Field trip with no air conditioning
I thought that chaperoning my daughter’s third grade class field trip would be an enjoyable experience.
- I was looking forward to spending some extra time with my daughter, meeting her classmates and participating in the tour of a historical fort.
I didn’t realize that the fort was located over an hour away and that we’d be traveling by school bus. Although we headed out at 8 o’clock in the morning, the outside temperature was already 85 degrees. The bus was not equipped with any type of air conditioning. For safety purposes, the windows only open about two inches. They brought in very little air, and the bus was horribly overheated. It was also extremely old and bounced us all over the place. By the time we arrived at the fort, several of the kids were carsick and I was dealing with a raging headache. I then discovered that the tour of the fort is entirely outdoors. For the majority of the time, we were exposed to direct sunlight. The kids were sweaty, bored, cranky and most of them ended up sunburned. The only air conditioned area was the gift shop. My little group of girls and I lingered in that air conditioned gift shop for as long as possible. No one wanted to get back onto that hot and sticky bus for the ride home. I can’t imagine who thought it would be a great idea to send a group of kids to an outdoor fort in the middle of June. I’m sure there’s an indoor, air conditioned aquarium or science museum in closer proximity.