What It's Like To Travel With a College Sports Team

In looking at my life lately, I was thinking of what story I could share. Considering I've been traveling every weekend to different cities/states, I thought it would be fun to share more about that. (And it would explain my crazy tweets about me sitting in sketchy IHOPs alone, ha!)

If ya'll didn't know, Cameron plays lacrosse for the school. He played all throughout high school and I absolutely love watching him play. If you haven't ever been to a lacrosse game, try to figure out a way to go! I don't know, stalk the guys on the team or something until they invite you. (Jk, you probably shouldn't do that.)

But yeah, if you like fast-paced sports (i.e. football, basketball, soccer), you'll love it. It's super easy to follow, too. Even after six years of watching, I couldn't name three rules to the game, but I understand enough to cheer when something good happens and throw up my hands at the ref when there's a bad call. 

We've had four away games so far, and I've gone with Cam to all of them. 

I love roadtripping with Cam. We play all the music we like, have long talks, and get to explore new places together. We have gotten to be really good roadtrip partners (compromising on music choices, knowing what roadside food each person likes/dislikes, etc.) since we travel 9 hours to college from our hometown. I feel blessed that we've been to many different states and cities in the past year and a half, and I know 20 years from now, I'll remember the songs we listened to in the car better than the concept of standard deviation or the Spanish-American War. 

The traveling is fun, but there's even more adventure.

Cam has to warm up with his team an hour before each game which leaves me to fend for myself. In Conway, Arkansas, I went out in search of a spot to sit and have some lunch and all I could find was a sad looking IHOP not too far away from where Cam was playing.

The hostess proceeded to sit me at a 6 PERSON TABLE. 

Have you ever been humiliated in the middle of a crowded commercial breakfast joint? It's not fun.

I had a book with me that I was reading for one of my classes, so not only did I look like I had no friends, but I looked like a total bookworm who's favorite hobby was to frequent IHOPs and sit and read with an egg white omelette.

I ate in 10 min, paid the check, and bolted out of there. 

Cam's team lost that game, but the weather was nice and I got 150 pages read out of my book.

For the next two games, we went to Dallas and had a wonderful weekend as we stayed with some family. Once again though, all was well until warm up time.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge baby/worry wart. When I go somewhere, whether it be the grocery store or a football game, I have to have all the necessary supplies that I might need: 

Advil in case my head hurts, Tums in case my stomach hurts, a water bottle for when I'm thirsty, a second water bottle in case there's no where to refill the first bottle, flashcards to study for school, books to read for school, a phone charger in case my phone dies, and various snacks for if I get hungry. 

By this game (the second of that weekend in Dallas) I was tired of studying, so my books didn't look all that enticing. Plus, it was a Sunday and everyone was relaxing and taking a day of rest, so I didn't have many blog posts to read or funny tweets to laugh at. Sitting in my car in a random parking lot of UT-Dallas, I was grade-A bored. The worst bit of it was, I had forgotten to fill up my water bottle prior to leaving the house.

The. Horror.

I downloaded the Postmates app and added a water bottle to my cart from a nearby CVS, but was too weirded out to have someone deliver it to me. I mean is it really safe? Doesn't that sound sketchy? Not to mention that while I knew the address of where I was, I had no idea how to let them know which intramural field I was at. So I dropped that idea.

I finally decided that I was just going to suck it up until the game was over, which I did. Luckily, one of the mom's had a big, beautiful cooler full of water bottles and let me have one.  

*Yes. I am super dramatic.*

For the last game, we traveled two hours away to Springfield, Missouri.

It. Was. So. Cold.

I always end up making friends with the other spectators in the stands just because we bond about how cold we are. I sat shivering with two other lacrosse girlfriends and we laughed at how red our noses got and how we couldn't feel our feet. Next time, I'm doubling up on fuzzy socks.

There are definitely a lot of great moments. When Cam scores, (or when anyone scores, really) it's so awesome to see how happy he gets and how pumped the team gets. It's so fun watching someone so in their element and getting to share in that with them.

So, the point to this story? Hmm.. there really isn't one. I just felt like sharing my awkward away-game stories. More to come ya'll, more to come.

X,

Cristina