Now that I have a bit of downtime, I'm starting to get a handle on how to put stuff onto this blog. Had conditions like this for a couple of hours and it was even worse when it got dark (which was around 4:30):
Saturday, 6 January 2007
And we're headed for overtime...
My first overtime game and the first fight of the trip (and it wasn’t between Art and I)!! The quality of this game, I thought, was much better than the Oilers game. The Flames came out flying but as Pyke predicted, they blew a lead and were down 4-2 with about 4 minutes remaining. As the “fair weather” fans started to vacate the arena, the Flames score (4-3) and then – bang – they get the equaliser and we’re headed for overtime. 34 seconds left and I’m thinking this will be the first shootout but Flames bury the winner. Fantastic result…I’m starting to think I’m a good luck charm – 2 games, 2 home wins!
This man loves his beer:
I’ve been taking my video camera into the games but I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore after getting warned by security as I was filming during a commercial break (oh well, the footage I do have is fantastic!).
Pyke and Sinead after the game:
Pyke, Sinead and I decided to have a quiet farewell drink, which as you would expect, turned into a long night (didn’t seem like such a good idea the next morning when we left for Vancouver at 8:30am.)
The RAV4:
The first section of the road trip was pretty amazing. If you haven’t been here or done the drive from Calgary to Vancouver, here is some of the scenery:
Art did all the driving - 1150km - in just over 12 hours. The first couple of hours of the drive was clear but as we ventured further and further into the mountains the weather got worse and worse and the amount of snow in some parts was incredible (see photo below and look at the snow banks on the sides of the road!!). So this may be a little late and I must apologise but it’s pretty hard to get an internet connection in weather like this:
Art and I are in Vancouver for the game on Sunday night so if you're in the area send me an email. We're staying with Gary, Rhonda and Mara...Dave's here freeloading as well. Looking forward to the game on Sunday and then off to visit Mac on our way to San Jose (and wonderful warm weather). As Art said yesterday,"Get a good look at the snow because you may not see it again for awhile!"
Oh, I had to put this photo in as well. This is Pyke and Sinead's new pup - Morgan. Sinead loves to dress him up - check out the cool bandanna!!
Wednesday, 3 January 2007
One down, 29 to go...
Oilers win 4-1 over the Florida Panthers and boy what night. Pyke and I made the 3 hour trip up to Edmonton where we met Park and DG. Beer consumption commenced 30 seconds after reuniting and finished sometime later in the evening (exact time unknown to all).
Park, DG and Pyke:
Oh, yeah...the game. Fairly uneventful first period but things livened up in the second and the Oil put them away in the third. The seats were great. No fights. Terri organised the tickets for us and in order for Donald to get them he had to dress up like Santa for a group of 3 to 7 year olds (trust me, no extra padding was required for the belly)! There were 2 sets of seats, in 2 different locations, so after some smooth negotiation (begging and pleading) by yours truly, we were able to exchange tickets so that the 4 of us could sit together. I'm sure all the other fans sitting close by were grateful for the drastically increased swearing and trips for beer and the toilet!!
Celbrating the win:
Speaking of toilets, both Park and I mistook the women's bathroom for the men's - I had a sneaking suspicion when I couldn't locate a urinal and my fears were confirmed when a noticed a lady walking out of one of the cubicles. Unfortunately, by that time I had already committed myself (if you know what I'm saying). Luckily, both of us made it out without too much disruption.
After the game we were lucky enough to visit a classy establishment, met Dave and even got a ride home in a limo! We had a great breakfast - finally got my hands on some bacon. DG and Park heading back to Fort Mac (4.5 hours of silence) and Pyke and I commenced the trip back to Calgary.
Had a great time fellas, so far the best game of the trip and it will be a hard one to top (Ponyboy, you best get planning!!)....
Tuesday, 2 January 2007
Gotta love them airports...
Talk about a great start to the trip – the damn flight (Air Canada) got cancelled out of Sydney. Supposed to leave at 9:30am New Year’s Day but after an hour waiting on the plane for them to fix one of the engines, we were off loaded, waited another hour and then we were informed that it wouldn’t be until at least 2pm on Jan 2nd (which would mean I would miss the first game of the trip) – what a goddamn disaster. I wasn’t sure if I was going to let the severe liquor depression overwhelm me and quietly weep in the terminal corner or turn into Mr Furious. Not surprisingly, Mr Furious surfaced and I set out, with a fully loaded trolley, on a mission to find an alternate flight to Calgary.
United – nothing (fully booked on every flight for 2 days), Qantas – nothing (unless I was willing to spend $5500 for a ticket to LA, which just caused more rage). And I was really impressed that the United and Qantas service desks were at opposite ends of the terminal to make sure I worked up a good sweat..I hope you get a feel of what the look on my face was! Next stop, New Zealand Air and finally some good news – seats available! Urge to kill subsided. In the end, I was able to get Air Canada to sign over my original flight coupons to Air NZ and didn’t have to pay for the change of flight.
New flight: Sydney to Auckland, Auckland to LA, LA to Calgary. Of course, when I got to LA, the Air Canada flight is delayed so I didn’t get into Calgary until after 11pm New Year’s Day. I managed to get planty of sleep on the Auckland to LA leg, a bit more in LA and some good old night terrors on the way to Calgary. Not sure what brought those on but dang, some crazy shit was happening in my dreams. Art and Pyke were waiting for me at the airport and 20 minutes later I was enjoying a nice cold Keiths! Art arrived around 7pm having travelled over 5000 km from NS to Calgary in 5 days. He gets a couple of days rest now before chauffeuring me for the rest of the trip together!! Ha!
Total hours spent flying, awake or in an airport on New Year’s Day 2007: 36
On a more positive note:
Check out the shirt the boys back in Sydney had done up for me. Wore this one for the whole plane trip so might have to burn it now but I had plenty of people stop me in Sydney and Auckland, read the shirt and then walk off with a confused look on their face. Hopefully, I will get a better response over here!
Front:
Back:
Have to say a big thanks to Bari for the lift to the airport and for doing some last minute flight searches for me and to Pyke, for picking me up in Calgary and putting me (and Art) up for a few days.
Pyke and I are off to Edmonton tomorrow to meet Park and DG – Go Oilers!
United – nothing (fully booked on every flight for 2 days), Qantas – nothing (unless I was willing to spend $5500 for a ticket to LA, which just caused more rage). And I was really impressed that the United and Qantas service desks were at opposite ends of the terminal to make sure I worked up a good sweat..I hope you get a feel of what the look on my face was! Next stop, New Zealand Air and finally some good news – seats available! Urge to kill subsided. In the end, I was able to get Air Canada to sign over my original flight coupons to Air NZ and didn’t have to pay for the change of flight.
New flight: Sydney to Auckland, Auckland to LA, LA to Calgary. Of course, when I got to LA, the Air Canada flight is delayed so I didn’t get into Calgary until after 11pm New Year’s Day. I managed to get planty of sleep on the Auckland to LA leg, a bit more in LA and some good old night terrors on the way to Calgary. Not sure what brought those on but dang, some crazy shit was happening in my dreams. Art and Pyke were waiting for me at the airport and 20 minutes later I was enjoying a nice cold Keiths! Art arrived around 7pm having travelled over 5000 km from NS to Calgary in 5 days. He gets a couple of days rest now before chauffeuring me for the rest of the trip together!! Ha!
Total hours spent flying, awake or in an airport on New Year’s Day 2007: 36
On a more positive note:
Check out the shirt the boys back in Sydney had done up for me. Wore this one for the whole plane trip so might have to burn it now but I had plenty of people stop me in Sydney and Auckland, read the shirt and then walk off with a confused look on their face. Hopefully, I will get a better response over here!
Front:
Back:
Have to say a big thanks to Bari for the lift to the airport and for doing some last minute flight searches for me and to Pyke, for picking me up in Calgary and putting me (and Art) up for a few days.
Pyke and I are off to Edmonton tomorrow to meet Park and DG – Go Oilers!
Thursday, 28 December 2006
In the beginning
So I have less than a week to go (3 days really) before I start this road trip and thought that now might be the right time to put up my first post. I finish work tomorrow (Friday, Australia time), a wedding (good on ya Pat and Gillian) on Saturday, New Year’s Eve drink fest on Sunday and then the exciting hung over flight to Calgary early New Year’s day. Art leaves from Nova Scotia on the 28th for the solo trip to Calgary where he’ll meet me sometime before the Flames game.
The road trip breaks down like this:
I’ll be starting it all off with the first game in Edmonton with Pyke, Park and Donald. Then when Art meets me in Calgary, we’ll watch a Flames game, then hit the road to Vancouver, down the west coast of the US (San Jose, LA and Anaheim), across to Florida (Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, St. Louis, Florida, Tampa Bay) and then up to Atlanta where James and Jason (Ponyboy) will meet Art and I.
Ponyboy heads home after that game while James, Art and I watch a game (Nashville) before again meeting up with Pony for the Carolina game. I’ll be making it on my own for awhile after this game as James and Art fly back to Nova Scotia. A month and a half on the road with Art – I wonder if we’ll be speaking???
I’ll then weave my way up to New York (Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia) where I will be meeting up the Laura and Heather and Vicki for a couple of games (Islanders, Rangers, New Jersey), then I’m off again to make my way around the great lakes (Boston, Buffalo, Detroit) over to Minnesota, back through the great lakes (Chicago, Toronto) to Ottawa where I’ll be watching the game with Doug, Karla, Emily and Sean.
The last stop is Montreal, where Cad and I will watch their last regular season home game. When it’s all said and done, I’ll have watched 30 games in 91 days, travelled over 25,000km and never want to get into a car again! Hopefully, I’ll be consistent in getting posts up and you can catch up on the adventure.
The road trip breaks down like this:
I’ll be starting it all off with the first game in Edmonton with Pyke, Park and Donald. Then when Art meets me in Calgary, we’ll watch a Flames game, then hit the road to Vancouver, down the west coast of the US (San Jose, LA and Anaheim), across to Florida (Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, St. Louis, Florida, Tampa Bay) and then up to Atlanta where James and Jason (Ponyboy) will meet Art and I.
Ponyboy heads home after that game while James, Art and I watch a game (Nashville) before again meeting up with Pony for the Carolina game. I’ll be making it on my own for awhile after this game as James and Art fly back to Nova Scotia. A month and a half on the road with Art – I wonder if we’ll be speaking???
I’ll then weave my way up to New York (Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia) where I will be meeting up the Laura and Heather and Vicki for a couple of games (Islanders, Rangers, New Jersey), then I’m off again to make my way around the great lakes (Boston, Buffalo, Detroit) over to Minnesota, back through the great lakes (Chicago, Toronto) to Ottawa where I’ll be watching the game with Doug, Karla, Emily and Sean.
The last stop is Montreal, where Cad and I will watch their last regular season home game. When it’s all said and done, I’ll have watched 30 games in 91 days, travelled over 25,000km and never want to get into a car again! Hopefully, I’ll be consistent in getting posts up and you can catch up on the adventure.
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