Down to the Wire

We made this crazy trek to play hockey and meet up with the A&R to see a movie, and there was some question as to whether we'd pull it off. It was getting a little ambitious, to say the least. As I mentioned, we had this bummer of a weekend of travel going back and forth to Manchester, which is about 65 miles away, but through a winding mountain pass. We had to be there three days in a row, and to save money we decided to commute. Not the best plan, but a plan, nonetheless. The big problem we faced was that the big game day was on Valentine's Day, and we wanted to be with our family but had two games to play.

This meant driving to Manchester, playing a game, going somewhere for lunch, playing a second game, then heading to Hanover. It was complicated by the fact that the last game ended at 5:00PM and we had to be in Hanover by 7:00. Normally this is pretty doable, but we were hit with this massive snowstorm, making travel precarious and slow. Talk about bad timing.

The first game was pretty early so we had to leave home by around 7:00AM. For the record, the game went well, and afterward we all met up at a nearby inn to eat lunch and relax. It was nice to have a place to unwind, but the trip back home was on my mind, and I was hoping to get a nap in, which is pretty hard to do with nearly 20 pre-teen boys and an equal number of parents all hanging out and having a good time. I didn't get any rest, and had to pick up some supper for N to eat on the ride home. I found a killer Mex-fusion place, Cilantro, and got him some pork tacos. I was a little dismayed that from the moment we arrived and throughout the day the snow was unrelenting.

We then played our second game, with another good result, and told N afterward to get dressed as quickly as possible because we had to leave. He did a great job and we hit the road. I got him set up with his food and set about the trek home. The snow was still coming down and at points it was white-out conditions, though they did a good job of keeping the roads clear. As you can imagine, driving through a mountain pass, there are always cars who are driving at a snail's pace, and for good reason. It's just that we had places to be.

In the end, we pulled into Hanover with about 10 minutes to spare, found parking, called R, and met her in the lobby at pretty much 7:00PM. She gave us our tickets and by the time we entered the theater, the lights had dimmed and they were playing the coming attractions. I was exhausted but the movie was great and the kids enjoyed it. The snow was still coming down on the drive home, albeit lighter, and we arrived and unpacked our stuff. I was hungry and tired, but happy we made it home safely and happy that we managed to salvage our Valentine's Day, sort of.

Now we get to drive to Manchester once again. The beautiful thing is that next weekend will probably be even crazier.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Neil Johansson for the pic.