Explore UT Mega-Post Part 3

When we left our heroes, they had just arrived at the dining hall, all 19 kids still in tow.
To their credit, the Explore UT folks did have a rather-harried woman waiting outside, herding people. She told us that one of us needed to go inside to get the meal tickets, while everyone else waited inside. I volunteered (perhaps a fatal miscalculation :-) ). So I traipsed inside, expecting a fairly expeditious process, since we had pre-paid for our tickets. It quickly became clear that was not to be the case. There was one line for everyone--school groups who'd prepaid, school groups who hadn't, and random hungry individuals. I watched as a woman several people ahead of me paid cash in small bills for 50 lunches, which had to be rung up as two separate transactions because some were tax-exempt and some weren't, and the woman hadn't filled out the tax-exempt forms ahead of time, and then the cashier had to count out 50 tickets by hand. I took advantage of the fact that I wasn't going anywhere for a while by calling Soph to verify our headcount. We knew from the sign-in sheets that we had 19 kids (even though only 17 ever signed in), plus the four of us PRP-ers, plus 8 LBJ volunteers, plus 2 ALA staff. That adds up to 33, right? So when I got to the head of the line, I claimed our 30 prepaid tickets without any problem. Then I bought three more. The cashier gave me the option of filling out more paperwork to get them tax-free, but the monetary difference was like a dollar, and I knew there were 19 ravenous adolescents outside, so I didn't bother. So after about 20 minutes in line, I was free! (good thing we arrived early...) As I left, I noted that the line had grown even longer. Maybe they were limited by only having one cash register, but they could have really used more than one cashier. They could have had a line for picking up prepaid tickets only (thus not involving any exchange of money and therefore, no cash register required). Or they could have advised picking up the tickets earlier in the day, in advance of the assigned mealtime.
Having gone over the figures with Soph on the phone while in line, you can imagine my surprise when we ended up one ticket short (we had forgotten to count a third ALA staffperson we'd never met before who came with). I couldn't very well ask someone else not to eat, and I didn't fancy having to stand in line again for 20 minutes to get another ticket, so I fell on my sword and skipped lunch myself. I think overall lunch went well--the kids chowed down while we PRP-ers worked on a post-lunch game plan.
Best-laid plans and all that...
We'd planned to see some robot soccer at 1, but at 1 we were still at the dining hall. So we leisurely finished lunch and headed to our "Hogwarts Potions Class" early. It was there that we found out every showing was sold out, and had been for quite some time. Nevermind the fact that nothing, anywhere, at any time had indicated that some shows would require tickets, or already be filled up 30 minutes before it was supposed to start. From that frustrating development, we trooped over to the engineering area of campus.
While other PRP-ers took over herding duties, I went over to our final planned stop, the chemistry demonstration to find out if they required tickets for entrance to their show. I was assured by one of the young gentlemen that they didn't require tickets, and that if we arrived at quarter to 3, we'd be assured of good seats. He said this after I'd already mentioned that we were a group of 30 and had trouble at the pharmacy school.
So I went back to find everyone at the robot soccer demo, and then we took in some outdoor demonstrations near the engineering building, waiting for 2:45, when we'd walk fifty feet inside to the chemistry show. I think this was the most fun part of the day for most kids. Although I later heard one child lost a contact lens, I was not aware of this at the time (maybe because I finally excused myself to use the restroom after being uncomfortable since lunch time). Much to my chagrin, the chemistry demo was already full when we went in at 2:45. Thanks for nothing, guy I talked to not an hour before. My frustration was compounded when we came up one person short on our headcount. Adults were dispatched to find the missing child, which was accomplished rather quickly, although I never got the full story on this happening, as I was busy trying to locate another activity nearby. Most of the kids seemed pretty indifferent to the Rube-Goldberg machine activity, I have to say, but it's very possible that their energy level was finally flagging.
Soon enough, we headed clear across campus for an impromptu stop at the LBJ museum, before staging a final photo op and sending the kids off onto the vans. I don't really remember much of that part. I think I might have been experiencing a blood-sugar crash and an adrenaline letdown. For whatever reason, I almost fell asleep standing up in the museum.
After watching the kids ride off into the sunset, I got a massive burger and then took a very long nap. The end. Coming next: Explore UT Mega-Post Part 4: The Analysis.