Halftime

Odometer: 10,285
Location: New York, NY
States visited: West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York

After seven weeks, eight games, and over 10,000 miles, I’ve reached my journey’s midpoint in terms of time, games, and distance. So I’m going to take 20 minutes and think about what’s been working and what needs to improve. I’ll do a quick film review. I’ll make adjustments. Then I’m going to give myself a pep talk. It’s going to go something like this:

Then I’ll get back out there and find a way to take this sucker home. Go Team!

A couple last notes on Bridgewater. I can't believe I neglected to mention this, but the gang at Stone Station have created a new tradition they perform twenty minutes before kickoff of every game. It involves everyone standing in a circle and rapidly passing a variety of Boones Farm bottles to the right. It's basically gulp and pass until it's all gone. Strawberry Hill is far more disgusting than I remember, but Snow Creek Berry lived up to my collegiate memories. Ah, to be young again. The name for this tradition? Taking communion. I could see this catching on across the country, and I'm sure the Stone station folks would have no problems with being copied.
Also, the BC home turf has a large Eagle logo painted at midfield. The unique thing about this logo is that it was laid down by members of the football team who happen to be art majors. That's another neat feature about a D-III program. I can't imagine a D-I school letting their football players paint the field, let alone tell them that's the only way they're going to get a logo. If you're into DIY, you have to appreciate that. You must be at least a little into DIY or you wouldn't be reading this blog...

In one of my shortest destination changing drives, I departed the smallest town on my itinerary for the Mecca of our nation. New York City is one of those few places that gets your blood pumping as you approach. Cruising through the congested industrial area of New Jersey, Manhattan suddenly came into view and I was immediately reminded how much I love the place. The only pity was that I would be there for only a few days and be too busy to really do it up with my friends. Not to mention the tight budget for this trip that prevents me from hitting the clubs. This is the first time I’ve ever been foolhardy enough to take a car into the city. I don’t recommend it. Parking in Manhattan is darn near impossible, and driving in general should not be attempted lightly. In the crunch to enter the Lincoln Tunnel, I got the feeling that my out of town plates marked me as easy pickins in the battle to get in line first. Or maybe I was just being self-conscious and everyone behaved as they always do. After zigzagging the Upper West Side for about twenty minutes, I espied a guy jumping into his car. I snagged his spot and felt like I’d finally arrived. Whether you love or hate New York, you have to love the idea of it. There are so many people working their asses off, and so many minute pockets of American culture. There is quite simply no place like it. I think I’ve heard eleven different languages spoken, and I’ve only been here two days. I only know about five people who live in NYC, but whenever I am here, I always feel like I recognize people. This doesn’t happen to me in any other city. Clearly, these people merely resemble my friends, but feeling like you could almost know random strangers is somehow comforting.

I pity the poor pollsters. They actually are forced to think for once. Normally they just look at the loss column, bucket teams and rank accordingly. Not feasible this year. They have to evaluate teams and place value on the games that were played. That's the whole point of the polls to begin with, but it's nice to see them actually doing it. My next stop is Piscataway, New Jersey for the Rutgers/South Florida game. If the trends this season have been any indication, the USF Bulls don’t stand a chance. We’ll find out!