It was going to be a good day.

I woke up in a satisfied mood knowing that all I had to do was go to school for one class period and I’m out.

Everything was going to be perfect. A charter bus with TV’s, comfy seats and bathroom awaited me. A cooler of Gatorades and Walmart brand Trail Mix beckoned me. Songs from an iPod waited patiently to relax me. A Bearcat beatdown was impending.

I was going on a trip to Scottsbluff, Nebraska to play a football game. But I was determined that I would make it the best 12 hour round trip in my life.

Little did I know...

The trip started off smoothly. Watching movies and listening to music kept me occupied. The enemy was sleep, so trying to avoid it was important. It was difficult, considering I can fall asleep faster than you can say Zimnasty.

After awhile, nature called. I didn’t think that it was going to be a problem. I would just get out of my seat, quietly walk to the back of the bus and take care of business.

Little did I know...

I got up and looked at the path before me. Many obstacles blocked my journey to the bathroom: coolers, pillows and a 270 pound lineman.

I started for the bathroom by carefully crawling, climbing and using strategic foot placements before danger struck.

David Gonzalez brought a pillow that camoflauged with the seating inside the bus. When I grabbed what I thought was the seat ended up being a fluffy thing that had no support. I almost died and had taken Gonzo’s life with me.

Luckily I regained balance and reached the bathroom. The door would only open about five inches for me, but somehow, I got in.

I completely forgot that the bus was moving. However, specially placed handle bars were convenient for me to get the process done.

Just think people, that was only a 3 minute ordeal.

Shortly after we passed North Platte we stopped at a rest stop to have lunch. I’ve never noticed how Nebraska is kind of like a desert in the western part of the state. I don’t know about you but I thought it was quite interesting.

I volunteered to carry a cooler of Gatorades to a picnic table, when out of nowhere a massive manmade object known as a tour bus (a step above a charter) loomed over me like a thunderstorm over a corn field. I just thought it was cool and moved on.

The man that holds the record for most barbecue wings eaten at one sitting (or at least is believed to be the record holder), our lineman coach, known only as Coach Lowther, was designated to serve the food. Luckily, everybody got their fair share.

On the way back to the charter bus somebody made a comment about some celebrity said hi to them. I ignored it.

We ventured on. Or, more appropriately, we dragged on. The elevation was getting higher. My ears never popped, they just plugged. Boredom did start to settle in. I began texting extremely random people, even though they were probably still in school. I received the message “R u there yet?” about a dozen times.

About an hour or so later, we stopped at another rest stop outside of Sidney, Nebraska. This was about as redneck of a rest stop I’ve ever seen. Coach Ripperger warned us about rattlers before we left the bus. Off in the distance there were oil drillers. There was some mountainous terrain around.

We stopped to stretch out and get our legs fresh, so after I did some stretches I went to a group of people who seemed to be talking about something interesting.

The topic was about this celebrity sighting thing. Coach White, known to many as Mr. White, and Coach Vetter, known to many as Mr. Vetter, believed that a famous musician by the name of Phil Collins got off the tour bus at the last rest stop and gave them the peace sign.

Gavin Raitt, the most technology-laden member of the team, got out his cell phone/computer and looked up Phil Collins tour dates. Sure enough, his next stop was Denver. Coach Vetter had a spasm, and Coach White had a look on his face like “I told you so!”

I felt the iniative to call, first and most importantly, Mrs. Cathy Davis, to inform her of this sighting. She thought it was cool. Then I called my father and he thought it was neat.

I mean come’on. When was the last time you saw a internationally revered musician at a rest stop in western Nebraska?

We moved on, and the thing that gained the most interest was the beautiful environment. The bluffs were pretty cool. If you don’t know what a bluff is, it is like a mini mountain. We passed by small towns like Potter and Dix that you really couldn’t see because they were in a valley. Everything was like a painting.

Finally we rolled into Scottsbluff. I could tell about all our pregame routines and what not, but I’m pretty sure none of you care that much.

We stomped the Bearcats. We had our best offensive game of the year. Me and Adam Jones were blocking this one kid and knocked him over. Travis Morrow had the ball and about fifteen yards downfield. Me and Jonesy both figured the play was over, since Morrow was surrounded by four tacklers. We began to help this kid up, when we see Morrow sprinting to the endzone. He fooled all of us. We won 42-20.

The trip was rewarding to many of the underclassmen who traveled. Coach pulled most of the starters early into the fourth quarter, so many of them played a whole quarter in a varsity game. When I was sophomore I played the last three minutes in one game where we won 48-0. So, obviously, they are lucky.

Everything was good. I figured the ride home would be great now.

Little did I know...

We stopped at the Scottsbluff McDonald’s for some food. I had a chicken sandwich, fries and a Coke.

It tasted like McDonald’s, so we can move on.

I called my mom to say hi to her, but she didn’t sound too enthused to receive a phone call past midnight. I forgot we were in a different time zone.

We left Scottsbluff and things were still alright. I was still a little hyped-up from the game, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep yet.

We popped in the movie Rudy, and about 15 minutes in, I was one of few who was still awake. I watched the whole movie despite the fact that Nile Schneider kept shifting sleeping positions beside me.

So when Rudy finished, I tried to sleep. Then there was a white light, and the sound of somebody talking about Titans.

Sure enough, another football movie. I had enough football in my system to make me explode. The walls of the bus were closing in. I was beginning to suffocate. It was so hot in the bus that I felt like a frozen pizza in an oven. It was 2:30 in the morning (I can’t recall if we were in mountain time or central time, but either way it was early). I still couldn’t fall asleep.

Then finally, in my suffering, I fell asleep.

About a minute later, the bus driver stopped to go to the bathroom.

The trip edged on, and I felt miserable. But we were moving, Hastings was on the horizon.

I’ve never been more excited to see Walmart in my entire life.

We entered the parking lot at exactly 5:03 in the morning. And believe it or not, we had our usual welcome from many of you. At that moment I was proud to be a Tiger. I was proud of representing a good school and a good community. I was thankful that we have so many loyal and honest people in the halls.

I was thankful we were home.

Seeing all those people waiting for us, that was worth it. I’d surely go to Scottsbluff again anyday if they waited for us to return.