the rest of the team (two more students) into the commons to check in and receive the opening remarks and instructions.
The rest of the day was just for debate, and I am down to just one debater. Thus, after the opening, the rest of the team headed out with my team chaperones for shopping, a gangster-themed escape room, and dinner. Meanwhile, my debater had three straight rounds in which to compete. I was able to finish some grading that I brought along (none of my competitors want to have me watch them perform). Once my debater was done, the rest of team met up and we checked in to our hotel.
The RT team needs to be back by 8 AM tomorrow, and that will kick off our most hectic day, so I’m going to get some sleep.