Well it’s been a rough past few days for me. I came down with some kind of bug on Friday and have been coughing and blowing my nose constantly since Friday afternoon. Instead of resting on my last night in Boston like any reasonable human being would have, I admittedly made a rare lapse in judgement and was a bit aggressive that night considering all factors. Despite being sick with a cold AND the irish flu, I started out driving and made it exactly 6 miles before I had to make a call to the bullpen. Luckily I was able to cut my beard into a “road trip mustache” before we left, and after a quick nap I was back in the game.

We made it to Chicago by Sunday morning, and almost immediately went to Wrigley Field to catch a Cubs/Angels game. The stadium was awesome. It was very open and clean and filled with history, but most importantly, it served beer. The mustache was in heaven.

After the game we hung out around the stadium and met a few celebrities. Included were the chicago cub, a midget from Spike TV’s “Half Pint Brawlers”, Captain Morgan, and Colonel Sanders.

2006 UMASS Swimming grad, Kelly Hoffrage was gracious enough to let us stay with her for our only night in Chi-town. She gave us a quick tour of the city and took us out to a delicious breakfast at The Original House of Pancakes, where Justin got a plate of baked apples and 4 pounds of sugar. After breakfast Justin ran around the city taking pictures of dogs and architecture, literally scaring everyone in the process. He finally crashed about an hour later, and we hit the road again. The mustache was happy.

Next stop Denver!

Stop number one of this journey continued at Fenway Park on Wednesday night. Tom Keane and I bought the cheapest seats we could, then tried sneaking our way as close to the field as possible. Turns out security at a winning teams stadium is more strict than what I’m used to, as this was as close as we got:

To be fair though, all those steps really would have slowed down our beverage consumption, so it was probably for the best. The craziest part of the night felt like deja vu. I walked into the bathroom after about 6 innings of 3-4 drinks per inning, and – you’re never going to believe this – standing there at the first two urinals available were two guys with “St. Bonaventure Swimming” shirts on…but that’s a story for another time.

The next day we trekked on over to the cape and met up with the illustrious Russ Yarworth. He was kind enough to take us for a swim in the pond next to his house, then proceeded to try and drown us in said pond. Lucky for us Russ needs our $200 combined annual donation to the program, or I’m sure he would have finished us off.

After the pond swim we held the first practice session of the 2010 beach bocce season. There was a minor rule discrepancy, and the last game was finished under protest. The final scores were meaningless and are not worth mentioning, since as I stated earlier it was a practice session and this was meant to test new techniques and also to help get our sand legs back. However, the game of cornhole was used as training, and it’s well known that those results are often used to predict future bocce champions. The order from first to worst are as follows: Bellamy, Keane, Yarworth.

The trip commences tomorrow morning at 9am sharp. Chicago or bust.

Former swimmers Justin Brooks and Brendan Kuntz made the trek from Cape Cod to Baltimore this past weekened (June 4-5) to visit with local troublemakers Owen Scollan, Dylan Smith, and Jad Vonderheid. Justin and Brendan also got to watch the Red Sox/Orioles game from behind home plate, thanks for Brendan’s generous donation at the Alumni Weekend Auction. Also down for the weekend, former swimmer and water  polo player Garison Beale along with his new fiance (and umass alum) Danielle Henry.

A typical UMASS evening was held. No arrests were made.