The Bus Ride to Elizabethton

This was my first ever true bus ride, it was suppose to be a 15 hour trip with a 1 hour stop half way through, but instead turned into quite an adventure. I was planning on doing a live feed on the events that took place on the road trip but there was no wi-fi on the bus like I was hoping. So I wrote down small reminders on my iPod on the trip so I wouldn't forget to write about it tonight. So here it is, the adventure from Fort Myers to Elizabethton.

Saturday 18th June
11:20pm - The bus arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn for us to load all our stuff on. We thought there would be plenty of space for all the bags, but nearly everyone had 3-4 bags with them. So it was a tight squeeze getting all the bags on, but we eventually packed everything.

11:50pm - We left the hotel to go to the Spring Training Facility to pick up the team gear, and for players to pick up the last of their equipment.

Sunday 19th June
12:00am - Arrived at our facility and as we got there, we all sang happy birthday to Derek Christensen, who turned 22 today.

12:20am - We left the field on our way to Elizabethton. I was trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in, and as I was moving around I kicked one of my team mates in the face, who was lying on the aisle in the bus, which turned out to be a popular place for people to get some sleep.

12:35am - After many failed attempts at trying to find a comfortable position to sleep, I decided to turn on the computer and watch a movie. I started to watch The Social Network, which if people don't know, is the movie about the founder of facebook, and if people know me very well, it would be a movie that I would be very interested in.

1:00am - Started to get pretty tired so decided to shut down the computer and get some sleep. It was tough to get comfy but I got into the least uncomfortable position and just toughed it out. So I turned the iPod on, turned on some Taylor Swift and went to sleep.

6:30am - Had a small stop, just for us to change bus drivers. Which was the only time I had woken up surprisingly, so I got a good 5 1/2 hours sleep.

8:20am -Had our first real stop which was at a Mcdonalds somewhere in Georgia. Since the first stop I was able to get in more sleep, so unlike others I was able to get sufficient sleep.

9:00am - Got back on the bus and decided to start watching The Social Network again.

10:20am - I was 10 minutes away from finishing The Social Network and then my computer battery died. Not going to lie, I was very disappointed, I was really getting into the movie.

11:20am - Had another short rest stop at a little picnic area. I just got out and went for a little walk to stretch the legs.

11:30am - We got back on the bus and I decided to bring out the PSP and start playing MLB10:The Show. The movie Step Brothers was also on, so my attention kept changing from my PSP to the little tv screens.

12:00pm - Just finished playing a game on MLB10:The Show and threw a perfect game with Roy Halladay throwing for the New York Yankees against the Baltimore Orioles. This was the 7th perfect game I have thrown on an MLB video game, the first one I threw was on All Star Baseball 2003 with Roger Clemens.

1:00pm - Step Brothers had just finished, and then we put on another movie, Hot Tub Time Machine, which is in my top 10 favourite comedies of all time.

1:10pm - Started to get a little tired, so decided to try and take another nap.

2:20pm - This is when the bus ride took a turn for the worst. I woke up from my nap and the bus had stopped on the side of the road. What made it worse is that we were only 40 miles out from ElizabethtonThe reason for this stop is because the bus had over heated and broke down. I didn't think we would be broken down for long so I decided to just sit on the bus, but with no air conditioner on, it got way too hot and I got off the bus.

3:25pm - A hour had past and finally a mechanic came to help us out. I don't know anything about motors or cars, so I couldn't explain in detail what had happened, but something was leaking, and thats probably never a good thing.

Bus driver and mechanic hard at work

5:00pm - After 2 hours and 40 minutes, a roll of duct tape and the use of a pocket knife, we finally got back onto the road.

6:00pm - Finally arrived at Joe O'Brien Field, where we unloaded all our gear into the clubhouse and then players that had host families left to move into their houses. I don't have housing or an apartment yet, so some other players and me were put up in a hotel for a few nights.

6:30pm - Left the field to go to the hotel, and once I got into the hotel all I could do was lay in bed. After a long day of travel, there's nothing better then being able to get into a big comfy bed.

So there it is, all the fun I got up to on our long road trip from Fort Myers to Elizabethton. Hopefully I will get a good sleep tonight before our first workout tomorrow, then time to strap in for Opening Night on Tuesday.