Back on the road: The Fresno Monsters arrived safely in Boise for the biggest series of the season

The Monsters were delivered safely to Idaho, thanks to their driver, "T-Bone"

By Eddie Graveline, Glovedropper.com

It's not a big secret that the Fresno Monsters' 4-game series with the Idaho Jr. Steelheads this weekend is the biggest of the season. The Monsters are currently in first place in the WSHL Western Division, but the Steelheads are right behind them in second. What happens in the next four games will determine which team has home ice advantage if they meet again in the playoffs. 

I was unable to make the trip to Idaho to cover the four games, because I'm at a hockey tournament with my son in Las Vegas. But it would take a lot more than that to stop the flow of information! I've got a few different members of the team and staff who will be providing information about the games and the rest of the trip in general. The first to check in is former Fresno Falcon and current Monster staffer, Jay "Bird" Johnson, who provided details about the bus trip, which started very late Wednesday night. Jay covers the ride over and the rest of Thursday in this installment. 

"As the clock struck 11 PM on Wednesday Night, the team was still hustling around packing gear to throw on the bus and run over to the local Jack in the Box to get some grub for the ride. The trip started a little rough, as Don Coyle left practice early on Wednesday with a hamstring pull. Kenny Ortiz was working on Coyle as the rest of us loaded up and got confortable on the big bus. What I mean by big bus is that we have traveled on two different busses this year. One is a 47 passenger and the big bus is a 57 seater. Guys were excited to see that the big bus came and now we could all spread out a little more.

As we left the Gateway Ice Center, the discussions commenced on what the first movie should be. I found out very quickly that the the guys seemed to drift to movies with Jack Black in them. Movie 1: "Orange County."  Not to say it wasn't my type of movie, because I enjoyed it more than movie 2 with Jack Black; "Year One."  By the end of this movie most of us were sleeping. About 4 hours into the trip, I awoke to see Freeman and Ortiz having a chat. The three of us decided to play a game called " Who's Hotter." For example, Ginger or Mary Ann? We preceded to play this game for an hour or so and got into deep discussions on why. Yes, we were bored. Freeman fell asleep next to Ortiz and I fell asleep in front of Ortiz with Kolander on the floor, leaving Ortiz looking like a sardine again.

We pulled into Boise ahead of schedule, so we went for a bite to eat and then checked in. Some players went for naps and others went to the fitness center in the hotel to get rid of the bus legs. Coach Semchuk went for a nap and Ortiz, Coach Ballard and myself tackled the jacuzzi until we were pruned and tired.

6:00 PM is dinner and there have been talks about hitting the movie theatre next to the hotel. I guess you could call this end of day one and day two, as we started Wednesday and are finishing Thursday.

Thanks for keeping us updated, Jay. I'll have more information posted as it comes in.