Live Drive Blog

Why live blog a 12 hour drive? Why not? One disclaimer - any posts made while I was behind the wheel were retroactively blogged once I became a passenger.

8:30 PM (CT): After the heartbreaking loss to the Oklahoma Griffens, we departed the wonderful Kansas City. To our delight, the cashier at our parking garage was unattended with the gate open - free parking! We decide to take the $12 per car savings to the nearest Sonic. Despite the bombardment of tv ads for Sonic in Michigan, none of our group of seven had ever actually eaten at this drive-in wonder. We agree to stop at the first Sonic we see on our way home.

8:40 PM (CT): Well, that sure didn't take long. Second exit out of K.C. yields a Sonic. Instead of utilizing the drive in feature, our group decides to take advantage of the warm weather and sit at a table outside. My thoughts on the Sonic experience:

1. The drive in option is pretty cool, but slows down the whole fast food process and probably leads to a significant number of car accidents in the south.
2. I was VERY dissapointed that our waitress was not on rollerblades. They were sitting in the window, why didn't she use them. I felt a bit cheated.
3. The food was very average, but they did have an excellent variety. From breakfast burritos to french toast, to patty melts there was something for everybody.
4. The drinks! By far the most appealing aspect of Sonic. Too bad it wasn't happy hour which would have made the drinks 50% off!

9:05 AM (CT): On the road again, I-35 north heading towards Des Moines, Iowa.
Ground covered: 10 miles; Road: I-35 N; State: Missouri

11:05 AM (CT): Cross into Iowa, greeted by the welcome sign: "Welcome to Iowa, fields of opportunity"

11:58 AM (CT): Well, there sure are fields. Not a whole lot else though. We pick up 80 East in Des Moines.

12:25 AM (CT): The other car in our two-vehicle caravan pulls off the highway at the exit for Brooklyn. Upon exiting, they immediately get back on. Our car was confused as to what they could possibly be expecting to find at an exit where there was not a single light to be seen in any direction.

12:30 AM (CT): Finally a sign of civilization in the form of a gas station as we exit the highway 20 miles east of the nearest city which is called, Wat Cheer. Awesome name. We stop to use the restroom and refuel our stomachs and our gas tanks. Only in Iowa would there be an advertisement for “virtual cigarettes” above the urinal, “cigarettes you can smoke anywhere, anytime.” Oh, Iowa.
Distance covered: 270 miles; Road: I-80 East; State: Iowa.

1:34 AM (CT): We arrive at the much anticipated Largest Truck Stop in the World (pictured at right) off exit 284 on Route I-80 in Iowa. We get snacks from the Wendy’s inside this cavernous truck stop and take some time to appreciate the vast array of novelty souvenirs available at this bi-level truck stop. Some personal favorites:

1. An entire rack of Jesus themed T-Shirts including a white t-shirt reading: Jesus loves You Too in the design of the Youtube logo.
2. Shot glasses from each of the 50 states. Iowa’s read: Iowa, the state of tall corn.
3. An entire rack of Iowa postcard, most of which featured broken down barns or cornfields.

We switch drivers as Tom takes over. Distance covered: 350 miles; Road: I-80 East; State: Iowa.

1:51 AM (CT): Two states down, three to go as we exit Iowa! “Welcome to Illinois, Land of Lincoln.” I lose cellphone reception. Figures, T-mobile would be solid in Iowa but not in Illinois. Perhaps corn transmits wireless signals well?
Distance covered: 353 miles; Road: I-80 East; State: Illinois.

3:21 AM (CT): First radar shooting policeman sighting. The backseat of our car wakes up as Tom slams on the brakes.
Distance covered: 490 miles; Road: I-80 East; State: Illinois.

3:29 AM (CT): Speed limit on I-80 East drops from 70, to 65, to 55, to 45 over the course of about three minutes. Momentum breaker, but it is nice to see Toledo on a road sign.

3:35 AM (CT): 45 mph? Really? It’s 3:30 in the morning and we’re stuck going 45. Why?

3:38 AM (CT): Speed limit is back up to 65. I can live with that. 4ish hrs to go. I’ll take this opportunity to give my top five highlights from our trip to K.C.
Top 5 moments of the trip (in no particular order).

1. Cramming four semi-grown 21 year olds into a 2001 Toyota Echo (great car for gas mileage, not so much for legroom) for a 12-hour overnight drive.
2. Cramming eight semi-grown 21 year olds into a four person hotel room and then being covert enough to steal extra towels off the housekeeping cart when it was left unattended and being sure to stagger our exits every time we left the room.
3. Turning the Arthur Bryant’s BBQ Restaurant into a pseudo Michigan party as coincidentally 25 Michigan fans all decided to make the trip to this one particular BBQ joint which was well off the beaten path.
4. Running into Spud Webb along with another group of Michigan fans at a bar to watch #13 seed Cleveland State blow out #4 Wake Forest and #9 Siena knock off #8 OSU in Dayton, OH in double OT.
5. The world’s largest truck stop in Iowa

4:12 AM (CT): I’m back behind the wheel as we make our way into our fourth state and our third and final highway of the trip, the familiar I-94 E in Indiana
Ground covered: 573 miles; Road: I-94 E; State: Indiana

4:30 AM (CT): Pass the exit for Chesteron, Indiana – home of Michigan freshman power forward (wow, I really just labeled him a power forward) Zach Novak.
Ground covered: 590 miles; Road: I-94 E; State: Indiana
--Cross into Eastern Time Zone --

5:42 AM (ET): We’re back in Michigan! “Great Lakes, Great Times” reads the sign.

6:20 AM (ET): Brett becomes our third driver of the trip as we enter the home stretch around Kalamazoo.
Ground covered: 673 miles; Road: I-94 E; State: Michigan

8:30 AM (ET): Arrival back in Ann Arbor!
Ground covered: 764 miles; Road: State St.; State: Michigan

Michigan Rowing takes 5th @ Big 10 Championships

On Sunday, the #11 ranked Michigan Women's Rowing team placed 5th at the 2008 Big 10 Rowing Championships in Belleville, Michigan. Michigan State sailed to an easy win, outscoring 2nd place Wisconsin by 36 points. Sailed...that was a boating joke...

Anyways, normally rowing would probably not earn a post on the WCBN Blog, but since I attended the tournament, I felt inclined to write about it. My friend Kyle Wolfe and I have been on this quest to see each and every Michigan varsity athletic team in action. We knew rowing would be a tough one to get to since A)they don't have many home meets and B)The home meets are in Belleville, about 15 miles east down I-94.

When we saw that Michigan would be hosting the 2008 Big 10 Championships, we knew that we better seize the opportunity and go watch especially since it's summer now and neither one of us has much to do during the days anyways. To pass the time and stay in shape we've been biking around Ann Arbor, going on trips that have been around 10 miles, just to explore and see what's around past the U of M campus area.

I mapquested the trip to Belleville and saw that it was about 17 miles each way. I figured neither one of us had anything else to do on Saturday, why not try to bike it? Kyle was up for the challenge so at 9:15 we left Ann Arbor on bicycle heading down Washtenaw. Here's the route we ended up taking:

Start: State Street & Packard
1) Packard to E. Stadium
2) E. Stadium to Washtenaw
3) Washtenaw to Carpenter
4) Carpenter to Textile Rd
5) Textile Rd to Rawsonville Rd

The ride there took about 1:45 and was fairly uneventful. We were disappointed to learn that the bulk of the trip did not have sidewalks for us, but since it was pretty early on a Saturday morning, traffic was fairly light.

Michigan hadn't done very well in the preliminaries but the way the rowing championships are formatted, there are are three levels that compete. Novice (which one of the championship personnel explained to us are the freshman who are recruited for Title IX proportionality purposes), Varsity II (JV), and Varsity I. Michigan only managed to get one of their varsity I boats in the grand final. The Varsity I eight boat (there are eight-person boats and four-person boats that compete) took second to OSU in the grand varsity eight final. Michigan's Varsity II four also advanced to the grand final, but took fourth place.

The rowing was actually pretty interesting to watch, mainly because we snuck into the "credentialed officials only" area so we could figure out what exactly was going on. There was a man doing play-by-play of all the races who was out in the water on a bat that kept pace with the rowers. He was pretty entertaining and even controversial when he drew some criticism for announcing that Ohio State's coxswain lost the race for her team with poor steering. The Indiana and Iowa State coaches that were standing next to us weren't too happy with him for saying that.

We stayed and watched for about four hours with our eyes to the sky hoping that the forcasted storms would hold off. Well, they did hold off for the rowing, but as most people climbed into the shelter of their cars, we set out on bike in a downpour. The route back included about a mile to get out of the park and back onto the street so sure enough, the dirt paths mixed with heavy rains resulted in a very muddy Stu and Kyle.

As soon as we got out to the road, the rain let up and other than some scattered drops the rest of the trip the weather wasn't a major obstacle. The wind did make some of the biking pretty difficult but the biggest problem we faced was construction on Carpenter Road that made for two very narrow lanes. As we were about halfway through the .5 mile stretch of construction, a True Green Lawn Care Truck decided to pass me and in the process clipped my elbow sending me into the raised curb. While I didn't actually fall, that was definitely the worst part of the ride.

In total, it ended up being about a 35 mile bike ride that took us roughly 3:30 roundtrip. Upon getting back home we decided to go watch Michigan Baseball as they wrapped up a doubleheader versus Ohio State. We got to Ray Fisher Stadium in time to watch the final few innings of Michigan's 3-2 loss to OSU.

It was a good day as we crossed another sport off the list. Last Saturday we took a trip to East Lansing to watch Michigan Men's Golf play in the Big Ten Championships at MSU. We watched golf for about an hour, went and called the Michigan vs Michigan State Softball game over at Old College Park. Then we went back to watch the last few holes of Bill Rankin's day as he was tied for the lead before we started watching but ended up finishing third.






Despite the sale, we didn't quite have enough cash on us to take home a puppy. Plus, how would we have carried it?

Destination: Denver...WCBN Style (Part 4)

4/12

6:30 AM MST

Christian and I decide we want to go skiing since neither of us had ever tried it and we figured Denver would be a pretty good place to give it a shot. Since he and I are both under 21, we convinced Tony and his 23 years to wake up and go rent a car for us so we could get to the mountains.

7:15 AM MST

Christian and I take off in our PT Cruiser towards Loveland Ski Area, encountering some beautiful scenery on our way. For as unprepared as we were, Christian and I had a blast, only wiping out a few times. We definitely proved the lady selling the rental equipment wrong as she told us, “under no circumstances should you buy a lift ticket.” We played around on the skis for about half an hour in the area in front of the lift before we decided that we might as well give the real hill a shot. We each whitewashed our share of times but walked away in once piece.

2:30 PM MST

The four of us make our way back to the Pepsi Center to take in the National Championship Game between BC and ND (Notre Dame, not North Dakota as Kevin Porter would have you think). Dinner was a delicious meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and vegetables.

5:00 PM MST

The Pepsi Center was again sold out as it was for both of the semifinal games. The North Dakota fans adopted Notre Dame giving the Irish the vast majority of crowd support. After a scoreless first period, BC scores three quick goals in the first ten minutes of the second period. Nathan Gerbe scores the first two and adds an assist on the third with a beautiful no-look pass to Joe Whitney who one-timed it off a Notre Dame defensemen’s skate and into the net.

Notre Dame appeared to close within one goal at 3-2 but it was waived off after video review showed that the Fighting Irish player had propelled the puck forward into the goal with his skate. BC would score a minute later, dealing the dagger as BC went up 4-1. ND would not threaten again as Boston College won the 2008 NCAA Division One Championship. Gerbe was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player for his five goal weekend.

Destination: Denver...WCBN Style (Part 3)

continued from part 2

4/11

1:00 PM MST

After Christian and I spent the morning working on papers, we met up with former WCBN Sports Director and current voice of the Wichita Thunder, Steve Schuster, who was in town watching the games. We spent some time walking down the 16^th street mall, including a stop at the frozen four memorabilia tent. The most popular t-shirt was the North Dakota version which pretty much summed up the Fighting Sioux’s trip to Denver as their school was spelled ‘North Dakata.’ Must have been designed by a New Yorker. We had a delicious lunch at Johnny Rockets and then returned to the hotel to do some more paper writing.

4:45 PM MST

We leave the hotel to go see Michigan’s only win of the weekend as Kevin Porter takes home the Hobey Baker Award, edging out frozen four MOP Nathan Gerbe of BC and an unrecognizable Ryan Jones of Miami. Jones’s hair was finally long enough for him to donate to Locks of Love so none of us recognized him without his flowing locks. The entire team was in attendance with the exception of Billy Sauer.

6:00 PM MST

After enjoying a delicious dinner at the Pepsi Center (the dinners got better and better as the tournament went on), we watched as the All-American Team was named. Congratulations to Kevin Porter picked up first team honors and Chad Kolarik was named to the second team.

6:45 PM MST

The skills competition starts with men and women player from across all divisions represented the East and West. The competition featured a puck-control relay race, speed competition, hardest shot, accuracy, rapid-fire (for the goalies), and culminated with each team member taking a penalty shot. The penalty shot was the most exciting event as Eric Ehn of Air Force brought the crowd to their feet with his goal. He started from the right boards, came across the crease, dropped down to make a hand pass back to himself then went behind his back to slap the puck through the five-hole and into the net.

Destination: Denver...WCBN Style (Part 2)

Continued from part one

7:55 PM CST

After our new Michigan friend boards the plane, Andrew notices the Arizona Sundogs logo on the jacket of the young man sitting down the row from us named Mike Bartlett. He goes over and asks about it, discovering that this guy graduated from Notre Dame last year and was on the hockey team. Despite the obvious rivalry with Michigan set to take on the Fighting Irish in the national semifinal game we got to talking and discovered that he was trying to do the same thing as Andrew – get to Denver via stand-by to watch the hockey games.

8:06 PM CST

Andrew and Mike find out that the 8:00 flight is completely full, so the three of us head down to the gate that my flight departed from. That flight was the next and last chance for them to get to Denver that night.

9:25 PM CST

I board the plane for Denver, leaving Andrew and Mike behind. Andrew was planning on spending the night on the floor of O'Hare, so Mike offered to bring him back to his parents’ house which was just 20 minutes away to get a few hours of sleep on an actual bed before they tried to get out on the 6 AM flight the next morning.

Upon boarding, my hockey jersey yielded another friend as the man and his son sitting in front of me on the plane start talking to me about Michigan hockey. I find out that the family is from Buffalo and the kid takes hockey lessons from none other than the father of disgraced ex-Michigan defenseman, Kevin Quick.

10:57 PM MST

I arrive in Denver to find that I’ve missed the last shuttle to the airport. Not wanting to take a $50 cab I decide to look around and see what other options I can find. Eventually, I encounter a friendly shuttle driver who agrees to take me to my hotel for $20. It sounded like a good deal so I jumped in and waited for it to leave. After sitting for 20 minutes I feel asleep and proceeded to doze until the now empty van stopped in front of the Marriot which was not where I told the driver to take me. “Oh, I thought you were here for the frozen food convention.” My fault for falling asleep I guess.

4/10

3:45 AM CST

Andrew wakes up in Mike’s basement and gets a ride to the airport from Mike’s dad. Andrew starts his city-hopping strategy planning to Denver via Omaha while Mike holds out hoping to get on a direct flight.

6:35 AM CST

After a 35 minute delay, Andrew’s plane is finally ready to set off for Omaha…or is it? The captain comes over the PA system asking five people to move from the front to the back because the plane was too front-heavy. Then, the door reopens and a mechanic comes onboard to fix the headset of the pilot who had been unable to hear anything.

8 AM CST

Andrew arrives in Omaha to find his connecting flight to Denver delayed by three hours

12:00 PM MST

Andrew has finally joined Tony, Christian, and myself in Denver despite needing two different shuttle services to get out of the Denver Airport.

4:00 PM MST

We watch in shock as Nathan Gerbe, I mean, Boston College, destroys North Dakota 6-1. Gerbe picks up a hat-trick as BC jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first period and never looked back.

6 PM MST

Ouch. That was a rough one.

Destination: Denver...WCBN Style

Here is the first installment in our series documenting the WCBN trip out to Denver

Wed 4/9

12:30 PM EST

Andrew and I merge onto I-94 West in Ann Arbor on our way to Chicago Ohare Airport. I flew out of Chicago because flights were $250 cheaper than they were out of Detroit. Andrew’s dad is a pilot for United so he flies for free – with the catch that he has to fly stand-by. Ohare is a United hub which gave him the easiest route to Denver.

3:30 PM CST

Our Toyota Echo pulls into the Ohare parking structure having made great time, barely hitting any of the much feared Chicago traffic. We park in the “Chicago Bears” level and head towards terminal one.

3:31 PM CST

As we walk towards the terminal I do the standard pocket check to make sure I have the important things – wallet, cell phone, keys. Oops. Forgot the last item on that list. Sure enough I peek in the passenger window and see my keys sitting on the seat. Trunk’s closed, doors are locked, so I place a call to the Ohare parking services – figure we may as well get our money’s worth as we’re paying $30 a day for the car to sit there and listen to the Chicago Bears theme song on repeat. Lucky for us, we have five or six hours to kill and the service is complimentary!

3:45 PM CST

After checking in, we survey the departure board for perspective flights for Andrew. . Note: this was the day American Airlines decided to cancel 900 flights. This presented a problem for Andrew as all those AA customers jumped him on the stand-by list for the 8:00 and then the 9:40 flights. Also complicating matters was the fact that the 4:50 United flight to Denver was delayed for three hours while they searched for a pilot.

5:00 PM CST

Having not eaten all day, we decide to grab some food. The most appealing option at the time was Magic Wok. Since all the tables in the food court area were packed, we take our orange chicken over to the closest gate. Sure enough the flight out of gate C36 was bound for Beijing. So as we at our fake Chinese food in shame amongst the fine folks on their way to authentic orange chicken we decide to so some planning ahead and find out how to get from the Denver Airport to our hotel.

5:45 PM CST

We call our esteemed Sports Director, Tony Bolton, who had already arrived in Denver to inquire as to whether or not our hotel offered a free shuttle. While Tony couldn’t answer that question himself, he was able to provide us with the phone number so we could call the hotel ourselves…or so he claimed. After dialing the 5^th number that Tony gave us (encountering a variety of SIDs and NCAA media relations people) I got through to the hotel and discovered that our best bet for a shuttle was going to run us $20.

7:15 PM CST

We head to gate C42 to await Andrew’s first chance to get on stand-by. Andrew is representing the fine people at United Airlines so he is well-dressed in khaki’s and a polo, but I’m all decked out in my maize Michigan hockey jersey. As we’re sitting, waiting, wishing (gotta love Jack Johnson whether he be the LA Kings defenseman or the Hawaiian singer) for Andrew to get on this flight, an older gentleman spots my jersey and walks up to us, striking a conversation about Michigan’s Frozen Four chances. We ask, “oh, so you’re a Michigan fan?” He responds, “Michigan Fan? Son, let me show you something,” pulling off the ring from his right finger and extending it out to us. “This is the 1979 Rose Bowl ring. I was the captain on that team, I played center for Ricky Leach for three years and then for Archie Manning for three more in the league.” As the conversation continues, we ask him what he thinks of Rich Rodriquez, he cuts us off mid-sentence, “Love him, absolutely love him, hell I got him that job.” Now this is pretty surprising to Andrew and I since the common perception is that the former players were against hiring a “non-Michigan Man.” He laughs that off saying that the alumni all love Rodriguez and then goes on to shock us when asked about Lloyd Carr, “We hate that son-of-a...” Apparently this former player used to coach high school football in Colorado and sent the tapes of five players to Carr with the hopes of eliciting offers from Michigan. Not only did they not get offers, but Carr refused to even watch the tapes. We continue talking to this former player for the next 15 minutes during which he offers several times to send us back a cocktail once we board the plane. After we tell him that Andrew is trying to get on the flight stand-by and I’m ticketed on the 9:40 flight, he laughs again and tells us to hand over our tickets, he’ll take care of it for us and get us on the flight as well as bump us up to first class. Well unfortunately, he was able to beat Ohio State, beat USC? but he was unable to get us on that plane. Big prize to whoever can guess the player that we met. Leave your answers as a comment below.

Impressions from Indianapolis - Big Ten Tourny Game 1

First of all, Conseco Fieldhouse is an amazing arena. For those who haven't had the opportunity to take in a game there, think the Palace of Auburn Hills, but smaller and much more intimate. Rob and I made the 4+ hour drive down, leaving around 5:45 this morning which put us down in Indianapolis just in time to catch Tubby Smith wrapping up Minnesota's practice.

We spent about 20 minutes scouring the many press rows courtside looking for our assigned seats (whats up with the Michigan yearbook getting a better seat than us?? and how about Michigan "B" Radio...since when do we have a second radio station covering Michigan Basketball?). We finally broke down and asked someone for help and after waiting another 20 minutes for her to find someone to help us, we were eventually shown to our table which was set up in the front of the middle deck. They turned out to be very good seats, we were able to spread out and to our delight, we found a working phone line so we were able to have the call live.

Michigan came out inspired in the first half, storming to a 14-point advantage. The Wolverines would eventually push the lead out to 15 in the second half before deciding that they were going to see what happens if they go 10 minutes without scoring. Well, the result was the lead shrinking to eight before Anthony Wright hit a deep three from beyond NBA range to put the game out of reach. Manny Harris was on fire to begin the game, connecting on five of his first six attempts from the field, including two three-pointers and a thunderous one-handed slam off a C.J. Lee steal.

As Rushi mentioned below, Michigan will take on #1 seed (oops) Wisconsin at noon tomorrow. That game can be seen on ESPN. WCBN will not have access to a phone line tomorrow, so the game will be on the sports stream at a later date.

GO BLUE!

Big 10 Tournament: Michigan vs Iowa

Michigan Men's Basketball will take on Iowa as the number nine seed in the Big 10 Tournament at noon in Indianapolis. The two teams split their matchups during the regular season with each team picking up a road victory. Iowa defeated Michigan 68-60 in the first game on January 19th. More people would remember that game for a certain football recruit who was in attendance (for all of 10 minutes) while on his official visit. In the second meeting, the Wolverines rallied from a 27-16 halftime deficit to go on and win by a score of 60-52. That win was the second in Michigan's season-high three game win streak.

On paper, this is a very even matchup between the #8 and #9 seeds. If you combine the scores from both regular season games, the teams tied 120-120. The winner of Thursdays game will go on to play #1 seeded Wisconsin at noon on Friday.

WCBN's Rob Salaman and Stuart Zaas will be in Indianapolis with the call. You (might) be able to listen live by following the link for the sports stream from our website: www.wcbnsports.com