Your first trip

I'm ruling out stays with relatives, otherwise, the 1993 Milwaukee 200 would be my first.

But with full-on hotel stay, etc.? Toledo, baby!, Toledo! The 1996 MAC basketball tournament at the lovely Seagate Convention Centre. If you think basketball in a dome is a bit hard on the eyes, picture basketball in the wide expanses of a convention hall in a town largely apathetic about the whole thing (the Rockets didn't make it, they sucked ass back then).

I can hear One Shining Moment as we speak, as I picture Devin Davis posterizing Bonzi Wells in front of an empty grandstand.

 

Suburban Houston, in mid-August. I spent my whole life in Louisiana and Mississippi and I couldn't get over the heat. It was hot enough to melt steel over there.

 

Atlanta, Georgia. For the Peach Bowl. Driver had only one requirement for those in the car - must buy and consume a 12-pack along the way. What should have been a decent drive turned into nearly 12 hours, cause the driver was taking hits off a bong and drove past Atlanta into South Carolina.

Wild, wild-ass trip. ;D

 

I wanna work where you work.

 

Nothing like the good old college days.

 

Cleveland, Ohio. I smile now at the memory of how cool I thought it was to be there and have a hotel room and everything. I'm over that now, but I still have a soft spot for Cleveland, even though it's changed radically.

There used to be a bar/restaurant near the hotel called The Theatrical. It was like a '50s styled nightclub frozen in time. I always expected to see Ricky Ricardo playing there.

One memory from that first trip was a kick-ass book store in middle of downtown called Kay's Books. They had everything. I bought all kinds of out-of-print gems there. Then one year I went back and there was a big empty building where Kay's used to be. No more rare treasures, no more nasty lady yelling at customers. I still mourn.

 

Charleston for the 2004 Southern Conference Basketball Tournament. Both teams lost on the first day and I barely unpacked. But it was fun to sit around in a media room and mock the other college papers there.

 

A got to go to a design conference in Reno. Not bad. However, I lost at the tables. For some reason my boss wouldn't let me write that off. I must say, though, it was not my best trip, but not a bad one for starters.

 

summer of 1980. n.y. state regional finals of little league world series in newburgh, n.y. stayed at a ramada inn. got lucky at the bar on first night and thought, "wow, what a great life!" 8) 8) 8)

turned out it was a great life, though my batting average declined rapidly thereafter.

 

They both think K-mart sucks.

 

About six months into my first job, my little weekly in Alabama sent me to ... Minneapolis. I got hustled into doing the paper's first Web site, and that was where they held the training session.

First overnight trip covering a story (that the paper actually sprung for) was UF football media day in Gainesville.

 

Wichita Falls, TX.

To say anymore about this trip would be to give the hell hole Wichita Falls is too much publicity.