Orlando Trip Blog: BC Champs Bowl and Vacation, December 27th-30th 2007
December 27th 2008
1:30 PM- Arrive at the airport and go through security. Somewhat of a busy day but its only Rochester so it was not so bad. I boarded my flight on time and we’re ready to go.
2:45PM- We’re about to leave the Gate when we are informed that JFK has shutdown because of problems in the air traffic control tower. It eventually opens back up but because we were delayed so long people were brought off the planes so they could get rebooked on later flights so they wouldn’t get stranded in JFK
3:30 PM- Still the same deal, more and more people are brought off the plane in order to get rebooked.
4:00 PM- I get off the plane to get my flight rebooked. I’m now on a 7:50 pm flight that will get in around 10:40 PM. I had a seat in the first row as well, not a bad deal.
5:00 PM- We finally are ready to leave and leave Rochester. The flight itself to JFK was fine. However, it definitely took a lot longer flight time than I thought it would. It’s only about a 45 minute flight to Newark and not much longer to Boston.
6:30 PM-Finally arrived in JFK and deplaned. My flight was pushed back until 8:20 PM so I had some time to grab dinner. Additionally, JetBlue has a wireless hotspot in the terminal so I was able to get on my computer and check information as well as mail.
7:00 PM- Waiting in line at the Cheeburger Cheeseburger restaurant. I paid almost 11 dollars for a cheeseburger and some fries. Absolutely absurd, but its an airport and what are you going to do?
8:00 PM- I arrive at the gate for our flight, as I expected the flight was delayed some more. On my plane I think I only saw one other BC fan on my plane. Hopefully this is not a reflection of the game.
9:30 PM- We finally are set for take off and leave JFK. Note to self, lets stick to the direct flights from now on. I’m not doing well on arriving on time lately.
12:30 AM- Finally arrived in Orlando.
12:45 AM- Jenn and her brother came and picked Beth and I up from the airport. Jenn lives about 20 minutes from the airport and about 10-15 from Disneyworld. When I got off the plane it was 70 degrees at 12:45 in the morning. When I left Rochester during mid day it was maybe 33 degrees. Gotta love Florida!
1:15 AM- Finally arrived at Jenn’s place.Bill and Kelly were already there. Jenn’s family is really nice.
2:00 AM- Bed Time!
9:30 AM- Wake up time!
9:45 AM- Shower and getting ready
10:15 AM- Breakfast and getting ready. Half of us went to Wal-Mart to get some booze and food.
11:45 AM- We leave for the Citrus Bowl to head off to our tailgate. We’re stocked with booze and food and ready for a great game!
1:30 PM- We’ve finally set up and are ready to go. The fun begins. The tailgate field we had looked like a practice football field. It was pretty legit. However, we were very outnumbered considering that there were no more than 5 BC tailgates on our lot and the rest belonged to MSU. Our original tailgate consisted of myself, Chris, Jenn, Luis, Beth, Dan, Erica, Vanessa and her family, Bill, and Kelly. However, there were many other of our friends who made the trip and many of them stopped by throughout the course of the day. At one point we had a legit 30 or so BC students at our tailgate. Overall the tailgate went very well despite being out numbered. It was a beautiful day with great food booze and good friends.
4:30 PM- It was time to enter the stadium. Along the way we received a good amount of heckling from the MSU fans. It was very confusing and unwarranted considering they were saying things like “gold is ugly” and “the eagle sucks.” Way to heckle, seriously come up with something more creative. For whatever reason people could not seem to grasp the concept of the Superfan shirt. Well, I guess that’s why we are BC and they are MSU.
I love going to these games and traveling, but at the same time I forget how much stress and shit I go through while I am at these games. And let me also state before I go any further that I know that I am just a fan, but I tend to take these things pretty seriously and I care a whole lot so that probably explains why I feel the way I do at times. Coming off of the opening kickoff in which we allowed them to take it to our 18 yard line was not a good start to the game. And it certainly didn’t get a whole lot better when we followed up letting them score an opening drive TD with a bunch of 3 and out’s. However, after getting off to a slow start we began to rebound and took control. Jags/Logan called a great play fake on the one yard line for the first touchdown and Ryan’s 29 yard strike to Gunnell in the back of the end zone was wide open and beautiful. After holding State two two field goals Steve-O connected on one of his own and then finally Ryan and Gunnell gave us some cushion when Ryan hit Gunnell beautifully with a 69 yard bomb to make it 24-13. However, BC never makes it easy and this was no different. I’m not sure why Jags/Logan called for a screen pass when all they really needed to do was churn out some yardage and clock and because of that fumble State put a touchdown and two point conversion. However, our defense took over and stopped State the next two times thanks also to two muffed punts by the return man for State and Paul Anderson’s interception as well as Ryan’s 2 yard plunge on 4 and 1 sealed the deal for BC. The game clock finally hit zero and BC came out on top 24-21. People were going nuts and it was a great win.
After the celebration was over and we exited the stadium we made it back to our tailgate to figure out what are plans were. We decided to check out latitudes even though some of us (well only me really) we under 21. We drove down to Church Street and checked it out. It was a pretty nice area and pretty lively especially since it was a Friday night and four football teams were in town. The Latitude bar was basically the BC bar but unfortunately they wouldn’t let me in so I had to pass on it. Instead I went and grabbed dinner and hung out with Sam and Kyle for the night. We grabbed some pizza and then just hung out on Church Street people watching and judging all the bar goers that were out in full force. I’m going to try to keep this as PG-13 as possible but girls really take going out to bars and clubs to a whole new level. Honestly, I felt as if some girls were not even wearing any clothes at all…does that really feel comfortable or do you really think that it looks good? I guess that’s what you do when you people watch and observe but it was pretty ridiculous. I’m not gonna lie most guys like looking at that but at the same time it looks and seems pretty ridiculous. When we were walking along church street a bunch of girls in those blue, red, and pink really short plaid skirts came up to us and asked us where we were going. At first I swore they could have been streetwalkers but they were really just girls that worked for a bar/club that were trying to get people to come in. Well it almost worked, minus the fact that the club looked kinda sketchy and I’m not 21. Although I was disappointed I didn’t get to go into the clubs/bars I really couldn’t complain. I was in Orlando staying for free, we just won a huge game and I still had much more fun to come. Its not like I could have magically turned 21 and I don’t have a fake. Oh well, I’ll be 21 in a year.
12:45 AM- They leave the club and come out and we’re ready to head on home. Everyone is pretty exhausted, and umm for the most part pretty drunk. While we’re waiting for all of us to get assembled this huge guy comes over and drapes his arms over Bill and Dan…he was big…black and sweaty as balls. He had a white shirt on and he was soaked in it. He was hilarious but obviously there was a catch…he wanted money. Eventually Dan gave him a dollar but he also posed for some pictures in the mean time. Here they are for the enjoyment of you all.
1:30 AM- We finally made it back to Jenn’s. We were planning on going to Magic Kingdom in the morning and we were all exhausted sow e headed to bed very early.
8:15 AM- Wake up time, we’re planning on heading over to Magic Kingdom around 930-10 so all of us need to eat and get ready by then.
9:45 AM- Magically all of us are ready to go by 9:45, talk about organization and planning..must be the UGBC in all of us. We head over to Magic Kingdom for the day.
10:15 AM- We’ve arrived at Disney and we take the Monorail to Magic Kingdom. Along the way we picked up Meghan Cassie and Sam. We’re ready for a great day of fun! I’m definitely looking to hit up some characters for some pictures.
We started off the day with Splash Mountain. It was a 50 minute wait but still a favorite of everyone we had with us. I actually never have been on it but I’ve been on rides similar to it before. The wait wasn’t too bad and everyone else was doing it so I decided to give it a shot. Basically it was like an extended log ride with Disney characters mixed in as well. It was a lot of fun and we got a little wet but it wasn’t too bad.
After Splash Mountain we headed over to Thunder Mountain. At first I wasn’t so sure because it was an hour wait as well as the fact that I wasn’t a big fan of Roller-coaster type rides, but I was told it wasn’t too bad and it was fun as well so I gave it a shot. They were right and I actually had a pretty good time. There was really only one spot where I felt my stomach drop. The rest was fine and they also give you recovery times between the drops and such so I didn’t have a problem with it.
Once we finished that ride people were starting to get hungry so we decided to grab lunch. Like every day, Disney was busy so we decided to hit up the Turkey Leg stand. Basically, it was a huge drumstick and everyone went to town on it.
After lunch, we all felt a tad bit sleepy but wanted to venture onward. We headed over to the Haunted Mansion ride which did not have a long wait either. I had been on it in the past but it had been awhile. It wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t anything spectacular either. Regardless, I find the logistics, simulation and engineering of the Disney operation very interesting. The way they figure out how long lines will be as well as the design of the lines so that you think your moving a lot quicker than you are and such is very fascinating to me. I can’t imagine how impatient I was when I was little.
After Haunted Mansion we headed over to Mickey’s Phillharmagic. This was a newer show and it was in 3-D and also a favorite of mine. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well and we got to wear the cool glasses so all in all it was a good time.
Next was Monster’s Inc. Laugh Factory. It was kind of corny, a little bit funny and really geared towards the younger crowd. After Monsters Inc. we got some ice cream and then split up, as some wanted to do Pirates of the Carribbean and others wanted to do the Race Track ride. Personally, I was pulling for Mickey’s Toontown Fair the entire day, but there weren’t too many people who showed an interest in it. Mickey’s Toontown is where all the cool characters hangout, but oh well, I’ll be back in a few weeks/months.
Most of us went on the Pirates ride which really wasn’t that long of a wait. However as we got to the front of it they started having some technical problems in the process. In the meantime to keep us at bay we saw a kid with quite possibly the biggest unibrow in the entire world. It was quite interesting and brought a few laughs. The Pirates ride was pretty cool because the animation and design made it look so real. At one point Sam wasn’t sure if we were indoors or outdoors.
After Pirates we headed back to our meeting point. The entire castle was lit up with beautiful lights as was the big Christmas tree which proved necessary for some team pictures. My albums are up on Facebook so feel free to check them out at any time. Eventually we met up with the rest of the crew and we went back to Jenn’s for dinner. Since everyone was so exhausted and some of us were leaving we decided to watch the Pat’s game at home and pack it in for the night. It proved to be a good decision as nobody was in a real mood to go out and get hammered. Overall, this was an awesome trip and a great time. Despite the fact that I was younger I really enjoyed spending time with the seniors and they really made me feel right at home. I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to go and despite how old I get I never get sick of Disneyworld, I think I really just enjoy it more each and every time.
Back to the reason why I came, what a great year for BC football! You can say what you want, whether O’Brien left the cupboard full, whether Jags had it easy or whether TOB was good for BC or not but I think that is missing the point. The point is that this team pulled together and went out and played 120% each and every one of their 14 games this season. And although they didn’t win every game they never quit and never gave up. They left it all on the field each and every chance that they had. I’ll be quite honest, this team could have been better and could have taken it to even a higher level, but their performance this year was still great and they showed a lot of heart and effort. And players like Matt Ryan, Jamie Silva and Jo-Lonn Dunbar do not come around too often, and it was enjoyable being able to see them play their final game in BC uniform’s. It will be interesting to see what happens in the years to come but I know for sure that this was a great trip and experience, and I have to hand it to our wonderful hosts of Jenn and her family. They were so welcoming and receptive of all of us that it really made the time spent so much more enjoyable. It was a great trip with great people primarly of one great organization, and I look forward to getting back to BC and continuing the great work we’ve started in this past school year. Go Eagles!
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