The Stanley Cup Gamewatch
I have been back in Maryland since late Wednesday
night but just getting a chance to sit down and make a new post. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, I
spent 24 hours in the car driving back from Kansas. I got home Wednesday night at 1 a.m., and on
Thursday my daughter and I were downtown by noon. They changed the
process for getting into the gamewatch. You had to attend the women’s
professional basketball game in the arena at 3 p.m. that afternoon in order to
be in there that evening for the gamewatch. Needless to say we went down
early to make sure we got in. The experience at the gamewatch for Game 5 was
terrific….just like being at the game except that everyone was watching it on
the screen rather than on the ice. When we were outside waiting to go in,
my daughter got interviewed by a reporter for the local TV station about
carrying my wife’s jersey and the picture Marci had of herself and my wife from
many years ago, both of them in their Caps jerseys. It’s a short clip….if
you want to see it, it is at: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/sports/caps-mom_Washington-DC-484896671.html
We spend the whole game holding my wife Dot’s jersey, cheering,
groaning when the Caps fell behind at the end of the second period, and then
rejoicing when in a three minute span around the middle of the third period
they came from behind to take a one goal lead with 7 ½ minutes to go.
It was the longest 457 seconds I’ve ever
experienced. Everyone around us had asked about Dot’s
jersey and when the Caps finally won after rejoicing, everyone around us gave
us warm hugs. They all knew how special being there was for us.
In the arena that night, we were not the only ones with
tears pouring down our cheeks when they won! Out on the street afterwards
it was one big celebration. People were just coming up and shaking hands
and hugging total strangers. It was amazing that with as big of a crowd
as there was, there was absolutely no trouble—the DCPD said there was a grand
total of one arrest that evening. It was
a wonderful time, and both Marci and I, besides being happy to have been there
with 18,000 others to cheer on the Caps, took great comfort in having made good
on the promise to my wife that she would be there when the Caps went to the
Stanley Cup finals.
The Pursuit of Riding in all 50 States
So where does this leave my pursuit of riding in all 50
states? I had hoped that when I spent
the night in Illinois across from St. Louis, I would have time to take a ride a
couple of miles to the bicycle bridge across the Mississippi River to the
Missouri side, thus getting the two states I decided to skip while leaving the
tour early. However, I realized that to
wait until late morning to leave for Maryland would have me driving into the
middle of the night. I had also
originally planned that after leaving the tour at Champaign, I would drive to
Iowa City, Iowa to ride there, then go to South Bend to ride a trail from
Indiana up into Michigan and back to get those three states.
In early August I will be going to Cleveland to see my
daughter Marci compete in the National Triathlon Age-Group Championships. I intend in conjunction with that trip to
also drive to get the five states that I was originally going to get this
week. I’m still making those plans, and
the plans to head south for the Hotter N Hell Hundred in Texas in August. On that trip I hope to do rides in
Tennnessee, Arkansas, Lousiana and Mississippi so that I reach 39 states.
Although this summer’s trip is over, I’ll continue to use
this blog to write about my quest to ride in all 50 states, which I hope to
complete by my 70th birthday in August 2020. I’ll probably finalize plans for the August Midwest
trip sometime next month and will tell you about them here.
Meanwhile, I took my first ride today after getting
home--a modest 25-miler. I'll finally close out my Stanley Cup
activities on Tuesday when I go downtown for the celebration parade and
rally. Until then....
We Won the Cup! We
Won the Cup!
Bruce
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