Last Wednesday morning on my drive in to work, Charlotte's local sports radio station WFNZ held an hour-long contest looking for the caller with the best sports road trip story. Winner to receive two tix on the 50-yard line at the Big House in Ann Arbor, MI for Saturday's clash between the Michigan Wolverines and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. So, I flipped open my cell phone, punched in the number and within minutes was scoring points recounting an old 1978-79 New Years in New Orleans frat boy trip to see some Wahoo hoops and a national champeenship Sugar Bowl game.
Thought I had a decent chance to score the tix and indeed got the winning call about an hour or so later. Turns out the radio folks especially liked the part about drinking way too many hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's. Go figure. Anyway, now came the hard part. Here I am with two to-die-for football tickets and 600 miles of concrete between me and the seats. A quick call to USAirways confirmed that cheap flights to Detroit were already gone so it was either give them away, eat them or ... road trip. Tried giving them away but got no real serious takers although my brother-in-law, a rabid Golden Domer, just about slit his wrists when he had to turn 'em down. Didn't really wanna eat 'em so I called sweetie pie and little by little we maneuvered into one of those oh-what-the-hell decisions you remember the rest of your lives.
Road trip.
Kids were all bubbly when we clued them in Wednesday night and they immediately started negotiating trip accords. Thought I was in the middle of the UN Security Council. Somebody dealt away their Walkman usage rights in exchange for a solo backseat with pillow while somebody else took control of munchie maintenance in exchange for stuffed animal selection rights. Finally they got it all settled and each started packing their typical young girl's mountain of stuff. Barrettes and bows, polish for toes, swimsuits and shoelaces, diaries and jewel cases. George Carlin is right. Wherever we go, we have to bring our "stuff" with us.
Next day, Thursday, I stopped by the radio station to pick up the tix on my way to the Panthers' final pre-season game against New England. At the game, I got the idea to pick up a Panthers #21 Tshimanga Biakabutuka jersey for Becky, my middle daughter, to wear to the game. I figured since Biakabutuka is still a Michigan legend, his pro jersey would get her some friendly looks from Wolverine faithful. More on this idea later.
So, Friday comes and we pull the kids outta school about an hour early with designs on hitting the road about maybe 2:00 pm on our way to Michigan. Well, as you can guess, 2:00 pm became 4:30 pm in a hurry. Had to pick up this prescription, mail that bill, gas up here, drop off a video there and so on. We had a hotel room reserved in Ann Arbor for that night but there was no way we'd make it by that time. Especially since Charlotte holiday getaway rush hour was just about ready to crush any hopes of doing double digit speeds. By 6:00 pm, we were still in Mecklenburg County and we had no choice but to call the hotel and cancel the first night.
Thought we might be able to make central Ohio with the remaining driveable hours but NC DOT had other ideas as a massive I-77 construction makeover at the Virginia border jammed everything up for a solid 45 minutes. So West By God Virginia it would be for Night No. 1. Did see a lot of cars heading south on I-77 flying green Marshall flags on their way to Clemson to play the Tigers. That's an easy program to root for given their heart-warming rebuilding of their beloved Thundering Herd after that tragic 1970 plane crash.
Finally stopped around midnight at a little Holiday Inn Express a half hour west of Charleston, WV. Didn't get to see much of West Virginia in the dark but the mountain roads were pretty cool to drive on. Although there are some patches where the 70 mph speed limit is way too thrilling to tempt. That's a new experience ... Actually too timid to risk the posted speed limit. Weird.
Next day is game day and we still got six or more hours to go for a 3:30 pm kickoff so had to boot the brood outta bed early. Soon had everybody reseated, refueled and properly donutized and off we headed west to Ohio. In thick black bean soup fog. Along a single lane country road. But it burned off soon enough and within half an hour we were across the Ohio River and heading northeast towards Columbus and points beyond.
Ohio is a lot more beautiful than I had imagined. Acres and acres of flat but majestic farmland. Corn and soybeans for the most part but every little town has its own set of massive concrete grain silos. Bob Evans Restaurants every five miles or so and Marathon Oil gas stations in every little town. Made the beltway around Columbus in a little over 3 hours and then headed due north to Toledo. Went through a couple of great small towns ... Kenton, Dunkirk, Arlington ... along a single-lane state road. The kind of places you just know a hundred years ago used to have a Memorial Day parade every year to honor their surviving Civil War heroes.
And so after another hour or so, we came up on the home of the Mud Hens and started seeing signs for Ann Arbor. By my watch, we'd roll into town about two hours before kickoff. Plenty of time to grab some lunch, check in to our hotel and hop the shuttle to the game. And, luckily enough, that's exactly what happened. Before long, Becky and I were on the shuttle and we started getting pumped up for the big game.
And what an absolutely mind-boggling stadium ... Calling it huge is an understatement. Once we picked our jaws off the ground, we made our way to our seats and they were every bit as good as advertised. Fifty-yard line, 22 rows up right behind the Notre Dame bench. We were so close I even wondered if I'd need my trusty binoculars. But I did indeed take them out and I swear I could almost read lips in the huddle. Fans were rocking, joint was jumping, blimp was blimping, this was it.
Becky's Biakabutuka jersey was a big hit. All the fans around her smiled and shook her hand or patted her back. One young guy walked by, stopped, looked at her and said ... "Tshimanga. Cool." and then kept going. Michigan fans are extremely knowledgeable about their team and college football in general. It was a brand new experience for me to sit with fans who expect to win a national championship each and every season. And the place was absolutely jammed full. A new modern day NCAA record of 111,523 people in attendance. With at least one Virginia fan who sure cheered that 20-17 final score over the Tar Heels by God.
The game itself was intense. Momentum swings all day long with six lead changes. First, Michigan scored two quick FG's but their failure to score six seemed to energize Notre Dame who responded with a beautiful pitch reverse for a score to their little scatback Joey Getherall who was easily their most exciting player. Second quarter saw another U-M field goal and a Jarius Jackson keeper for another Irish touchdown as the half ended with Notre Dame up 14-9.
Second half saw the Wolverines tally 10 points to go up 19-14 but the Irish scored a gorgeous touchdown on a 4th down play-action pass to a wide open tight end with about 4 minutes to play. Then the game took a strange turn as the Irish scored a two-point conversion but took a 15 yard penalty for an excessive celebration call in the end zone. Bogus call but it gave U-M great kickoff field position. Then the Wolverines got another break when a late hit on a sideline pass play cost the Irish another 15 yards.
Finally, with a little over a minute to go, Michigan tailback Anthony Thomas bulled in from a yard out and the 26-22 final score was set although Notre Dame did end the game deep in Michigan territory but out of time and short of a first down. The Wolverines mobbed the field and the fans were dancing in their seats. Another great game in a great Midwest rivalry.
So, Becky and I slowly made our way out of the Big House and we stopped at a souvenir stand to pick up a Michigan T-shirt for her. I told her she could pick out anything she wanted provided I thought it looked good and wasn't too terribly expensive. The kid's got pretty good taste in clothes so I knew she'd pick something out that looked good. I just hoped it wouldn't bend my Amex card any more than it had already suffered.
But she came back from a shirt rack with a nice yellow one with blue "MICHIGAN" in block letters across the front. Nice, simple and classy. However, as she held it up, I noticed it was a long sleeve shirt so, forgetting where I was, I said to her ... "Becky, are you sure you want a long sleeve shirt ??? You won't be able to wear that until the winter, you know." And the lady standing next to me said ... "Oh, but that'll be here real soon." And with a smile, I gently turned and said to her ... "Not in Carolina it won't". And so we checked out, long sleeve shirt and all and pretty soon we were on the return shuttle for a hotel rendezvous with the rest of the family.
We pretty much crashed the rest of the evening in the hotel ... Kids went swimming and got all jiggy when we let them order room service which was surprisingly inexpensive. And so we all eventually turned in and caught a full night's worth of well-earned snooze.
And here came Sunday ... Canada Day on our itinerary. I knew as soon as we decided to make the trip that a quick jaunt into Windsor, Ontario was in order for Sunday. Kids thought that was just the coolest idea they'd ever heard. Ann Arbor is about 35-40 minutes away from Detroit so it was no biggie to cross the bridge and visit our northern neighbors for a spell. We found a delightful little park by the riverside and camped out there for a coupla hours watching the pleasure boats vie with the industrial freighters in the Detroit River connecting Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Nice cool breeze and not a cloud in the sky.
And so by mid-afternoon, we were ready to head back south. Crossed back over the river using the tunnel this time and had to negotiate a few inner city Detroit streets before we found I-75 again. Passed by Cobo and Joe Louis and Tiger Stadium ... which I did not realize was painted bright white on the outside. Within an hour, we were back in Toledo and seeing the same roads as the day before from the opposite direction. Back through Marysville, Columbus, Chillicothe, Gallipolis and on into West Virginia again.
Got up Monday morning and brought it on home. Same traffic mess at the VA-NC border but too tired to piss and moan about something we had no control over anyway. Rolled on into our SC driveway late afternoon and got all the required dog and cat welcome home greetings. One thousand, three hundred, eighty-one miles and seven-tenths. Four days. Two countries. Sixty minutes of pigskin heaven. Wallet stuffed full of Amex receipts. Feet sore. Kids pumped to tell their school pals about their weekend. Memories to last forever.
Maybe in twenty years I can use this road trip story to win another one.
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