PTA :: The Sequel

In the hilarious 1987 movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Steve Martin's character struggles to travel home for Thanksgiving, with an obnoxious slob of a shower ring salesman (John Candy) his only companion.

I can identify with the travel "struggles." At times in the past 24 hours I was convinced we were making the Planes, Trains and Automobiles sequel!

The plan was to wrap up our conference by noon on Wednesday and then four of us from the show staff would be flying together from Vegas to Green Bay, with a brief layover at the Minneapolis airport. Wow, that word "brief" sure came into play.

We flew Delta both ways and we heard (over the speakers) so many departure delays we were surprised we made to to Vegas on time Saturday were surprised we were about to depart on time Wednesday. Well, we didn't. Despite their efforts for a quick loading to be on time, we weren't quick.

Then there was that "mechanical issue" with the air conditioning and heat. It was being down for "our comfort," but frankly there were a lot of us who just wanted to get going so we wouldn't miss our connections in Minneapolis. We ended up departing almost a half hour late and those of us in my traveling party pretty much knew it was going to be hard to catch our flight with our only 42-minute layover now reduced to maybe 12 minutes at most.

So our game plan was that the two of us "runners" (ha) would get to the front of our plane when it parked, disembark and run like hell to catch our departing plane -- and tell them to hold it for the rest. Well we did disembark quickly. And I did probably run my fastest 5K. Ever. But it was not enough. We got to gate and our plane to Green Bay was pulling out to take off.

What? Finally a plane is departing on time and it's OURS??

Turns out it was the last of the night to Green Bay and we could sit in the airport and wait 12 hours for the flight today or drive home. Even though it was 10 at night and a four-hour hike, we rented a vehicle and drove to my travel companions' home in Shawano (45 minutes out of Green Bay) -- with a much-deserved Shamrock Shake stop along the way!

I slept there and we went to the airport (crossing our fingers) this morning so we could get there at 11:30 to meet our luggage off the plane from the Cities. Luggage was there, thank goodness. I did a quick Superman phone booth change in the bathroom -- mainly applying deodorant and makeup -- then met Jim at a saloon near the state basketball field house, where he gave me an Assumption shirt, I did another quick Superman change in the bathroom and we walked over the game.

Have luggage. Have ticket. Have Royal Blue shirt. Whew. Made it!!

We sat a few rows up from the court but had to sort of turn at an angle to watch our girls take on  Heritage Christian Academy in the semi-final. Had a good view of our band but the spirit bibbed Carter was tucked behind people. Lucky for him, no photos today.

The game ended up being less stressful than I expected, which was good because I got some of my voice back and didn't want to scream it away in one game.

In the end, we made quite a statement with our winning score!! Whoo-hoo! Now we will play Saturday for our second consecutive state championship.

That should be quite the game as we play Barneveld, who gave us one of our two losses this season AND beat their opponent today by 19 points.

Better save up my voice for that one!