Head South Pt. 6

On the way home, we had little time to reflect on all we had done. The hours of mini-golf we swindled out of the lax course security, our brief stop at the sign welcoming us to Kiln, Mississippi home of NFL great Brett Favre and the beautiful city of New Orleans all streamed together as we dreaded our long trip home.

The way back started normal enough, but after a few hours our time spent together finally took its toll on group morale. The tension exploded when Bremner's lack of packing experience once again became a terrible burden on the rest of us. He was sitting shotgun with the window down when he took off his shoes. What followed was a storm of disgust and anger from the rest of the group. The van had filled with the most god-awful smell you could imagine. I couldn't for the life of me describe what it compared to until Gus pinpointed it. He turned to Bremner and said as simply as only he could, "You smell like garbage."

Bremner then admitted to us he had been wearing the same socks the entire trip. All seven days of hiking, walking and driving. He was just in the process of "changing" them when he let us all in on his secret. Bremner's solution to his lack of socks was to turn them inside out daily. Apparently this gave him the illusion he was putting on clean socks. Refusing to understand the logic to this, we continued to scream at him until we were satisfied we had adequately proven he was disgusting.

We were all less than cordial during the last leg of our trip. With the smell of garbage mixed with the orange scented aloe we all relied on to soothe our pink midwestern hides, it made for an almost unbearable ride home. I would say its common though, to not enjoy the trip home from a vacation. At the time, I suppose I was ready to be anywhere but in Gus' van. After getting home however, with a few days of consistent showering, coupled with a general avoidance of each other, I was able to reflect a bit and appreciate the trip for what it was. One, if not the best time I had in college.