Our church youth group was invited to participate in some Winter Olympics in Colorado (we were in NM). They were asked to hand the ribbons to the athletes. It was a big honor, we thought. We just had to get there. One of the teams provided a van and I agreed to drive. There were 8 or 10 kids, young teens. It was about a 12 hour drive and it was an old beater of a van. The driver's side door leaked really bad - the rubber gasket was shot. The noise was, well, deafening. Literally. It snowed all the way back, blizzard conditions with howling winds. It was like an ice pick to the ear the whole way. My hearing never recovered.