One Night in Grand Rapids, Part II

As promised, let's move on to the bad and ugly from my mini-vacation.

The Bad and the Ugly:

***The drive from Toledo to Grand Rapids was not at all fun. If you exclude the 30-minute stop for some food, we were still on the road for over four hours. Roads were slick and snow-covered everywhere, and we narrowly avoided being in a pretty bad accident just a bit over the border into Michigan. By the time we got to Lansing, the roads were in better shape, but as we neared Grand Rapids, they got bad again. By the time we left the roller derby around 9 or 10pm, the roads looked as though nary a plow had been out, and this was hours after the snowfall ceased. Fortunately, by the time we drove home on Sunday, everything was clear. We made the return trip in about 2.5 hours. I would have thought that an area of Michigan that had already received over 100 inches of snow this year could have better handled a whopping four-inch snowfall that came with plenty of advance warning.

***Some of the lineup and personnel decisions in the Silent Lambs bout were head-scratchers. The coaches kept going back to skaters who were not having their best days, at the expense of better options. Miss Print finally got a few more opportunities as the game wore on, but by that point, she must have been exhausted from many jams as a blocker. Seriously, what kind of coach puts the small, speedy wide receiver on the offensive line to take a beating? Trying to find Miss Print in the midst of the pack was like trying to find a non-Bengal in a Cincinnati police line-up. Also, where was Jungle Lacy? To take a talent like that and keep her off the jammer line was a crime. I hesitate to be too negative towards individuals who had rough games, as these ladies are out there as amateurs to have fun, but having the jammer in the penalty box so often almost cost the Lambs the game.

***GRRG's venue was terrible. I'm sure that I'm somewhat spoiled by the Cincinnati Gardens, but they might as well have played in a parking lot somewhere. When we arrived at Rivertown Sports in Grandville, a sign on the door indicated that tickets were sold out. We were thankful that we had bought tickets in advance and impressed that GRRG had scored a sellout. Then, we walked in. There were barely a couple hundred seats, and for those who couldn't get in the front row (we got there a bit too late), it was very difficult to see, as nearly all of the seats were folding chairs on the floor. All seats were in the "end zones," for lack of a better term, and one of the most frequently heard comments was "I don't know. I couldn't see it." I went to the concession stand immediately at halftime to get hot dogs and literally stood still in line for the first fifteen minutes. There were no more than fifteen people in front of me, but by the time I got my food, more than five minutes of the second half had elapsed. Also, through some combination of poor insulation and giant ceiling fans at full speed, the place was an icebox. Even with my coat on, I was very chilly by the end of the second bout. Thankfully, I didn't have to avail myself of the restroom facilities, but from what I hear, they brought a new meaning to Raggidy. The GRRG fans next to us mentioned that the team had previously played in a better arena, but economic forces were to blame for the state of its current home.

***My fiancee's cousins never got back to us. It's too bad that we finally made it all the way up there and couldn't even get together for a meal.

***Aside from our few minutes with The Librarian and my fiancee's chat with Sadistic Sadie, we didn't get a chance to talk with any of the skaters from either team. One of my favorite parts of going to the derby is getting to meet the players. It's truly one of the touches that makes derby more enjoyable than many "big-time" sports. After the second bout, most of the skaters cleared out in a hurry. Over the last year or two, I have come to a more realistic view of talking to the skaters. Most of them are very happy for the support of the fans and are willing to make small talk and offer thanks for our attendance. At the beginning of my derby fandom, I mistook this for a more general interest in friendship. I am pretty shy about just approaching strangers, especially when I feel that I am taking away from their time to be with family and friends after the bout. To their credit, none of the skaters has ever been rude, nor refused a quick chat. Still, now that I've come to realize that all of the participants want to spend time with their own friends and families, I try to make it quick. Let's face it, most of us don't have the time to build a friendship with people we see four or five times a year, and who live three hours away. To this extent, I've tried to limit incursions into skaters' personal lives, be it on MySpace or Facebook or an invitation to a Reds game. We've basically been spoiled by such close access to our favorite athletes. Could you imagine leaving a Reds game and being upset that you didn't get more time to talk with Brandon Phillips afterwards? The bottom line is that I feel guilty about feeling "entitled" to a meet-and-greet, but I missed it.

***Finally, the after-party was a huge disappointment. On our previous derby trips, we have never been able to attend any of the post-bout festivities. Usually, this has been due to our travel obligations. This time around, we decided that we'd get a nearby hotel and plan to socialize at whatever bar hosted the party. Well, strike two on getting to socialize. We arrived at the bar, went from zero to lung cancer in 2.8 seconds (it's so nice to live in smoke-free Ohio), and stood in line without having any idea why. Finally, as an employee was waving in those with tarot cards, we asked and found out that only people who bought tickets ahead of time could come in. I need to buy a special ticket to go to a crappy bar in Grand Rapids and smell like an ashtray? Oh well, maybe we'll try again for an after-party in Cincy this spring.

Well, that's a lot more negative than I prefer to be, so we'll leave it at that for tonight. Even though it seems like a lot went wrong, I still feel fortunate that we got to experience all of the positives. Thanks to GRRG and CRG for putting on a show with everything but Yul Brenner, to the couple next to us for friendly conversation, and to MDOT for getting the roads salted before our trip home on Sunday.