And so it begins! Although we leave for Erzurum tomorrow and the games don't being until Thursday, I have already had some great adventures. It all started on Christmas day while celebrating at our friends' house when I received a call from my airline informing me that my flight to Burlington, Vermont the next morning had been cancelled. As we left to go back home we noticed that the car was not producing heat which was only a preview of things to come. Soon enough a massive winter storm was upon the quiet city of Lake Forest and my parents and I were trying to solve the issue of how I would find my way to Burlington before the evening of the 26th. As the storm grew worse and the weather channel told me that the east coast was also getting battered we were running out of options. At 2:00 in the morning my dad and I were shoveling the foot and a half of snow out of the driveway it had been decided, another father- son road trip. So dad received the 'father of the year' award and at 8:00 we hopped in the car and left Lake Forest in our strangely foggy rear view mirror. It wasn't long before we realized there were more problems with the car than we had realized the night before. It was like we were flying the Apollo 13 shuttle. Not only did the heat not work but soon we found out that the washer fluid wasn't spraying onto the windshield and once we arrived at the Ohio border and our phones' batteries were beginning to dwindle, that our 12 volt outlets in the car were also dead. It was almost like the scene in the movie 'Blue Brothers' where John Belushi is wiping the oil off the windshield so that Dan Aykroyd could see where he was driving. The windows fogged up inside and the salt and snow was making the outside almost impossible to see through. I found myself wiping the inner window with a paper towel so Dad could see the road. As we managed to escape the storm that had left home under at least a foot of snow, we were preparing to run into the storm that had caused my flight to be cancelled. After reaching eastern New York we had finally met our match. As the snow began to blind us late into the night and only 3 hours from our destination, Dad decided that it was a good time to stop and get some sleep and finish the trip in the morning.
As the sun rose we opened our eyes to more snow and frigid cold in the car but with Dad's expertise driving I made it to Burlington the morning of the 27th just in time for the teams 2nd practice. I was greeted by the team and coaches with applause for finding my way through the treacherous storms. As the morning practice ended, I was excited and ready for the games we would be playing over the next three days. The first game against Castleton State was a good 5-4 team win which got everyone excited to play against St. Michael's University the following evening. Although that game ended in a 3-2 loss it was evident that we had a pretty talented squad and we were even more excited to play against the University of Vermont in our third game. Although the first two games were really exciting it was the game versus UVM that everyone was really thinking about even before the trip had begun. We heard that Gutterson Field House had sold out days before the game was to take place and that meant that we would be playing a national powerhouse in front of at least 5000 fans. I can tell you that I have never been more excited to play in a game ever in my life. As game time approached I grew more and more restless and when I found out that I would be in the starting line up I almost lost it. My name being called out in front of all of these people against the University of Vermont was something I could only dream about before I made the team, and here I was hoping that I wouldn't fall flat on my face when I skated out to the blue line for the national anthem. Soon enough the game was under way and I have never been so happy in my entire life. Playing with the USA logo on my chest made me feel like a superhero and although the final score was 7-1 in favor of the Catamounts, the score didn't translate into how well we actually played. After only three days together the team couldn't have been happier with our performance. Everyone was smiling knowing that we would definitely be a force to be reckoned with over in Turkey. The trip ended with Team USA only winning one of three games but in hindsight, a complete success. Before I knew it I found myself back in the car which had, luckily, been fixed before we hit the road. We decided to take an alternate route through Canada to get home and managed to do it in just 16 hours! What a trip! and that was only the beginning! Stay Tuned for more!
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