Just when you thought it couldn't get any better - it did!!!!!!!
Our first day of traveling with the mini buses so the first task of the day was the jigsaw of packing the luggage van with all of the bags for the group - plus the back seat of two of our passenger buses as well. Jeff Campbell's packing skills came to bear - he did an awesome job!
We left Raleigh at about 9.15am and headed south along the most awesome network of freeways. The travel time was listed as 2 hours 30 minutes, but we knew that we were heading into some poor weather which might slow us down. One of our group felt ill during the trip (yes, it was a bit of a mess) but otherwise the trip went well, and about an hour out of Charlotte the snow flakes floated down - it was amazing!! Whilst we did have to slow down a little, it was worth it for the beautiful sight of snow in the trees and bushes, all over the ground and all around.
We arrived at our hotel at about 1.30pm (see, it did take longer than we thought) to find that due to the snow fall most things around were closed - even the Burger King in the car park! Many of us ordered pizzas for lunch to fill the gap, and got ourselves ready for a 4pm departure to go to the Charlotte Bobcats. We traveled in to town very slowly due to the sleet falling (about 11 miles) and parked across from the arena in an empty carpark. After a short bout of shopping in the team shop we were escorted courtside to watch the team shootaround - an absolutely awesome experience to get so close to the players and many were able to get their autographs. We enjoyed the chance to be the only people in the arena for nearly an hour, and I got a interviewed by the radio announcer. As the weather had been so bad all day, and was threatening to be worse tonight, they were expecting a very small crowd, so our seats were moved twice - from the top stand to the back of the lower stand, then to 6 rows from the court! AMAZING!!!!! Once people started to filter in it became obvious that the crowd would be very small (they really are a bit soft down here if a little snow keeps them away from a game) and by tipoff only about 1700 people were in the arena which seats nearly 20,000! At quarter time many of us moved - Lachlan, Cambell and I took up front row seats - it was an incredible experience to be so close to the game - we could hear the players, see their faces and really experience the whole thing!! Others moved over closer to the bench, as at the end sat Michael Jordan! You'll see the amazing photo Chris Tippelt took here on the blog. Mullie and Tom got a chance to compete in the quarter time game of tick-tack-toe on the court (well done on winning Mullie) and Christian, Dan and Tom got to sit courtside for the second half. Seriously, an unforgettable experience!!
Following the game we braved the light sleet falling to walk back to the vans, only to find a thick coating of ice on all the windows. Once the heaters were rolling we were able to scrape the ice from the windshields, and wind down the side windows and put our fist through the ice which had set across the window space.
It was a very slow drive home - very few cars on the road but much ice and snow which made conditions treacherous, to say the least - possibly the hardest conditions I have ever driven in. We did all arrive safely and are now settled in to the warmth of our hotel.
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