Avon to Killington

On the Road

June 21, 2013

Team five is officially on their way to New England. We left the Cleveland area around 7 a.m. and we are on our way Killington, Vermont. I am excited to get back to New England. Although I will still be three and a half hours away from my home which in New England is an eternity, I am still glad to be headed back. In small doses Vermont is great. This will be a few of our teammate’s first trip to New England, hope it doesn’t disappoint.

When we were heading out of Ohio we drove right by downtown Cleveland. I don’t know why it gets a bad rap, it looks like a cool place, and Progressive Field is huge! The next state we were in was Pennsylvania; we had a brief stay in the keystone state before we hit the New York border. Driving through New York takes a while. We drove across the entire upper half of the state. Avon to Killington was the longest drive team five has had this summer. We had a couple five hour drives; we easily doubled that number today. In total the drive took us 12 hours with a couple gas stops and a lunch break.  We were in Vermont for dinner.

I am excited to get this week started. We are back with our week one tournament director. We are excited to work with Katie again, and I’m sure she’s over the moon to work with us. There will be ups and downs with team five, but we always keep it interesting. We are staying at a ski resort this week. I’m glad were here in the summer because for someone from New Hampshire I am not a fan of wintery weather, and Killington gets pounded in the winter.

Time to get this week started. We hit the course tomorrow.

OB:

Last night the Miami Heat were crowed champions of the basketball world for the second time in as many years. This year’s edition of the NBA Finals was one of the best in a long time. This series was up and down, and game six was an all-timer. Lebron started slow but was fantastic down the stretch in this series. I guess right now his “decision” is looking pretty good. Lebron took his talents to South Beach, and now has two rings. The people of Cleveland will never forgive him for the way he left though.

Speaking of the people of Cleveland, last night there were times when I thought I was watching the game at a San Antonio bar. Ben the legendary host Dad had us over for one last cookout and to watch game seven. He had some of his friends from the Cleveland area over. Their disdain for Lebron was evident as every Danny Green three bricked of the rim in game seven. It’s not that they wanted to see the Spurs win; they just couldn’t bare the thought of Lebron winning another title. Lebron was their guy, he was the savior, and he was going to be the catalase to the first Cleveland title since 1948. I talked to Ben’s friend who use to have 4^th row seats to the Cavs at mid-court. He has since given them up, he said the Q “was electric,” when the king was there. Even with Kyrie “it’s just not the same.”  Now he has two rings for the people of South Beach that leave game six of the NBA Finals early. Sometimes being a sports fan just isn’t fair.

It didn’t work out for my new friends from Cleveland, but hopefully someday they will see a championship parade. This week really reminded me of how lucky I have been as a sports fan. I am 22 and I have already seen seven championships, and were on the cusp of another one (Go Bs). Anyone in Cleveland born in 1949 or later has never seen any of their teams win a title! This is crazy, what a bad run they have been on. I know how lucky I am to be a Boston sports fan at my age.    
     

Sometimes it is hard to put in perspective when you get punched twice in the gut by the Giants in Super Bowls, and blow a 13 point lead in the game 7 against the Lakers. This week definitely gave me some perspective on how good my friends and I have had it watching seven (hopefully eight) parades in eleven years. I was talked with a die-hard Cleveland sports fan that worked in the cart barn at Red Tail.  He was explaining to me a lot about the cities sports culture.  He told me football will always be king, and if any team wins a title it will be mayhem. However if the Browns ever won a Super Bowl, the city  may burn down. For all the people I met this week, I hope some year the first Sunday in February will be the busiest day in Cleveland Fire Department history.

                     Great photo of Red Tail Golf Club in the morning taken by fellow intern Kelsey.