Band camp by Sam Byerly

So it started around the end of eighth grade in Hidden Valley Middle School when the high school marching band came to the my school for an end of the year concert right after the high school finished playing Mr. Galyen the director of the marching band had talked to all of the middle school band kids in the band room and was telling us how to be in the marching band. That’s when I learned all I had to do is go to the two weeks of band camp. The camp started about three weeks before school and would cost about eighty dollars per person. The camp had two parts pre camp and normal camp, pre band camp was at the high school at a place called  “The lower 40” which was called that because it was the only forty yards long of flat land with a pretty steep hill on the right side. We also practiced our music in the auditorium inside of the school.      

         After pre camp the next half of came would be at an all-girls collage called Sweet Briar Collage which was about three and a half hours away but the bus ride was one of the most exciting parts of the week most of the way there I had only been watching the James Bond movie Skyfall because we were playing the theme in our show. When we were a little over half way there we had stopped to eat and get snacks for the next week at a big strip mall it had Wall-Mart McDonalds and Subway. Me and one of my best friends named Gunnar had gone to go eat and after we went back to the buses after about twenty minutes Gunnar had said “Dude lets split the cost of two four packs of Red Bull. So we ran back in to the wall-mart and found the Red Bull in the back of the store ran back up to the front counter and bought them and two packs of gum.

         The rest of the bus ride was a blur I guess I dosed off or something but we got there and we got our rooms Gunnar was on the first floor with one of my other friend of mine named Nathen. I roomed with a guy from my section named Michel but we were of the third floor and across the building. The first day wasn’t as bad as my older brother Steven had told me. Two days went by no problem but then my roommate got sick so I moved down stairs and stayed with Gunnar and Nathen I had kicked Nathen out of his bed and he slept in the closet

         The rest of the week there was only one thing that the only thing worth talking about was the free time because every day at seven till around ten all the members of the band would meet up and play pool, capture the flag or would just walk around the grounds. but my point is the best experience I ever had was at band camp.