Hey guys along with bringing into the minds of pro hockey players I figured a lot of people wonder what it's like to be on the road for half of the season. Sometimes in nice sleeper buses where 4 rookies get crammed in the far back lounge area because the vets took up all the beds or maybe sleeping on a coach bus all night because the team didn't make reservations at a hotel for an away game that we traveled overnight to. Either way when you're on the road it's those bus trips that really pull a team together from watching movies to playing all types of card games, some I've never even heard of. You can win someones entire weekly paycheck or lose your own very quickly in a some poker games, I've watched a 6'5" fighter cram his way into the overhead carry on compartment and spent New Year's Eve on a bus coming home from Jamestown, NY with 14 other guys.
Trips can get long and boring and sometimes leave you questioning your sanity as you sleep on the floor of a coach bus on the way home from Tulsa, OK all the way back to Denver, CO. But when it comes down to it every guy on the bus would rather be crammed up in an uncomfortable seat for anywhere from 5 to 18 hours instead of sitting behind a computer at a 9-5 job. This past season I rode on 3 team buses, logging miles from Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK and from Knoxville, TN to Jacksonville, FL and countless miles across Pennsylvania with the Valley Forge Freedom from Oaks, PA to Jamestown, NY to Indiana, PA down to Pittsburgh and out to Wooster, OH all the way back to Oaks, PA. I lived in a 2 bedroom small apartment in Amarillo and a 3 bedroom luxury apartment in Knoxville, to finish in a very nice 3 bedroom place in Valley Forge with up to 7 or 8 roommates at times because of roster moves and guys coming and going all on the same day.
I'd love to be able to sit here and say I've seen it all but I can guarantee you that I'll see more things this season when the season starts in Danbury. It's just the way it goes, as soon as you say you can't possibly imagine anything crazier happening , something does. You haven't lived life until you've been sleeping in the back of a bus only to wake up to see Teddy's ass right in your face, and the only reason you wake up is because you hear his devilish laugh. Yes learning how to live on a bus can be tough but at the same time you look back and realize that it is the time of your life. We're getting paid to play pranks on each other, play cards and watch movies on long bus trips home from a huge shootout game winner in a barn with only 200 people in the stands because it was a Sunday afternoon in the middle of Pittsburgh and the Steelers were playing at home.
Ya I can honestly say nothing beats what I'm doing for a living right now. Check back soon to find out how I made a comfortable bed on the floor near the bathroom on our bus in Valley Forge.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
If there's one thing that I'll miss about not being with the Mad Hatters anymore, it's being on the road with you guys. Last year, when I did those road broadcasts, I had a blast. I got to see shitty barns in shitty towns and all the fat people we could mock.
Of the many memories I will have of travelling out with you guys in Valley Forge, my most memorable ones are Crutcher falling asleep in the aisle of the bus, the blinding snowstorm on our way out to Indiana where the driver couldn't even see in front of him, and, of course, leaving Begg behind.
Hopefully, through some stroke of luck, I'll be able to get back behind the mic and back on the road again this year.
See you on the 12th!
Post a Comment