Josh had signed up for Freshman Orientation at UK a month or so ago. It involves the parents as well (they have all sorts of informational sessions for us) so Donna and I went as well. We left Saturday even though the sessions didn't start til Monday. Josh jokingly told everybody "It's because my dad wants to make sure we are on time for everything". Our real reason is so we could attend worship services at North Lexington church of Christ. We'd been there before and one of my fellow deacons at Central (Dr. Tim Mabry) always speaks highly of that congregation plus he said he would let people know about us and Josh.
We drove Josh's Impala just to make sure it would handle the 250 mile trip ok. Plus, I wanted to show him the ins and outs of the trip like which exits have the best food and the route to take. The drive isn't really all that complex except for the part where you go from the Western Kentucky Parkway to the Bluegrass Parkway by taking a two mile stretch of I-65 around Elizabethtown. Josh did all the driving and did really well.
We got there about 8 and checked into the Doubletree Suites. Something about the place kept nagging at me. I finally realized that this was the old French Quarter Suites that I had stayed at a lot many years ago. When we were working with Portsmouth Plant to integrate more fully together in the early 1990's, this was the favorite hotel to use. The rooms were really nice with two flat screen TVs and a jetted tub.
On Sunday, we went to worship services at North Lexington. Everyone was really nice and said they'd "Keep an eye" on Josh. The preacher (Steve Johnson) was very good. Turns out he's from our end of the state (Farmington in Graves County). They have a class for the college students and we were told "they take good care of them". They even gave us a loaf of bread when we left (which Josh promptly devoured). We ate lunch at Cane's chicken strips and then went back to the hotel. We rested all afternoon. I wanted to eat at the Columbia Steak House near the hotel. It was good but I forgot how much food they give you. I couldn't even finish mine. We went back to church, got back and rested and finally went to bed.
We drove to the campus on Monday morning with no issues. We went to the Otis Singletary Center for the Arts for the beginning of orientation. We sat through several presentations and then had a catered lunch. Josh saw a girl he went to Ballard with so they hung out together the rest of the day. Her mother stayed with us since I still know my way around the campus pretty well. In the afternoon, they had breakout sessions you could pick from to go to. One that especially interested Josh was MathExcel. This allows him to have additional work with a smaller group on Calculus and they even have a "Math House" to meet at. It even sounded neat to me. We had checked out from the Doubletree that morning since the rate went up abruptly for Monday nite and went to a Hampton Inn instead. We discussed at length where to get dinner and finally just walked to McDonalds. I did drive to a Krispy Kreme I saw the day before to get dessert.
We checked out the next morning and headed back to UK. First, the students went to a general session while the parents went to sessions basked on which college the student would be going too. Josh is majoring in Computer Science which is in the Engineering college so Donna and I went to that. They explained about classes and degrees and how the students sign up. Then, we went to the Student center for more presentations on things like Campus Security, Parking and Transportation and HealthCare. The students met with their advisors and registered for classes. Josh got in what he wanted and he was happy. The drive home was uneventful and we got back on time for Josh to go to the Summer Youth Series.
We enjoyed it, but it only draws us closer to the day in August when we nock that arrow and shoot it far away.
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