“The leadership potential often surprised me,” he adds. “And there is a new dimension in living with students for 53 days which I didn’t anticipate even though I knew the boys very well through the school year.”

Some of these experiences were unexpected.  On the Fourth of July, when the group was headed for a fire-works display but missed it because of misdirections, they ended up celebrating by themselves.  On another occasion, Martin was up until 4 a.m., doing laundry because the dryer broke down.  “The boys adjusted marvelously,” he says.

The trip was set up so the boys experienced one type of phenomenon at each stop.  For example, they saw a glacier, traveled through a desert, viewed a prairie dog village, rafted one river, drove out in a buffalo herd, and so forth. “We tried not to have much duplication of experiences,” Martin points out.

Although the trip was very much into seeing sights of nature, Mesa Verde Indian ruins, the Painted Desert, Sunset Crater, the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and Lake Meed, there were other trips to urban areas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle.

In Los Angeles the group visited Universal Studios, Disneyland, Hollywood Bowl for a symphony concert, Knotts Berry Farm and Mann’s Chinese Theater.  San Francisco sights included the famous cable cars, Fisherman’s Wharf, and Chinatown.

Las Vegas was their favorite city. “They were awed by the color, lights, and dazzle of the Strip,” Martin notes.  “It’s like an adult Disneyland and they were bedazzled by it.”

Some of the more unusual experiences, off the usual beaten tourist path took place in Colorado and South Dakota.  In Denver, Martin’s boyhood home was visited.  In Hot Springs, South Dakota, the boys met Martin’s father, a man who actually had know Calamity Jane.  “It brings history closer to us to see the ties with the past,” Martin says.

In Martin, South Dakota, the boys were treated as special visitors, the teacher notes, since the town was named for a family member and the troupe had its picture taken and printed on the front page of the local newspaper.  “Martin used to have four houses; now it has a population of 1000,” Martin adds.

In South Dakota the group also went to Rapid City and saw the dinosaur park, Custer State Park to view buffalo and Wind Cave Park to see a prairie dog village.

“We also visited the Wall Drug Store, the ultimate tourist trap,” Martin laughs.  “The drug store began by offering a free glass of ice water to anyone leaving the Badlands, and it has become famous worldwide.”

The boys who accompanied Martin are Paul Gerding, Danny Aronson, Bill Borden, Craig Tschilds, Scott McDonald, Steve Pearl and Rob Rowe.  Martin regards the trip as fun and educational at the same time. “But it was not carefree,” he notes. “There was no chance for me to be lazy.  A trip with seven boys is not a complete vacation, certainly not like traveling by myself.”

Will Martin do it again?  You bet!  In fact, he is already planning for future trips with new students to new areas. He says, “I love it.  It enhances my ability to teach; it excites kids to learn.  There couldn’t be a better reason.”