One of the sidebars of being involved with a college basketball team is that serious fans get to travel to new destinations and learn about the community du jour's connection to current events or to the past.
For instance, last year the Ironman and I went to Ada, Oklahoma, an oil town and the headquarters of the Chickasaw Nation's cultural center, to watch East Central Oklahoma University play Wid III's team. Ada, coincidentally, is also the setting of John Grisham's latest non-fiction work.
Last fall, we were deep in the Allegheny mountains visiting Mt. Aloysius College to witness a game whose high scores were NBA-like. We passed through several engineering marvels - tunnels. Aren't tunnels amazing?
This past weekend the boys/Chargers had a game in north Arlington, VA not far from CIA headquarters.
Last night, we traveled to the iron furnace capital - Scranton, PA - and we ate at Buona Pizza which has been embroiled in an eminent domain battle. Buona Pizza is a 41-year-old family business owned by the Piccolinos. (Try the subs!)
I could go on and on, and, obviously, one doesn't need to be part of an athletic community to take in the lay of the land. One could be a trucker or a traveling musician or an adventuresome homeschooling family.
But it's an opportunity that I appreciate even if the point of the journey is to merely sit on bleachers, yell, and later look at box scores.
