It's a wrap!!!

Our trip home, other than being a long, drawn-out affair, was pretty smooth, with only a few wrinkles. We got up and were mostly ready to go at our 7am estimated roll-out time. The trip back to the airport took about an hour and forty-five minutes, including a stop at Micky D's for some to-go breakfast.


We only had some slight drama at the Wausau airport. As we arrived and were hauling our bags over to the ticket counter, we overheard an announcement saying that our flight was overbooked, and if anyone had any flexible travel plans, to please contact the ticket agent. We didn't really consider our plans flexible, so we proceeded with our self check-in. The ticket agent then asked us if we would mind getting moved to a United flight, going through Chicago, that would get us back 3 hours earlier. We said that was great, as long as they could get everyone on the plane. They said they could, and we moved down one ticket counter to get checked in with United. The United agent then told us there were not enough seats on the earlier flight back to Charlotte, and we would be arriving even later than our NWA flight. We said no thank you, and moved back to our original ticket counter, starting the whole process over again.






We arrived in Detroit without incident, and starting figuring out what we wanted to do for 5 hours. The first order of business was lunch. We settled on Chili's. Amazingly, no one seemed to be in the mood for a beer. Certain members of the group were slightly tempted by the margaritas, but, upon further consideration, adhered to the team's strict "no margaritas" clause (also known as the "Nick clause").

So what do you do with 5 hours in the Detroit airport? Here are some suggestions:




Take a walk in the psychedelic mood tunnel. Groovy.







Run an escalator








Take a nap









Count the ceiling tiles, read, or pretend to read







Ride on the tram









Take another nap








Eat some ice cream (just don't ask for strawberries on top)







Go for some sushi and sake





As you can see, there's a million ways to have fun in Detroit. After a slight delay involving the gate agents not being able to open the jetway door (and one gate change), we were headed down the ramp to board our final flight. We all packed in snugly (I felt sorry for the poor woman who had the window seat with John and Mac. I saw her look of terror as she came down the aisle.) After another smooth flight, we touched down in NC.

The drivers headed for the cars, and the rest picked up the luggage as it came off the belt, there was more than one person heard saying, "Geez, I have to work tomorrow!" A little post-trip depression setting in? All the bags made it, and everyone said their farewells and headed their separate ways. There may have been a few tears shed...

The best welcome home:

Apologies

The Ice Holes organization would like to take this time to apologize to the ice cream lady for the actions of one Daniel McGovern. He did not know that strawberry topping cannot be put on a waffle cone. The team is considering enrolling him in some kind of treatment program, as soon as we figure out what he needs.

Halfway home

It was tight, but we made our plane this morning. We said goodbye to Doogie, who had a later flight. It was pretty emotional, and we had to pry him off of Mac's leg as we headed to the ramp. I think he'll be okay.

We've got 5 hours to kill in Detroit, so we found a Chilis to get some lunch. Surprisingly, no one ordered a beer. Could it be that the Holes hit the wall? I'll let you know later.

The last day

Sunday morning. The start of our last full day in Eagle River. The day was wide open, with no particular plans. There was an extensive discussion on going snowmobiling, but the plans were finally axed due to time and budgetary restrictions. It was decided instead to head back over to the lake to watch the finals, and maybe see if we could get back on the ice for a "Teal and White" scrimmage between the 40+ Holes and the 21+ Holes. It turned out to be a great idea.

When we arrived, we got hit up one more time by the local NBC affiliate for an interview. This guy was the sports director, and was particularly interested in the origin of the Ice Holes' name. As is usually the case, he was obviously drawn to my aura of natural leadership, and wanted to put me on camera. (No, I am not a media whore!) I explained the reference to Roman Moroni out of the movie Johnny Dangerously. "I put your bells in a sling, you ice holes...fargin' bastages." It turns out he was quite familiar with the movie and was a big fan. He said the bit would be carried on the 10pm news that evening.

Other Kent had actually told us goodbye at the hotel before we left for the lake, as he was headed back home. He just couldn't bear the thought of missing the last game, though, and showed up in time to play with us one more time. (Actually, I think his wife told him she was busy until later in the day, and not to come home so early.) We suited up, scrapped off an empty rink, and gathered a pile of pucks. It was a hard-fought clash of the titans, with neither team getting much of an upper hand. We called a halftime when most of the participants looked like they were about to fall over. Some did fall over. (Have you noticed there seems to be a running theme with the pictures of guys on the ice? Especially "special" guys?)

We all had some Gatorade to replenish fluids and carbs for the second half. Okay, it wasn't Gatorade, it was more beer, but we had a lot to finish up. The 40+ team came out like gangbusters and got an early lead, but the 21+ team slowly came back, and in the end, the official scorekeeper declared the game a tie. I don't know if that was accurate, or done just to keep the peace and get us to pack it in, already. I guess we'll have to decide this one next year.

We cleaned up back at the hotel, and had another soak in the hot tub, which included a rather disturbing scene involving Mac, a trenchcoat, and a Speedo. We've all taken an unspoken oath not to talk about it...ever. We ate dinner at a bar and grill in downtown Eagle River, called BBT. They had a nice porterhouse steak special, which most of the gang took advantage of. The local ale on tap was pretty good, too. Oh...and we finally got a chance to sample the cheese curds we had heard so much about. 9 out of 10 Holes thought they were very good. The one thought they tasted like dirty socks, but what does he know?

After dinner, we stopped at the bowling alley on the way back to the hotel. Unwilling to let bygones be bygones, the competitive spirit ensued and the 21+ team faced off against the 40+ team, with Georgia filling in for "other Kent", who had finally gone home. The first game was close, with the advantage going to the 40 Holes.

In the second game, a strategic injury to one of the 40+ players lead to a line change that seemed to shift the tide in favor of the older Holes. With the exception of Doogie, who almost had a hat trick of strikes on the final few frames ("What up, bee-atches!"), the rest of us on the younger Holes pretty much stank like Mac's knee-highs.

We finally retired to the hotel lounge to wait for the 10pm news, and see what the tail end of our fifteen minutes of fame would bring. We also had some beer to finish off, since, as you know, they won't allow more than 3 ounces of any fluid to be carried onto the plane anymore. As we killed time watching a reality show on jockeys (the horse riders, not the underpants), we had to endure one last tirade of cussing from Doogie, who was trying to get it all out of his system before going home to his 5 month old daughter and wife. I sure hope she's not reading this blog... (oops!).

The piece was actually pretty good. The anchor for the night was none other than the gal that had interviewed us previously. When the sports guy got done with his bit, she talked for a second about how she had met us and how much fun we were. I guess everybody loves a Hole.

If you'd like to see the piece, you can click on the link below. Warning: I have had trouble opening this video using Firefox as a browser - it seems to open fine in Internet Explorer.

http://www.triadhockey.com/images/Ice%20Holes%20Images/WJFW%20Sports%20Report%20320.240.wmv

Tomorrow morning will come early. We plan on leaving the hotel around 7am to get to Wausau in plenty of time to get everyone's gear safely stowed on the plane. We've got a 5 hour layover in Detroit tomorrow, but other than the long layover, hopefully everything will go smoothly tomorrow.

Bowling league

After a great final day in Wisconsin that included one last game on the pond (a white and teal showdown between the vibrant young Holes and the old, used-up Holes) we concluded the day with a few frames at the bowling ally.

Sunday morning coming down...

Well, it's bright and early Sunday morning...well, not THAT bright and early. I want all of the wives to know that Georgia has all the guys up and headed to church. A little reflection and redemption for the soul. Okay, she's now telling me that if I don't add a qualifyer to that previous statement, she'll feel like she needs to go to confession. Well, I'm sure the ones not joining us are praying nonetheless.

Saturday in review

Here's a more detailed review of Saturday: We woke up Saturday morning to a fresh 1-2" of snow covering everything. A very fine, powdery snow - the kind that blows into your car seat when you open the car door. The snow was actually still coming down, and would continue to do so to varying degrees all day long.




We headed into town to find a place called Leif's that was recommended as a good breakfast spot. It wasn't hard to find, and the food was very good. Our waitress recognized us from the story on the news last night, so our notoriety was already preceeding us.


After breakfast, we packed up the bags and drove over to the rinks to prepare for our last two games of the trip. Our goal for the day: not to get embarrassed. As we were headed to the pond, the sun was shining a bit through the clouds. It wasn't much, but it was nice to see the sun through all the clouds we'd had since we got here. Temperature-wise, it was a bit colder than yesterday. The 21+ guys were slated to play at 12:15pm, and the 40+ guys at 1pm. We found a place to park, and as it so happened, it was right next to the rink where the 21+ guys were playing their final game. The team set up shop, and enjoyed the parade of humanity that marched by in front of us. It's amazing how many people walked by and yelled "Ice Holes!". Somehow, in the course of 24 hours, we'd developed a following. It was around this time that someone said something about a car that was sinking in the lake. Not to miss out on an opportunity to laugh at other's misfortune, we made a field trip over to see the SUV that was sunk up to it's front wheel well. We found out later that the drivers of that SUV were the 21+ team's opponents for their last game. That game got started late. The players were all there and ready to go, but no scorekeeper. It took them a good 10-15 minutes to find a scorekeeper, but the game eventually got underway. Today's game went much better for the 21+ group. At halftime, they were actually leading 8-5. In the second half, the other team got on a streak and racked up several goals before the Holes could get back in scoring mode. In the end, the officially lost 11-10, however, it must be said that, according to several witnesses, the game was actually tied. The ref missed at least one goal for the Holes that might've changed the outcome. Oh well. Because of the late start, the 21 team had to hurry over to catch the last half of the 40 team's game. They were leading, and playing very well. They held it together through the second half, and earned the Holes the only victory of the trip. Congrats 40-somethings! (And 50-somethings!) Following the 40 Holes' win, we decided to just hang out a while - partially to watch some of the other games, but mostly to see if the SUV would sink all the way into the lake. By now, they had tried to free it using a truck and tow cable, but no luck. Then the tow truck arrived. The extraction was more difficult than even the tow truck driver had thought, but after about 45 minutes of positioning, pulling, starting over, digging, placing wood boards, and a whole lot of advice and cheers from the crowd, they succeeded in freeing the foundered vehicle. By now, the wind had picked up, and the temperatures were falling. Everyone was fairly chilled, so we went back to the hotel to soak in the hot tub.










On tap for tonight was a reception for the pond hockey crowd that included an appearence by Neal Broten, a former NHL-er and member of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" USA hockey team. We got to see his gold medal.








It was at the reception that we finally saw some cheese. Now, I don't know if it was actual Wisconsin cheese, but we pretended that it was.




After the reception and some give-aways, they invited us outside to a snowmobile track where some guys were doing a demonstration of trick riding. They were jumping about 20-30 feet in the air. Erik and I thought we could do better, so we borrowed the sleds and put on a show of our own. The whole team was very impressed with our snowmobiling prowess.

The local hockey team was playing again tonight, and the group had such a good time the night before, we decided to head back over to the "Dome" to see them play again. As was becoming commonplace, we were a big hit with the locals, and entertained several requests for pictures. It was another good hockey game, but the hometown team lost 8-5. Following the game, Kent got out on the ice to hoist the "Mullet Cup" amidst cheers from the gallery. He then fell flat on his back to even more cheers.









We finished the night in the hotel bar. A group headed by Joe played a very drawn-out game of darts, while most of the others just shot the bull. I finally did get to take Georgia dancing for Valentine's Day. I know, I know, I'm such a romantic.