Bonus blog — Tour traditions

After 58 summer tours, The Wesley Bell Ringers have maintained several traditions for each summer tour. As you can imagine, spending two to five weeks (back in the good old days) would require some routine on the bus everyday. 

Chloe Nelson, Ringer #497, has been ringing bells since 7th grade as an Asbury Bell Ringer. Chloe's favorite tour traditions include the senior piece, where she says "I really like that we do a senior piece. I always feel a lot of pride in that song." 

Chloe has a new favorite tour tradition this year: "This is my first time actually doing this, but I love the needlepoint. I think it's very special and I'm having a lot of fun doing it."

Cian Chidester's (Ringer #500!!!) favorite tour traditions include host homes and zipping into and off the bus. Cian loves host homes to get to know the area from the locals rather than viewing it from our eyes and from a hotel. "Talking to people who have lived there for years makes it easy to learn about where we are performing." Cian also likes another tour tradition—tour manual. "Writing in tour manuals, those always invoke a lot of emotion. I find myself rereading past tour manuals with my Christmas cards"

 Terry Waite, Ringer #41, has been on an uncountably many  tours. Terry says "I look at it a little differently. I find that the fact that all of the bus loading, set up, and take down is done solely by the kids, and is taught by the previous kids, is very special. Everyone's amazed to see groups of kids work so hard."

 Whatever the tour devotional is, Terry also likes enjoys that aspect of tour. "The fact that these traditions have gone on for so long and we're doing things on this bus that I did on the bus in the late 60's (except we sang songs and played games, not on our phones)." 

Cambria Bryant, Ringer #514, is on her first ever WBR tour. Her favorite tour traditions are the bank, where she says "I like the way Zooey opens the bank because it's really funny. I like when everyone does the senior piece and we get a break in the concert. I like how it's a mystery of who we're going to spend the night with. It's suspenseful."