Monday, May 11 - 9:30 pm CDT

Grand Junction, Colorado, here we come! The Hey Loft is back after a nearly two-month layoff since Springfield, Mass., and the NCAA Elite Eight.

I hope you can follow the SMSU baseball journey to Colorado and SMSU makes its first-ever NCAA regional tournament appearance. Let me give you a quick update on the team's plans. We will be leaving Marshall at 6 am on Tuesday, May 12, and taking a bus the whole 16 hours! The team could've taken a plane, but the NCAA pays for only a certain number of individuals and since the SMSU coaching staff wants to bring everyone who has traveled all season (a nice decision), a bus is the best and most cost effective way to go.

As Clark Griswold says in the movie Vacation (my favorite comedy of all-time), "Come on Ellen, getting there is half the fun, you know that". We’ll see ☺….. Once we get close to Colorado I’ll be saying, “that John Denver is full……” (you have to know Dumb and Dumber to get that one)

I stopped by Video Central today on campus and picked up some movies for the team. I know the players will bring plenty as well, but I picked up some American classics...Grandma's Boy, College (of course both unrated) and for myself I picked up the series "The Shield". I've heard good things.

I also have the cribbage board, cards, etc. I plan on taking some small change from coach Nikkel on the way out.

The baseball team is the final SMSU athletics team still competing for the 2008-09 season. What a year it has been for Mustang athletics. SMSU competes in 10 NCAA sports and six of our teams competed in NCAA Tournaments, while the wheelchair team also advanced to the national tournament! Congrats to all our SMSU squads for a great academic year.

I need to finish packing. If it all works out, I’ll try and update all day on Tuesday during the trip. I’ve heard the bus has wireless on board; let’s hope it does. My office hasn’t bought one of those air cards yet, but hopefully next year we will.

Also next year, our plan is to have some sort of Blog for all of our teams that compete in an NCAA tournament. We’ll need to have a name for my assistant Tim’s blog. Any ideas?

Wish us safe travels and we’ll catch up with you on the road.