have just returned from the worst trip ever.
like many of the travelling faithful, i called the 'gate box office this afternoon and they said i was crazy to believe the game could be sold out. upon arriving at 7pm after a brutal 2+ hours of driving on unplowed roads, we find all tickets sold out and some angry colgate students bitching at us for "taking up all their space." we get in to "see" (i use the term loosely from our standing space) a period. then there's the whole loss. upon driving home, car gets stuck in a ditch on the side of the road, with no cell phone service available and 30 miles from the closest gas station. seeing a bus coming, i head out by the car, in my cornell jersey waving like a madman, as the Pep Band swarthout bus passes us right by. (a generous cornell fan in an suv towed us out 30 minutes later). the piece de resistance occurred upon arriving at ithaca, when we have to slam on the brakes at college and dryden to avoid hitting THE KID WHO TOOK THE LIST OUT OF MY HANDS at the hockey line. worst trip ever.
mike rosenberg '04
Holy crap...that really sucks. I'm really sorry that all of this happened to you.
I have to echo more or less what Mike said, having waited for him for a period before we just gave up and went back. It's nice that the Colgate students apparently wandered upon a team that is doing good and decided to attend solely for that reason, becuase they sure as shit weren't there last year. It's funny theyre whining about us taking their seats when maybe 30 of them were there last year. From the descriptions I heard from those at the game, they apparently managed to stumble by the rink after a day of drinking upon realizing that they in fact do have a hockey team. I like posters on the USCHO board complaining about our behavior last night when they have consistently had the worst fans in the ECAC.
All in all, though, from what I heard on the radio and from people there, perhaps it was better not to get in this game.
I have to agree with you, Mike.
Following Avash up those unplowed roads (thanks again for being our leader :) ), we definitely spun out and ended up facing the 5 cars behind us. Apparently we just wanted to see who was following us. Thank G-D the car directly behind us wasn't tailgating us... unlike the 9 (yes, we counted) vehicles who decided they didn't like us going a slow and steady 25mph. Tops.
It's 2am. We left the game at 930. We just got in.
Seriously.
we must have been right behind you when you spun out (in the red, nontailgating car!) we saw a black altima in front of us with a cornell sticker do a 180 on the way up. very happy you were ok!
-mike
Post Edited (02-01-04 02:17)
Yes, that *was* us!! (with Jason and Mike Ack in the car -- they want credit for being there)
You have a very pretty front end of your car. And thank you SO much for not tailgating us. I should send you a fruit basket for being one of the few good drivers out there.
...sigh. It certainly felt like more than 180...
From our perspective, a unique perspective -- head on, if you will -- it looked as though the car (maybe 2?) behind you had to swerve in order to avoid a nice old fashioned pileup.
Is that what happened? ...and no one behind you guys got hurt/hit, right? ::uhoh::
Yea, that just blew. The roads sucked, their fans don't understand hockey, and are rude and uncreative, their announcer needs to learn to speak English and they need a real net at the end of their ice surface so people in the bleachers don't get killed with pucks.
Mike, I'm glad you eventually got into Starr and got home okay.
People in the north country were ten times more hospitable and their rink wasnt drasticly in violation of fire code or filled with drunk morons.
Yeah, Mike...thanks for not killing us. Strangely, we were as far from freaking out as we could be...non-sedated, but calm, cool, collected, and spinning in the snow for you to see. Thanks Avash for talking us through the way there, and thanks to the pep band bus for guiding us back home, via 12B, McDonalds, and finally to 13 and home.
"Worst trip ever" was entertaining.
Post Edited (02-01-04 03:11)
QuoteMike wrote:
have just returned from the worst trip ever. ...............
the piece de resistance occurred upon arriving at ithaca, when we have to slam on the brakes at college and dryden to avoid hitting THE KID WHO TOOK THE LIST OUT OF MY HANDS at the hockey line. worst trip ever.
mike rosenberg '04
At least you hit the brakes!::pop::
When you're old and too weak to make the away games you'll remember last night and it won't seem quite so bad. I was chatting on #lynah and looked at the 14850 radar. I wasn't thinking about the trip back for all of the faithful. I'm glad that everyone is safe and healthy. Now if we can just get the team back to health too....
Sounds like the best news we had for the weekend is no one was hurt on the highways. Really, to put it all in perspective, that's worth more than a win.
Post Edited (02-01-04 13:28)
QuoteGreg Berge '85 wrote:
Sounds like the best news we had for the weekend is no one was hurt on the highways. Really, to put it all in perspective, that's worth more than a win.
I think describing those roads as "highways" is giving the roads a little too much credit. But yeah, you're right, it's good to know we're all safe and sound (to the best of our knowledge).
A few friends and I made the trip to 'Gate last year (also a 2-1 loss, but in overtime :-/ ). We were greeted by heckling drunks pretending to be students and who taunted us with their inflatable sheep (uh, Vermont?). It was cool that enough Cornell fans went to fill a section of bleachers though, given that the weather was a tad snowy if I remember correctly.
I must say the hot apple cider was good though, but other than that there are no perks for a trip to Hamilton, unless cow tipping is your fancy. Fortunately the Red rebounded and smacked them 3-1 at Lynah the following night.
Did anyone notice that the so called 'gate "fans" cheered the loudest and hardest only when they started handing out free pizza to the students during the second period, during a power play no less? I could hear the band and the Faithful better from my standing room only spot behing the goal at the opposite end of the ice than the colgate students right next to me who were eerily quiet for most of the game.
Aw my god, you stopped at MacDonalds!!!
Truly terrifying.
Are you OK? :-)