First Day in Carolina

We landed at the Raleigh-Durham airport around 3:35 pm.  It was one of the most enjoyable flights I’ve ever taken.  By the time I finished my last blog, we were beginning our descent.  Nice job American Airlines!  It was almost worth the $50.00 check-baggage fee.

I don’t know if it is because of my utter disdain for LaGuardia, but the Raleigh airport was really, really nice – booming with restaurants and televisions.  Something tells me I’m not going to mind waiting to board our flight home tomorrow.

Kyle’s parents and Doreen’s (Kyle’s mom) sister and brother-in-law met us with open arms at the airport.  After waiting for a relatively short five minutes at baggage claim, we were en route to the hotel.

North Carolina – well to put it nicely – is different to say the least.  It’s very, very hot.  The 90 degree days that we get in Connecticut are manageable, but the 90 degree days that they get here are impossible.  It is very humid, and 90 degrees really feels like 105.  Obviously, that isn’t ideal baseball weather.  In fact, Oxford’s starting pitcher Dale had to come out of Thursday’s game because of heat exhaustion.  Yes folks, it really is that bad.

When we arrived at the hotel, the six of us went to visit Cole.  Cole and (his roomate) Adam were in the middle of watching an exercise show on television and going along with the exercises.  It was pretty funny.

After we said our goodbyes to Cole, Kyle and I came to our room and crashed for an hour before dinner.  We were really tired.  Getting up at 5:00 am will do that to you.

The entire team and family went to Parker’s Bar-B-Que for dinner.  Not kidding, there were probably 70 of us in this restaurant.  There were high hopes for the food, and the menu had a family style option (all the fried chicken, shredded (and I mean shredded) pork, slaw, cornsticks,  potatoes, etc. you could eat.

I don’t want to knock the people who liked the food, but the food really wasn’t good.  I really can’t elaborate because I don’t want to offend anybody that went into planning this dinner.  Nevertheless, it was fun to be in a dinner environment with that many people.  No matter how bad or how good food is, it’s not the food that’s important; it’s the family time that matters.

After we left the restaurant, we went back to the hotel to congregate.  The ladies decided to head out to town (I don’t know where they go for entertainment around here.   Wilson prides itself on its many state parks.  The restaurant we left closed at 9:00 on a Friday night so that goes to show you how the nightlife is around here) and good for them!  The gentlemen decided to hang out in the lobby and play some gentlemen’s cards while enjoying a brew or two.  It was a really relaxing and enjoyable night until…

Some mother from a different team interrupted our card game and said one player (she didn’t know what team) called 911.  After that, all hell broke loose.  Because it is not my place to share the events of this night, just know that the Oxford kids didn’t doing anything wrong.  They were kids just being kids and weren’t doing anything to be disrespectful or offend anyone like the other team.  The hotel staff flipped out and told us we needed to be out by tomorrow (which is today as I’m writing this).

One of the Oxford mom’s said it best.  She was saying how the pool here is very small.  Also, there is nothing in this hotel for the kids to do. There really isn’t.  So much for the sweet South.  This week alone probably is the only week this hotel generates money.  If you can’t handle a bunch of screaming kids, then why offer your services to host them?  Getting an arcade room to start will help tame some of the problems here.

Plan for today is to relax, maybe take a swim, head to lunch, maybe watch practice at 11:30, hopefully head to Duke before game time tonight at 8:00 against North Carolina.  Check back here of the CT Post for tonight’s game recap.

Catch you later,

-Matt-

P.S. – When we first got to Wilson, I Googled their website.  Under their entertainment section, it says that Wilson is known for the best broadband connection in North Carolina.  Like what does that even mean?  Do they really want to attract visitors by promising them the best internet in the state? WEAK!  Anyhow, my 3G network from AT&T stinks around here!