Remember that one time on the band trip? Is usually how most kids in the band’s stories start. With trips that span days on buses filled with eager band kids, there are bound to be some stories.

This weekend the LHS marching band traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana, in six charter buses to compete against some of the best high schools bands in the country at Bands of America Indianapolis. Overall, the band placed 15th against 71 other bands, missing making finals by 0.075 of a point. Though the band was disappointed, there were many other memories made that will last them a lifetime.

The band started out by traveling from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Peoria, Illinois on Thursday. As band kids were loading the bus early Friday morning something was off about bus number two.

The bus’s suspension that allowed the bus to lower and raise to let kids get on the bus would not go back up. Since the band still had four hours to go and a practice they had to go to, about 30-40 band kids and a few chaperones stuffed onto five already full buses and traveled the remaining four hours to Indianapolis.

“Because we didn’t have bus seven, which was our back up bus, our buses were full and bus six was particularly awful because we didn’t have a/c,” said LHS sophomore Norah DeBoer.

Soon the band arrived at the practice field finally after a long 14-hour bus ride. The band was ready to march and play after two long days on a bus doing nothing, but the weather had other ideas.

“The rain was on and off and down poured a lot of the time,” said LHS sophomore Eleanor Dennis.

Though the rain might have halted practice for a bit, the band’s spirits were still high, this carried into the next day were they performed “The Wild” in preliminary performances.

The day of the performance went smoothly before, during and after the performance and the band surely made some memories that will last a lifetime. But there was one more mishap before the band returned home.

As they began their long journey home on Sunday, all seemed well for a half-an-hour. As the bus rounded a corner on a freeway, one of the compartments of the bus popped open, which sent a few instruments and hat boxes flying onto the freeway.

“When the hatch flew open, the bus had stopped and everyone on the bus was confused and a little panicked, especially when they found out that there were supposedly bags on the road,” said LHS sophomore Lydia Ables. “Someone’s instrument got ran over.”

Though there were many mishaps and misadventures that arose during the long four-day trip, that may have left the band tired and defeated. The students took a positive outlook on everything and continued to do everything in their control, to the best of their ability, and make memories that will last them a lifetime from those misadventures.

“This trip reminded me of why I love marching band so much. I love several jokes and good memories that we made, despite the fact that we didn’t make it into finals. Which was made up by the great times and laughs I had with all my friends,” said Ables.

To see more photos of the LHS Marching Band, go to https://www.flickr.com/groups/lhsbandparents/.

Correction: 10/30/18

An earlier version of this story included minor grammatical errors.