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Rink Rat Hockey Road Trips

There is nothing that compares to a hockey road trip, especially if it is a Rink Rat Hockey Road Trip.  Who know what kind of mayhem and stupidity may occur when you combine hockey crazed fanatics, a live NHL game and a few glasses of their favorite spirits. 

On this page, we will chronicle some of the Rink Rat Hockey Road Trips (RRHRT), so that others may learn from our mistakes.

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Well the last  RRHRT was in Oct as the Rink Rats traveled  to North Dakota for a Wisconsin Badger/North Dakota Fighting Sioux WCHA game.  Due to the massive amounts of beer consumed, not a lot was remembered of the trip so here are some of the highlights (or just the things I remember)

• *If you get a chance to take in a hockey game at Ralph Engelstad Arena, we suggest you do so.   What a great hockey rink and just a great place to see a college hockey game.  As a added bonus you can drink beer in the stands which is always nice.  

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• *Grand Forks gets "Hockey Night in Canada" on their basic cable there.  How cool is that?!

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• *The most impressive part of the laser shows between the 2nd and 3rd periods was when the lasers hit Curt's beer as it was flying all over the people and seats in front of us.  I must remember to have Curt wear "Stickem" from now on.

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• *My dad was right.  North Dakota may not be the end of the world but you can sure see it from there.

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• *A new game was invented by the Rink Rats while killing time at the hotel.  "Jihad Quarters", the official drinking game of all RRHRT's.   If you want details on this game, let us know and be sure and ask about "the most exciting play in "Jihad Quarters"".

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• *Something evil lives in Brian's digestive system.

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• *12 inches of snow for Halloween?  That's just not right.  What do the kids dress up as??  Members of the Donner Party???

Skippy's report of the last NHL RRHRT, the Feb 25, 2000  game of the Red Wings/Coyotes game (or "Tilt" as that Jackass Bill Clement likes to call games) is below.

Detroit road trip:

After arriving safe & sound in Detroit, via airplane, on the morning of Saturday February 24th, I proceeded to Brians (my brothers) gate to await his arrival. His flight was pretty much on time, so we shuttled to the Rent-a-car spot & hopped into our relatively new Saturn. It was 1PM, local time, so we decided to grab some lunch at the local McDonalds before heading 
downtown to our hotel. We waited for our order for over 15-minutes, setting a new standard for the fast-food industry. Needless to say, Brian was very pleased, as he is one of the most patient people I know (besides myself). We proceeded to the Hotel Ponchartrain on Washington Avenue, 2-blocks from The Joe. At around 4PM local time, we had the 1st of many Bud Lights to our lips.

 After many beers there, we walked to our "old haunt," Kobo Joe's.  Oh the memories of Joey, Brian & I there for Game 4 of the Flyers/Wings series in '97. We ate again, played some pool, called Joey to rub it in & then headed back to the hotel bar. Pretty uneventful evening, except for the $75.00 12-pack of Bud Light that we had sent to our room. But, it was QUALITY Bud Light, not just any old Bud Light. The next day we rolled out of bed around 9AM, ate the biggest damn omlette that you'd ever seen, watched the Charlies Angels movie & headed for The Joe. 

Now here's where common sense should've prevailed. Of course, we were pretty excited to be there.....we had Standing Room Only tickets, they were playing for their 11th straight home victory (of which they haven't broken yet, at the time of this 
reaccount), then, what should appear.......but 32 ounce cans of Molson Ice (BAD IDEA!). The Wings were horrible in the 1st period, going into the 1st intermission down 0-3. But when the 2nd period ended (& I was finishing my 4th or 5th Ice), they had tied it up. The place was rocking & so were my intestines! By the time the Wings were done destroying the Coyotes 6-3 in a classic come-back victory, I, Skippy, was three-sheets to the wind. Thank heavens Brian was there to safely return us to the hotel! It's now 6:30PM & we don't fly out until Monday around noon. So, I took the time to reflect on what I had seen by taking a small nap. Brian chose to use the time to his advantage by quietly doing some needle-point in the corner of the hotel room. 

About 1-2 hours later, while Brian was talking with his lovely wife on the phone, the worm started to turn, as they say. I awoke with an extremely uncomfortable feeling in my stomach & I chose to expel that feeling all over the hotel room floor, during my rapid transit to the restroom. Brian says to this day, that it was absolutely the most incredible vomiting experience that 
he has ever seen. I think that this should be a lesson to all of us that it's NOT cool to drink too much & that really bad things can happen when you do. Incredibly, I missed my open suitcase, which was laying wide-open on the floor, by only 2-inches. So, having the newly empty stomach that I did, we proceeded to order some pizza & turned in. The rest of the trip went off 
without a hitch. We had a great time & I'm looking forward to the time when I can go there again.