Stranded in the Capital (again)

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This past weekend N had his hockey state tournament, and it was a fun weekend but at times long and excruciating. The reason for this is because it required some time sitting around and awaiting our fate, and in retrospect, I definitely did things the wrong way. You'd think I'd have learned the drill by now.

N had his state tournament playoffs down in Nashua, and we actually got a good deal on a hotel. It was a Homestead Suites, which is part of the Hilton chain, which usually bodes well for us. Plus, I'm a Hilton Honors member, though I haven't quite figured out what benefits I get from that. The playoffs were played on neutral ice so they had two rinks at play, one in Tyngsboro, MA (wherever that is), and the other in Nashua. Our hotel was pretty much right in between, so you couldn't beat it for location. Since there's so much going on down there, we was no shortage of places to eat.

Our first game was late Friday evening, and with so much time to get there, I decided to take the long way over there, which meant heading down the state and then cutting across on small backroads. I personally prefer to travel this way, it's so much more interesting, though it added about 20 minutes to our trip. We arrived in the early afternoon and had time to chill out, get some supper, and then go to his game.

Since we were in the happening big city and in the market for a new MTB, we did a search for bike shops and found a really nice one called Goodales. Next, we came up with a plan - since we didn't have to be at the rink until 7:00PM, we figured we'd order some supper for pickup, go to the bike shop, learn about bitchen dual suspension (dualies) MTBs, check out some afforable models, get our supper and eat it back at the hotel, digest the meal, and then go to the game. How's that for a plan? It actually worked out beautifully, and the bike shop was actually really nice (huge selection) and the guy who helped us was very cool. Definitely a young hipster who had the outdoor nature vibe. The bikes were on the higher end, but it was nice to look.

We then headed back toward the hotel to get our food. Just for the record, we could not have done any of this without Google Maps, and thankfully I got my new $30 phone just before we left, so we were connected. We got pizza and wings for supper, ate back at the room while watching Guy Fieri on the Food Network, and chilled out for a bit. We then headed over to his game where N's team got beat pretty badly, then back to the hotel to chill out some more before going to bed. Luckily we had leftovers from supper so we could chow a little before bed.

The hotel had breakfast included, so we chowed down and then went to N's second game, which they won. Now this is where things got complicated. Not to be such a pessimist, but I figured we would get a hotel for just one night. If the team did well and qualified for the elimination round, they would play on Sunday, requiring a second night in the hotel. However, this wasn't completely realistic because they had never beaten either team. GSL rules require that every team play each other twice, and N's team has lost all for meetings with these two teams, Lakes Region and Concord. They are very strong, and chances were pretty slim that they would advance to the next round. I hate to be such a cynic, but if we had gotten a hotel room for a second night, we could not have canceled at the last minute and would have had to have eaten the cost. We figured if they advanced, we could probably find a room somewhere, even closer to Concord.

And that's where the situation gets even more complicated. Since we were down by the Capital, naturally N wanted to hang out with his girlfriend. Can you blame him? She even came to the game Friday evening, which I think is so cool. They didn't have a ton of time together, so I broached the idea of them hanging out on Saturday after his second game against Concord. Since I assumed they'd lose the game (wrong), N and she could spend the rest of the day together, and they invited him to spend the night (in the guest room, of course). I would simply drop him off at their house and head home, then meet them at our regular halfway meeting spot and pick him up. Great plan, right?

Except that his team won. They beat Concord, who dominated them all season and had all of their high school players back. Logically speaking, they shouldn't have won, and yet they shut them out, 2-0. I was very happy for them, but a little shocked. And, it completely threw off my plan. Now, there was a chance that they would play on Sunday, with one condition - Concord had to lose it's next game and thus be eliminated. There was a good chance of this, as well, because their next game was against Lakes Region, the odds on favorite to win it all. They had beaten N's team 8-3. Since we beat Concord, and Lakes Region stomped on us, the logical conclusion was that Lakes Region would also beat Concord, thereby propelling us into the next round.

What was a total pain was that we wouldn't know the results of the Lakes/Concord game until late Saturday evening. Their game was at 7:00PM. What made this hard was that we wouldn't know if we needed to get a hotel for a Sunday game until after this game, which would be around 8:00PM at the earliest. How's that for a pain in the YKW? Almost all of N's teammates simply went home and awaited word. If need be, they were planning on driving down the next morning for a 9:30 game. Since it's a two hour drive and they had to be there at 8:30, we're talking waking up at 5:30 and getting out the door by 6:30. I decided to wait it out down in Nashua and see, mainly because N was with his girlfriend, anyway. If, as it should have gone, Lakes beat Concord, eliminating them, I would go get N in Concord and then we'd get a hotel for Sunday's game. I asked mom to search for a hotel for us and she found one but didn't reserve anything until we knew if they were even going to play.

I went to the Lakes/Concord game and can you guess what happened? Concord upset Lakes Region. Not only that, but they controlled the game. By the time it was over, I realized that there wasn't going to be another game, and that I could just go home. In retrospect I screwed up because I didn't need to stay and watch those games. I should have just gone home in the first place. If they had a game, I could have picked up N en route the next mornign. Instead, I did a lot of back and forth driving just to see the result. It was a fun game to watch, but what a drain on time.

So, I got in my car and headed home around 8:30PM, got home around 10:30PM, and went to bed. The next day, I went back down to Concord to get N, and then back home. Boy, talk about a crazy weekend. I can't believe how much driving we do, but that's what happens when you play hockey with the big boys.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Dan for the pic.