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Editor’s Note: That was our blog of mine and Tyler’s adventure to and from Omaha, Nebraska. It was an experience that neither of us will ever forget, and right now I am glad that I don’t have a car because I would not drive it for at least a week. As we were turning onto Broad, Tyler looked at me and said, “Dude, we drove to and from (expletive) Nebraska.”
And I’m not sure if we can end the blog on a more perfect note than that. Once again, thank you to all of you who read, thank you to our advisor Ed Morales and our publisher Harry Montevideo, and thank you to the baseball team, the 2008 National runners-up for such a wonderful season. There is certainly no shame in that, especially after finishing 2007 10 games below-.500. They played their hearts out and should be applauded for a job well-done.
So until, next time – (the NCAA gymnastics finals are in Lincoln, Neb., by the way) ¬– so long.
–Michael Fitzpatrick, Sports Editor, The Red & Black
9:20: As we pass the quiet and dark Riverboat Casino on the Missouri River outside of Kansas City, It dawns on me why casinos are so damn successful. Bright lights and free alcohol. First they draw the suckers into the building by flashing all kinds of lights and others things to get people. People love flashing lights and shiny things.
And then once they are inside and safely gambling away money, the casinos liqueur em up to keep them inside and gambling. I mean honestly, who would pass up free alcohol to stop gambling? I mean for real? What sane, normal person would pass that opportunity up. I thought so.
9:21: Passing the Kansas City stadiums again. Kauffman Stadium looks so sad. No wonder the Royals suck so much.
9:28Passing through Independence, MO. Do you think they have a bigger July 4 celebration there? I’m not sure, I mean they might.
9:43: As we passed yet another porn shop and fireworks factory – not at the same facility, but that would be interesting – so anyway, as were passing this one dude, driving a maroon Jeep Liberty. Didn’t know they came in maroon, but not really a fan. Anyway…He had a bumper sticker that said “freedom isn’t free,” so I expected a huge beard. No beard but he was smoking a pipe. A pipe!!!
How bad-ass is that? I mean for real, pipes make you feel like Sherlock Holmes, cigars make you feel like Winston Churchill, and cigarettes like a 16-year old rebellious teenager.
9:51: Corn. Haven’t seen any of that since we got on the 435 around 27 miles outside of Kansas City.
(Side note: I love Dane Cook. We are listening to it in the car and he cracks me up. Some highlights: The BK Lounge, The Car Alarm, the Shark Joke.
11:01: We stop at a Steak & Shake in Columbia for lunch, definitely a different one from the first one, but it serves food. So we’re all good. Took a brief respite from blogging to take a nap. Awoke to hear Dane talking about the Nothing Fight. Classic.
11:07: On the placemat we are told that “Coca-Cola is served ever-so-proudly here.”
11:13: The bathroom could be laid out better, and we’ll leave it at that. But its clean, so I won’t complain.
11:46: The World’s Largest Indoor Playground is at Burger King at Exit 131 in Columbia. Or so they claim…
11:54: Saw a sign for “The Horny Toad” Hmmmm. About to go through Kingdom City. I wonder if there is a city called Corn City.
11:59: Ok, the Missouri football program officially takes the cake for advertising. They have gone to a new level that I never even existed. They took out SIX billboards. M-I-Z-Z-O-U. Each one said something different. Some gave the team’s website, other’s the team phone number and some had motivational slogans. However, I guess they have nothing better to do in the middle of Missouri.
1:21: Very little of actual importance happened since the last hour. The I-70 was full of corn and porn shops. WE were detoured din St. Louis because of construction, but it was easy and didn’t cause us any real heartbreak.
We can see the Arch again, which is still really cool, but didn’t bring nearly the response of last time. And now for the super exciting drive through Ill-nothing.
1:27: We passed the awesome part of St. Louis –well actually it’s all really cool – but we passed the Scottrade Center (home of the Blues) and Busch Stadium (home of the Cardinals). Both look spectacular and I would love to come back and visit them. On a related note, we passed a huge Purina factory, for those with dogs.
1:28: We crossed the Mississippi and officially entered Illinois. Awesome. I’m trying to keep it professional and contain my excitement, but that’s really difficult.
1:34: Wow, as we stopped for gas in Illinois we experienced quite a shock. West of the mighty Mississippi gas was between $3.79 - $3.89. Here on the eastside, gas is $4.29 and I have definitely felt safer, to be frank.
1:55: Holy Crap. We just passed a car exactly like the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard, same color, same number, rebel/confederate flag on the top, everything. I would’ve have expected that to come a little later in our trip (Kentucky perhaps?). Apparently there are rednecks in southern Illinois too though.
5:35: Well unfortunately, after several failed attempts at finding wi-fi, we are still unable to post, and will have to wait until we get back to Georgia. I took over driving, while Tyler drove, and it was pretty unexciting. It seems that the return trip went by much quicker, but many return trips seem that way. A Jetta who was also making the return trip from Omaha followed us, but he went to get gas at an earlier exit and we lost him. Aw well.
7:45ish> So, I guess no one ever told Tennessee that fireworks and gas stations don’t mix, as one of the state’s largest fireworks dealers was attached to – of all things – a frigging gas station? For real guys? C’mon, are you asking for some horrible accident that is bound to happen eventually? That is so mind-boggling, I can’t even get over it.
7:59 CST: We just crossed the border from the central time zone to the eastern time zone, and our phones went from 7:59 pm to 9:00, we completely skipped 8:00. I swear to goodness, that we could not have timed it any better. I was going to give us a four-minute grace period but I didn’t even need it. Nothing of any real importance happened since 5:35, believe me, we just really want to be done with trip.
9:03: We spent all of two minutes in Georgia, as the I-24 winds briefly into the Peach State before going back into Tennessee.
9:17: We reentered Georgia for good. Unless I’m flying there, I am not going anywhere for a while.
10:05: In the parking lot of an Adairsville, Georgia McDonalds, we saw as many sheriffs in the parking lot (two) as we had seen police officers today period. The only other officers we saw were in Kentucky, both going in the opposite direction. In fact, those two officers in Kentucky were more than we had seen driving to Omaha. Wow.
10:27: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Why is there this much traffic in Ackworth at 10:30 p.m.? People should be in bed, it’s a weeknight, there is no special event going on in this location and that this hour? We are going on less than five hours of sleep, nerves are frayed; we have been in this car for way too long. Please make it stop, I just want to be back in Athens.
12:30a.m.: Finally, after picking up a Red & Black Tyler dropped me off at O-House, but I was so happy to be back in Athens that I am not longer tired. My body is physically exhausted, but I can’t fall asleep. Thank goodness I have time to study.
(Editor’s note: As a form of closure, we are blogging our return trip form Omaha to Athens. A shout out to all those readers who made this blog a success. We were honestly hoping for 50-100, not 1,000. A big thank you. Second to UGA gal for your post, thanks for the morale boost, this is what kept us going. And third, to the Omaha Collegiate Dog Show. Thanks for a great three days and great ballgames. It is the nature of sport that there is a winner and a loser, and it just so happened that Georgia lost, but as Ryan Peisel said in his press conference last night, it does not take anything away from this season – or in our case, trip.
(The folks here in Omaha have been unfailingly friendly and hospitable and have made our brief stay an enjoyable one. So until next time Omaha, I say so long.
As we were purchasing a “pop” and a newspaper for the long drive eastward, we are greeted by a gentleman who after seeing our Georgia plate said, “How you fellers doing? You guys Mike Vick fans?” He went onto say that he “had just got out of where Mike Vick is. I caught a couple of passes from him.”
I will leave y’all to interpret that one; I’m not touching that with a 10-foot pole.
Mileage before we left: 1,211.9
We never did make it to Kansas, but that’s ok with us, Kansas City is more or less the same thing, right? And honestly, how different will it be from what we are seeing right now. Corn, silos, corn, silos, tractor, barns, farmhouse, repeat several thousand times over.)
6:30: We depart the lovely Motel 6, an establishment that was good for one thing and one thing only, a warm bed. Definitely not good for Internet or really anything else
6:36: Tyler thinks he knows the way to a road that we need (we were already on it) and we get off at the Stadium. He realizes his mistake and we are off. One last good look at Rosenblatt, a beautiful facility that is in the twilight of its life. Rosenblatt, we barely knew ye. Too bad the Dogs didn’t win. Oh wait they did, just not our Dogs. Oh well. Life’s a bitch, get used to it.
6:40: So long Nebraska, it was kind of fun. I enjoyed my time here, at least at the time at ballpark. We have now entered Iowa on our return trip. Corn, lots of it. Now just waiting for the porn. Buts that’s not until the I-70
6:47: Just kidding about the porn shop, saw our first one seven minutes into Iowa. I mean, after all, there is only so much people can do with corn. But that is a disturbing thought
7:09: As we trek south along I-29, which is supposedly part of the Lewis and Clark Trail, the extremely high water levels in the neighboring fields is becoming increasingly obvious and equally difficult to ignore. My heart goes out to those affected by the flooding in this part of the country.
And a lighter note, could you imagine walking this? I might have killed myself several nights. I bitch and moan about driving 80 miles per hour through this, walking through this is just unfathomable to me. Thank goodness I wasn’t alive during the exploration period. I wouldn’t have made it.
7:11: We see a gas station for the first time since Omaha and see our first Wendy’s since, well, I don’t remember the last one we saw. We’ll leave it at that. And Tyler confirms that when the Volvo is on cruise control, it goes faster up hill. See, I knew I wasn’t crazy.
7:16: Tyler said the worst part of this trip would be driving from his parent’s house in Lawrenceville to Athens. “We will be so close, but so far away. And if we get back early enough, I’m getting hammered.”
I echo the sentiments that that will be the worst part of the drive, but I have to study for a test. I love summer classes.
7:20: We pass a very inconspicuous looking sign that says we crossed into Missouri. So long, Iowa. The sign is as lackluster as this drive is going to be. Over 400 miles are spent just in Missouri. And ½ mile into the Show-Me-State, Tyler verbalizes exactly what I was about to type.
“I can’t wait until we’re out of Missouri.” Amen, brother, Amen.
7:34: After reading the Omaha World-Herald sports section for the third time already this morning, I truly realized how great of a performance, Fresno right fielder Steve Detwiler put on last night. He became only the fourth player in CWS history to hit two home runs in a championship game, and he drove in all six of Fresno’s runs.
And did I mention that he has a torn ligament in thumb. And injury he sustained on MAY 6? Wow, if you look up toughness in the dictionary, Detwiler will be there. He defines tough, resilient. He defines heart and desire. And to think that I questioned Fresno head coach Mike Batesole for moving him up in the lineup last night. There is a reason I’m not a head coach.
7:38: There is a town coming up called Corning, Missouri. Seems appropriate I guess.
7:50: Civilization in the form of Mound City, MO. Isn’t there a Mound City in Tennessee of something?
(Side note: This may be my most random post of the trip. But Law & Order SVU is an intense show dude, damn. And the chick in L&O Criminal Intent is definitely the woman who played Coach McKay in Mighty Ducks 2. Y’all know you I’m talking about and you know that even though it was a Disney movie she hooked up with Emilio Estevez. She has shorter hair in CI, which makes her harder to recognize, but I’m sure it’s her.
8:05: Vrrooomba. That is the name of the Volvo, Tyler decided. He then proceeded to tell me about the Roomba vacuum cleaner he had at his apartment last year, named Carmichael. I then started to crack up because I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t that funny, but the scenery hasn’t changed in the last 100 miles. For real, I feel like I’m on a movie set on the 1950s with the rotating background that never changes.
Delusion is setting in early today.
8:08: Sign for Amazonia, Missouri. And above the exit signs in Missouri are these letters with seemingly no meaning whatsoever. I’m sure they mean something, because well Missouri wouldn’t put meaningless letters on its exits, right? If there is any Missourians reading along, and you know what these letters mean, let us know.
I think they are for a train, but I honestly have no idea.
8:21: According to a billboard in St. Joseph, “Weed kills your game. For real.” Not one for the illicit drugs, but what they hell else is there to do here?
And Tyler wants to know how big St. Joseph is, we’ve seen like seven exits for it. And one of the exits had an airport sign.
8:43: Our first gas/food stop allows us to post from a McDonalds in Platte City, MO. More to come later. Most likely from Columbia or St. Louis.
Georgia seems to be lacking any confidence, they are not having good at bats and they really seem to be deflated after last night, and if the cant contain Fresno’s lineup…
Obviously, Tyler is still delusional from the drive west, so it’s ok, I will take the high road and let him think he’s right.
Since this is a “working” press box and there is absolutely no cheering in here, we are not debating wether tonight’s version of Nathan Moreau will be the good or the bad Moreau.
But if we were debating, we would have decided that four-to-five innings and allowing five or less runs would constitute the ok Moreau. Which is better than bad, but wore than good. And on a side note: I am devastated that this is my last night in Omaha.
I’m gonna miss the silos and “Nebraskans United” commericals.
First of all, thank you to whoever posted that we were cute, but I’m going to have to break it to you—I’m much better looking than Fitz. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…
We chickened out on Zesto. There was a long line, and it’s entirely too hot (it “feels like 93″ according to The Weather Channel). As weenie-ish as that sounds, sitting in a press box for four or so hours after being covered in sweat isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world…
Georgia just took the field for pregame warm-ups, and boy do they look good. Just kidding, they look exactly the same as every baseball team looks warming up for every game. Anyway, cynicism aside, a couple of interesting lineup changes for both teams.
Miles Starr and his .229 batting average get the start at second for Georgia instead of David Thoms. The more interesting part of that, though, is that Adam Fuller had two RBI after coming in as a pinch hitter last night, and isn’t in the lineup. Maybe Perno knows something we don’t….
Perhaps even more surprising, though, is that Fresno State moved third baseman Tommy Mendonca DOWN in the order to the seven hole. Mendonca has absolutely killed Georgia in the series, going 2 for 5 with three RBI in last night’s game. Consequently, that moves right fielder Steve Detwiler, who was 2 for 5 also last night but without an RBI, into the six spot.
A couple of interesting moves from each team…
Spirits are high in the press box, especially with those that have been here the entire time, because everybody knows this is the last night in wonderfully exciting Nebraska (Jennifer Iannone from the Banner-Herald has looked exhausted and like she wanted to cry the whole time we’ve been in Omaha).
More later…
Alas, after an ugly Georgia loss last night, we get to spend one more lovely night in the L Street Motel 6, and, right now, another afternoon stealing Burger King’s Internet.
Just wanted to give another shoutout to the people at Omaha’s World-Herald, their coverage of CWS has been really impressive the three days we’ve been here. I counted seven different bylines in their CWS section this morning…check out their site at omaha.com
Not really much doing today, Blake’s eating a Whopper and saying, “This can’t be good for me.” Yet he continues to eat…
We’re planning on heading to the famed Zesto’s next to Rosenblatt for a pre-game burger and shake, and we need to go get some Febreeze/air freshener/bug bomb/DDT/new upholstery for my mom’s car, it smells like sweat, like a bunch of guys have been pretty much living in there for several days or something. Oh…..wait.
Anyway, I don’t really have the best feeling about tonight’s game. Nathan Moreau is always hit or miss, but you never know. Georgia hasn’t really had that big offensive inning yet…and I haven’t met Erin Andrews yet. I’m hoping to change that, Gator-loving side be damned.
That sounds really creepy.
I knew it, I knew there was a reason that Erin Andrews was always in the Georgia dugout. And it just took me until last night to figure it out.
Sure she may be one of the best looking (and semi-competent) sideline reporters in sports television, but there was a hidden motive, that until last night, wasn’t publicly known.
She’s a Gator spy, and she has been sent to the UGA dugout to distract them from their goal - of winning a national championship – something that the vile reptile have never done once. In fact the furthest that they have ever gone was in 2005, when they finished as the bridesmaid to Texas.
Last night, as she was for every Georgia game, she spent the evening charming the Dawgs with her drop-dead gorgeous looks, and mind-numbing charm. Ohhhh, she’s a trickster that one.
But her true intentions were revealed during the game, when she was seen leading the Gator chomp in the stands. Oh, I kid you not, I wish that I was. So to that, I declare that ESPN send Kyle Peterson from Fresno to Georgia, and send that scheming, conniving Dazzler back to whence she came.Why is it always the beautiful ones, the ones that seem so innocent, that end up being involved so thickly in the plot, that you don’t know how you missed it in the first place.
Well, I’m on to you, Miss Andrews, and I won’t let lend a devious paw in the demise of the Georgia baseball team. They may have faltered yesterday, but they are too strong-minded and too focused on their goal to let you bring them down.
Tonight’s the night, either way, when we find out if Georgia is the champion of the college baseball world. For the crew at The Red & Black, putting out a weekly paper during the summertime, this allows us to get the latest breaking Diamond Dog news in the paper on Thursday, just like everyone else. We’ve been keeping tabs on the team online, but we’re ready to make a big splash in print.
Which leads me to this: Anybody have some good headline suggestions? Just post a comment and we’ll take a look at what gets sent it. You never know, your headline could be in 90-point type on the front page of The Red & Black.
Though we could put one headline on the page right now: BULLDOGS WIN.
We’re certainly not making a stretch there.
According to ESPN’s Mike Patrick, “Cinderella is alive and she can hit.”
Thank you Mr. Patrick for that wonderful analogy, I’m sure that Fresno State is thrilled to be referred to as “she”
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