I am an RA in a city that hosts the second largest Mardi Gras celebration (behind New Orleans, of course). The city basically parties for two weeks straight. It goes without saying that during the two weekends of Mardi Gras, the RAs don’t get much sleep!
However, this year topped all my previous experiences! The first weekend of Mardi Gras, 6 RAs and our campus police were in the Residence Hall parking lot, writing some people up for alcohol (we have a dry campus). All the sudden they hear a rumble, look up, and see a full size John Deere farming tractor pulling into the parking lot. The student calmly parked it in front of the residence hall (an absolutely Perfect parking job, I must say), and hops out! Obviously, he didn’t make it very far!
It turns out; he was downtown at Mardi Gras and became slightly inebriated. His friends sat him down and went to call a cab. Well, he didn’t feel like sitting and started walking toward the docks and the port area of the city. When his friends returned, the student was nowhere to be found.
By this time he had climbed the Port fence, started a tractor, drove it thru the gate, and proceeded to campus (approx 2 miles away). How he made it all the way to campus without being pulled over, hurt, or hurting someone else, I have no idea. All I have to say is the boy knew how to drive a tractor!!
Because no one was hurt, and the situation was resolved, we celebrated daybreak by piling the RA staff on the tractor for a group picture! Three days later the Port Police reclaimed the tractor, and all was well.