Rise and shine…dark? That 2:30 AM alarm came fast, but it was finally travel day to Texas for our first road trip of the season. Let me introduce myself. This is 5th year senior third baseman Abby Lien.
The day started with getting to the airport at 3:45 in the morning. Checking our bags was smooth and getting through TSA went without a hitch. We had about 30-40 minutes before we boarded our plane. We were split into 2 groups, the oldies, and the youngins. The oldies consisted of, you guessed it, the older players on the team; Delaney, Bergen, Gracey, Nicole, Torri, Kennedy and Abby Gilk and myself. The oldies flew with Coach Melsted and Coach Day, while the youngins flew with Coach Thompson. We were on 2 different flights, both connecting into Chicago, IL, and then to Houston, TX.
Our first flight was an interesting one to say the least. It was a plane that only had 3 seats across, and we packed our softball backpacks as carry ons and those did not fit in the overhead bins so we were squished! Thankfully the flight was a little over an hour or so to Chicago, so we could catch our connecting flight.
We got the unfortunate news right after we had boarded our first flight that our connecting flight was delayed an hour and a half. Meanwhile the youngins did not have a delay so they were going to get to Houston before us. So now we had to figure out what to do in the airport for the next 1.5 hours. My teammate, Andrea, gave me a really good book, so I read the whole layover. Others slept, or just hung out and talked about old memories from years past. I thought it went by fast, but that could have been the Venti Starbucks in me speaking.
The layover was finally over and we were relieved to see that this was a normal plane with 3 seats on each side, and it was not as full. The 3 hour flight went by pretty fast. I was sitting by Delaney, who got stuck in the middle seat ;), and Coach Melsted who was in the aisle. I read most of the flight, Delaney watched Netflix, and Coach slept for most of it.
Once we landed, we got our bags and went to find the other group who had been waiting for us in the Houston airport for 2 hours. Once we found them, we got our minivans and we headed to a restaurant called Pallotta Italian Grill. The food there was really good and came out super-fast, but the best part was the cinnamon roll place Delaney pointed out when we got there. Once we were done eating, we walked down the Cinnaholic Bakery. This is a gourmet cinnamon roll shop that was on the ABC show Shark Tank. They have signature cinnamon rolls or you can build your own with a variety of frosting flavors and toppings. I cannot wait to eat it, but unfortunately I was too full after my lasagna from supper.
Now it is time to unwind at the hotel, hang out with some teammates, my awesome roommate, Haley Grimmius, and parents before going to bed early after a long travel day.
Tomorrow we have practice in the morning and Coach told us that we are going to Rudy’s Barbeque for supper so I am really looking forward to that!
Hope to check in again later on the trip!
