i will post photos as soon as i get a chance

wow! were there ever a lot of blue and white jerseys at the honda center! even more than you would see at a nucks-leafs game at gm place.

it was a lot of fun til the 3rd period

nuff said about that.

dropped casey off at the train station at 930 this morning and been wandering around on hollywood blvd..got given a ticket to be in the audience for the craig ferguson show in a couple hours(airs tonite) so i am off to do that - with leafs jersey on -of course - before i head to the staples center to see the leafs play the kings.

go leafs go!

the drive down was pretty smooth through washington state, in fact we didn't stop in washington at all.
we filled up as soon as we got into oregon and the trip thru that state went pretty well too, untill we pulled into the town of Talent at around 1:30 in the morning.
casey was asleep in the passenger seat and i was pretty close to sleeping in the drivers seat, when i saw a flashing yellow sign warning drivers that they were required to have chains on their tires to go any further south.
well...my first thought was 'i'm canadian man! i don't need chains on my tires!" but, since we needed gas and coffee to go much further, i pulled into a station.
after talking to the guy who served me i decided not to chance it while i was so exhausted and we checked into a motel 6 for 4 hours.
in the morning we discovered that they were turning back vehicles that didn't have chains, we went to walmart and bought some.
at first it seemed like a waste but for a few miles up in grants pass we were happy to have them and made pretty good time compared to the hundreds of vehicles that were parked on the side of the highway without chains.
after about 30 miles,one of the chains broke so i removed it...a few miles later the other one broke so took that one off too. it was all good till we got to another checkpoint at the town of 'weed' just inside the california border.

i was ordered off the road so i had to find a quick fix for the chains and put them back on. a couple miles past the checkpoint and again, one - then the other - break again and we are without chains for quite a few miles.

needless to say, we were fine , but the irony of being in california and having to put chains on my car for the first time in my life, gave casey and i much to chuckle about.

the border crossing was interesting (ok, more like nerve racking) couldn't find my birth certificate so i had to chance going over without it... they didn't like that much so i had to pull over and go inside.
not good.

after a brief discussion with the guy inside (who made it quite clear that he wasn't impressed) i apologised to him for making his, already difficult job, more difficult he seemed to lighten up a bit...
we were told to sit and wait...after 20 minutes or so he called me up to talk again and asked if i had ever been arrested. he was looking at a computer screen that must have had the answer to that question on display so i told him about 'the burger king incident'

he had lots of questions to ask about that (all of which i answered truthfully and with great candor)

he said "consider this a gift", wrote south on the little yellow slip of paper and wished me a happy holiday.

we were in!

just cos i can't get online. doesn't mean i can't blog - right?

so...casey is comin with!
leaving monday so i should check the conditions later - tomorrow if i don't get back online here tonight.
pretty well packed -leafs laundry is done - even got the wine stains outta the home jersey!
kinda pumped but reticent to get too carried away till i am across the border.
then it's food shopping and away!
we can't really afford for me to do this but for some reason, gary bettman won't cover it.
if the leafs played here once in a while...
alright, it's not hard to sell me on the idea of driving to california for 3 leafs games and a round or two of golf (how many may depend on a little luck and the smiling of the golf gods)

now that i think of it, it was just a little too easy to talk kera into it.

'california caravan'

since i am a leaf fan of the highest order...it seems fitting, that my first topic for the new blog, would be my road trip to see the leafs on their west coast triple header. i already have tickets to the games on the 9th and 10th (ducks and kings) plan on trying to get a ticket to the sharks game on the 12th.

accom in the l.a. area is booked from the night of the 8th to the morning of the 12th. i'll head up to san jose early saturday morning...work on getting the best ticket i can find and if i can't get a good seat i'll get a bad one.

after the game - if i don't have $$$ left for a room in san jose, i'll head up the highway towards home and sleep in the car along the way (don't worry, i'll pull over first)

the original plan had a buddy involved in the mix...1/2 the gas, 1/2 the hotel room = twice the fun!

unfortunately, for reasons i understand, he had to bail.

so as it stands i am scheduled to go it alone but a last minute discussion (it's friday night and i leave monday morning) has another friend trying to juggle shifts to come for the ride - catch ONE game and take the bus back.

such dedication...such a leaf fan.

even with the shower and change in to work clothes in seattle, we're still looking at almost 2 hours late for the friday shift at the pub.

not really my problem tho...
i'll still be in california - hopefully finishing up a round of golf.

i'll be back with more as soon as i know more.

not sure all of the effort to set this blog up was really worth it...for me or for YOU... don't know how often i will get to post or even what i plan to post.
there's the rest of my woefully out of date website to consider too.
meanwhile...i have a few things to sort out.

peace, love and blogging again