WWU v. Reed @ Reed

On Saturday (November 7th) Western and Reed had a rugby game at Reed (Reed is in Portland). Instead of a normal practice on Friday we had a chalk talk, a question and answer period in a classroom. There we went through different scenarios, fouls, positioning on the field at different times, etc. Once some of the girls came with the five vans we rented, we all piled in and were on our way to Portland.

4:30 PM
While still in Bellingham someone suggested we stop for dinner once we get through Seattle, someone else suggested Issaquah. I piped in that if everyone was okay with Issaquah we could just go a tad farther into Sammamish and eat for free at my house. With that being the plan I called home to warn the parental units that the house was going to be invaded by seven hungry rugby players in 2-ish hours.

6:30 PM
On I-5 in Seattle just before we were going to exit onto the 520 bridge, the van stops accelerating. Going 15 mph now down the freeway Spaid throws on the emergency lights and makes her way over across four lanes to get off the freeway in Seattle instead of on to the bridge. We park as soon as we were off the exit. Blaze calls the other vans to tell them what has happened and it turns out one is shortly behind us and gets off the freeway to find us. Which isn't hard seeing as we are immediately off the freeway.

Now what to do? I call the parental units to say we're going to be late, if we come at all now, we may just haul off to Portland as soon as we get a new car. Several people are on the phone with several companies at the same time. One girl is talking to AAA, another to Enterprise. Turns out Enterprise is closed now, we waiting to see what will happen with AAA. While Kara is still talking with AAA we find Enterprise's emergency number and give them a call (we rented our vans from Enterprise). Kara gives us the news that AAA won't work because they will only tow 5 miles and while the nearest Enterprise is is 2 miles away they are closed, airport enterprise is open until 11 Pm but that is too far. So now we give up on AAA. A little while later Blaze blows up at Enterprise because she has been transferred 6 times and three times it has been back to a woman she already spoke with. "Talking" to that women again we start to get results. I call Mom again to update her and discover my AAA account will tow us 100 miles. I get on the phone with AAA. Starting to get somewhere, Blaze tells me she got it figured out with Enterprise, I thank AAA man and hang up.

7:15-7:30 ish PM
The Plan: A tow truck is on the way, meanwhile, the other van will drive Blaze to the airport where she can rent a new van and come back and pick us up. The Plan is executed. The rest of us bond while we wait for Blaze to come back. Lots of singing, telling stories, car games, whatever we can come up with to try and stave off the boredom. After maybe 45 minutes we get a call the the tow truck driver got lost but he is now on the way. Half hour later he shows up. Blaze still hasn't gotten back with the van so we ask if he can wait maybe half an hour. He says as long as there isn't another emergency he'll wait as long as we need. Thirty minutes goes by and Blaze calls to say she'll be another 20 minutes.

9:30 PM
Blaze arrives, we move into the new van and head for Sammamish where we have decided to stay the night so we don't get to the person's house that we're staying at at 2 AM.

10:00 PM
Home! The lights are on, the girls in the car freak out and when I tell them that's my house, it's even better. Once we park the car everyone takes a moment to scream and freak out some more over the lights so we don't scare my parents by doing it in front of them. We all unload and go inside for some much needed refreshment.

10:45 PM
We all go to bed, thinking it's amusing that by now everyone else (including the van that stayed with us in our predicament) has arrived in Portland.

6:45 AM
We all get up, get ready in our rugby gear, eat breakfast, pack some food for the road and leave by 7:05

10:20 AM
PORTLAND!

10:40 AM
We find the rugby pitch and warm up for the game. It begins to rain. Before long it's pouring and we decide to have some fun with it. During half time the whole team is on the field dancing, belting everyone song we can come up with that has dancing in the lyrics. Before too long into the second half though we're only warm as long as we're playing. As soon as we stopped moving we would begin to shake. In between plays once it hailed; that stung. At the end of the game though the score was somewhere along the lines of WWU: a shit-ton, Reed: 0. If I had to guess I would say Western had about 40-50 points. We dominated in every aspect of the game. We were going to play an unofficial third half just for fun and to allow the players that didn't get to play some field time but we canceled that due to worries over hypothermia.

12:30 PM
Reed takes us to their athletic center where we can take a shower or sit in the sauna (Sauna! Why don't we get one?) to clean up some. We all change into whatever dry clothes we have, and those with extra (like myself) give it out to those who don't have any. It turns out Reed had a fencing tournament and fencing being fancy they had catering and the extra was open for us to eat. As soon as we were dry and clothed we all headed over there and ate. It was good!

1:30 PM
I hop onto the first van headed back north to Bellingham. I didn't feel like going to the social (party after every rugby game hosted by the home team).

7:30-8ish PM
BELLINGHAM!

So yeah, that was our game on Saturday. :)