Sports

Trip Diary: Day 1

By Adam Clark

Posted on Nov. 24, 2008, at 12:00 a.m.

Chronicling the journey to the University of Northern Iowa to cover the UMaine Black Bear football team take on the No. 3 Panthers.

Note: All times are in EST.

Day 1 (Friday)

8:30 a.m.: I wake up still hurting from a hangover from two nights ago and all of the food that I ate on Thanksgiving. The last thing I do is want to get on a flight. Our flight leaves Bangor International around 4 p.m. and has two stops along the way before we get to our final destination of Waterloo, Iowa.

2:30 p.m.: A 20-minute journey to the airport from Amy’s (assistant photo editor) apartment in Old Town to BIA takes 45 minutes because every old person in the greater Bangor area is out and about on the roads at this time. But we finally arrive at the airport at about 3:15 and after it takes a while to get through security, we are off to the Motor City.

6:30 p.m.: We land in Detroit about 15 minutes early and have a two-hour layover (what great fun that is.not). After walking ten miles to our gate (although half of it was on a concourse and we got to pass through this cool tunnel), we grab a bit to eat at McDonalds which was a mistake and wait to get on our plane to Minneapolis.

8:45 p.m.: The hour-and-a-half flight to the Twin Cities takes a little less than that and I wasn’t even that crammed on the flight because the seat next to me was empty.

10:30 p.m.: Waterloo is our final destination. We get a few weird looks from people with Northern Iowa gear on while Amy and I both have UMaine hoodies on. When we walked off the plane at Waterloo, an airport employee asks us, “Maine, don’t we play you guys tomorrow?” Not wanting to get in a verbal battle with her and several other fans we just say, “Yes,” and walk away. A cab picks us up and we head to our hotel.

1 a.m.: We get to the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center a little past one and check in to our room. They left the heat on full blast so it is about 100 degrees and you can’t breathe because they gave us a smoking room. But, being so tired about an hour later, I’m signing off. Good night, Iowa (and Maine).

More updates to follow tomorrow.

Remember tune in to 91.9 WMEB-FM tomorrow at 4:45 p.m. (pregame show) to catch the Black Bears live in their first round playoff game. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:05 p.m.