Travel Day
December 26, 2007 07:07 PM | General
Today we traveled. The itinerary called for all bags to be loaded onto a pair of Ryder trucks between 8:30 and 10 a.m. before our six busses departed Milan Puskar Stadium at 11 a.m. for Pittsburgh.
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| Keilen Dykes is greeted by Fiesta Bowl volunteers at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix Wednesday afternoon.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
One bus full of trainers and equipment personnel left for Clarksburg an hour earlier to fly down to Arizona on a smaller plane. The reason for this is because they needed to be at the hotel a little earlier than the rest of the travel party to have everything set up as players arrive from different destinations.
The driver of our bus was a big fan of MetroNews Talkline and that was blaring on the speaker system as we lumbered out of Morgantown, accompanied by a two-car police escort. I have to admit it was strange hearing Jim Stallings and Kay Murray discussing the West Virginia coaching situation with so many of the participants listening as we drove out of town.
As is the case with every bowl trip I’ve ever been on, most of the team flies separately to the bowl site. When they say team charter for bowl games what it really means is coaches, support staff and family, and a couple dozen players. The seating arrangements for these trips are also the same: football staff and personnel in the front of the plane, players scattered in the middle, and the staff in the back.
MSN’s Tony Caridi began the trip in a seat next to me but when he noticed several empty seats in the rear, he made his way to an open row to allow more room for his size 16s.
Most of the bigger players also began looking around for aisle seats to stretch out their long legs. Defensive tackle Keilen Dykes parked his 300-pound frame next to me. After a meal of steak, macaroni and cheese, salad, mixed vegetables and a slice of cake, Dykes soon immersed himself in his laptop computer and portable music.
The trip to Arizona took roughly four hours as we made our way out of the scattered clouds of the Rustbelt, through the Sunbelt, and on our way down to the desert. My first glimpse outside the airplane came at Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the snow-capped mountains provided a view that I have become quite familiar with living in West Virginia all my life.
The temperature on the ground at Sky Harbor Airport announced in the airplane was 57 degrees, meaning about a 15-degree difference from Morgantown this morning. The guess here is that temperatures in Arizona will probably be similar to the unseasonably mild temperatures we were leaving in Morgantown.
Based on the prior experiences in Arizona, I made sure to bring two sets of clothes: light clothes for daytime and heavier clothes after dark. Arizona in wintertime is an exercise in extremes.
After a brief news conference at the airport (which will be posted later tonight and also shared with WVMetroNews.com) the team took part in a dinner and meetings at the hotel.
The first practice at the bowl site is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 27.
Be sure to stop back frequently for daily bowl updates, blogs and podcasts. Also, don’t forget to catch our 10-minute web shows that will be available online daily at 7 pm leading up to the Mountaineer Magazine Fiesta Bowl Special on Dec. 31 at 7 p.m.
Stay tuned.
