Super Special #14: BSC in the USA
In another episode of “wow-some-girls-have-all-the-luck,” the entire BSC gets to go on a two-week cross-country road trip over the summer. There will be two cohorts, a South RV and a North RV, each taking a different route to Palo City, CA, where they’ll meet up and reunite before most of the crew (minus Dawn, Jeff, and Mr. Schafer) returns home. Along the way, each member of the trip gets to choose one special destination to visit.
SOUTH RV: Watson, Elizabeth, Karen, and Andrew Brewer and David Michael Thomas; Abby, Jessi, and Mallory.
South RV, Stop #1: Oakley, NJ.
Dinner with Jessi’s family in her hometown. Jessi tells her grandmother that the stop she chose is Dalton, Mississippi, where her ancestors were slaves, so she can learn about them. Jessi’s grandmother is proud, but also warns her that it’s going to be tough. She says:
“What happened between the races was like an infection, Jessica. A virus. Back when our family was in Dalton, that virus was full-blown. What you see in those photos might not be too pretty… some people think the civil rights movement cured the sickness. But it didn’t. Oh, sure, it made things better. But it was more like a vaccine. The infection is still inside people. Even the ones who think they’re immune.”
South RV, Stop #2: Chincoteague and Assateague Islands, VA.
Horse and pony stuff. (Mallory’s pick, duh.) Mallory is a little… surprised and disappointed that the town isn’t exactly the quaint, quiet village with barefoot children running around like she’d read about in her Marguerite Henry books. But then, after their RV gets rear-ended and they finally make it out to the horse area, and they make a buggy hike into a marsh for a picnic… they finally see all the horses and ponies running along the beach and Mallory is stoked beyond belief and cries.
South RV, Stop #3: Memphis, TN.
Graceland, Elvis’ estate. (Abby’s pick.) OF COURSE Abby loves Elvis. What a lil weirdo. The kids all see a man they think is Elvis (because he’s obvs not dead) and they follow him, only to realize he’s with like ten other Elvises because there’s an Elvis International Impersonator Contest coming up. LOL.
South RV, Stop #4: Dalton, MS.
Jessi, Mallory, and Abby visit the Dalton Plantation Museum (Jessi’s pick) and are blown away. Jessi’s grandmother was right; a lot of the images and information is tough on Jessi. She also learns that very little genealogical information was kept on the slaves at the plantation because they were seen as possessions and weren’t educated to read and write on their own. Jessi tries to stay hopeful by thinking about the slaves that escaped and those who helped along the Underground Railroad.
South RV, Stop #5: Lester, OK.
The group stops to visit Watson’s friends Chet and Linda Romney (any relation to Mitt? Shouldn’t this stop be in Utah??). Fun fact: Winston attended Baylor University. Another fun fact: of course a tornado blows through town while the BSC is visiting. Everyone has to huddle in the bathroom together and wait it out. In the end, everything’s all right! It was just an F1.
South RV, Stop #6: Ten Gallon, TX.
The Walkin’ Tall Rodeo (David Michael’s pick). Everyone is actually kind of sickened by the rodeo optics once they get there, so they ride mechanical horses and play midway games and have a picnic instead.
South RV, Stop #7: Albuquerque, NM.
Karen’s pick is Four Corners, where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah meet. They take a detour to visit Zuni, where a bunch of their pen pals live. (Remember when they helped the Zuni school in book #44?) They also drive past Ship Rock Pinnacle and through Monument Valley.
“Sometimes last-minute plans are the best.” - Mallory
South RV, Stop #8: The Grand Canyon (AZ).
Ron Swanson says you’re allowed to cry at the Grand Canyon, so Abby is in the clear on this one. She has been dreading this stop of the trip (although she didn’t clue in anyone else about it) because her dad had planned to take her to the GC before he died. She almost doesn’t get out of the RV, but she’s glad she does because she soon understands why her dad loved it so much. Aw, my Abby.
South RV, Stop #9: San Diego, CA.
The gang goes to the San Diego Zoo. They see a monkey that looks like Kristy in a bad mood, get to hang out with polar bears and reindeer, and visit the pandas who are about to leave for China to give birth.
NORTH RV: Dawn, Jeff, and Mr. Schafer; Kristy, Stacey, Claudia, and Mary Anne.
North RV, Stop #1: Cleveland, OH.
Cleveland Indians baseball game. (Kristy’s pick.) The Clevelands beat the Boston Red Sox and Stacey/Claudia/Dawn/Mary Anne couldn’t be more bored.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. (Stacey and Mr. Schafer’s pick.) Everyone enjoys it but Claudia is disappointed that more recent groups like U4ME and Blade aren’t in it.
North RV, Stop #2: Detroit, MI.
Stacey loves the food in Greektown and bought earrings in Trappers Alley. Kristy gets a baseball cap at the Tigers’ stadium.
North RV, Stop #3: Chicago, IL.
Stacey and Claudia get into a stupid fight about Claudia reading Stacey’s journal (she didn’t mean to), but at least Claud gets to check out the Art Institute. She’s especially interested in the Impressionist collection.
Wrigley Field (Kristy’s pick). The Cubs are away, but she’s still gotta get a cap for her collection!
Shopping at Water Tower Place and the original Pizzeria Uno for dinner.
North RV, Stop #4: Milwaukee, WI.
They go to a Brewers game (Kristy’s pick, again) and stay overnight.
North RV, Stop #5: Bloomington, IN.
They were supposed to visit Mary Anne’s grandmother (the one who took care of her as a baby) in Iowa, but her grandmother abruptly adjusts the plans and requests to meet them in Minnesota instead, because her “house is in shambles.”
Granny meets them at the Mall of America, where they do all the rides at Camp Snoopy and get a fancy lunch. Granny even roasts Mr. Schafer a little, because he was getting in a little dig at Richard, calling him a “meat and potatoes guy” i.e. not healthy.
North RV, Stop #6: The Badlands, SD.
En route to the Mammoth Site, Mr. Schafer takes a scenic detour through the Badlands and promptly runs out of gas. He has to leave all the kids in the RV and hitch a ride to a gas station with a random couple who drives by. He eventually makes it back with the help of some police.
After they all survive, they find their way to Wall Drug, which — if you’ve ever driven across the midwest like this, you know — is advertised by a billboard every three feet. And that’s barely hyperbole. Claudia is, of course, super into it. She’s even more into an antique story nearby, where she buys a framed painting in the style of Georgia O’Keefe for $1.
North RV, Stop #7: Yellowstone Park and the Grand Tetons.
Jeff’s pick! They see the geysers, almost get eaten by a bear who’s prowling for snacks, camp in the park, and then Jeff goes rock climbing.
North RV, Stop #8: Buzzard Gulch, ID.
Of course Dawn wants to do something ghosty, so they find the closest thing they can to a ghost town: a recreated haunted village called Buzzard Gulch, which is corny as hell but also very fun.
North RV, Stop #9: Seattle, WA.
Stacey’s pick is a city with a boy! Ethan, to be exact, who she met at the tail end of her relationship with Robert. She and Ethan have been having an “epistolary romance,” according to Mrs. McGill, communicating mostly through letters. Stacey meets Ethan at a Corner Coffee Shop near a park off 3rd Avenue downtown. Kristy and the rest of the gang go to a Mariners game, natch. With time to kill, Stacey and Ethan walk to the Space Needle, go to the top, and definitely French. There’s a quite upsetting (LOL) illustration to prove it. And Stacey and Claudia make up, THANK GOD. Faves reunited.
North RV, Stop #10: San Francisco, CA.
Mary Anne is thinking about the notorious San Fran earthquakes, so when she feels the ground rumble she runs to a nearby doorway to brace herself. Turns out it’s just a cable car passing by. Ha, that’s actually completely relatable; I would do the same thing. She also confronts Mr. Schafer about his jokes that have made her feel bad and he apologizes. That’s how you know this book is fiction, because an adult man apologized to a teenage girl.
The gang goes to see a San Francisco Giants game and everyone is having a blast. And then all of a sudden as the camera is panning the crowd on the JumboTron, they see Kristy’s goddamn absentee father! They track him down and have a bit of an awkward reunion. Kristy later-days-es before he can introduce her to his girlfriend. But I hope she guilt-tripped him reeeal good. That dude sucks.
North RV and South RV, final stop: Palo City, CA.
The two travel cohorts reunite in Dawn’s hometown of Palo City and have a big party, with the addition of the We <3 Kids Club. Dawn is home (and ready to embark on the California Diaries series) and no one has to sleep in an RV anymore! Oh and remember that $1 sketch Claud got at the antique store that look Georgia O’Keefe-inspired? Well, when she took it out of the frame she found Georgia O’Keefe’s signature on it. Because OF COURSE.
