DEAR DIARY: Day Two during Indiana trek

SAGU Lady Lions Travel to Indiana to play in NCCAA Nationals

Ciao Hoopla,

Why does 7:30 in the morning come so early? We pulled out of our hotel in Sikeston, Missouri and it was cold and misty. We knew we had a long day ahead of us, as a nine hour bus ride awaited the Lady Lions. The team tried to get comfortable enough to sleep and, Zzzzzzzz.

Oh, where was I? We stopped for lunch just south of Indianapolis at "Chicago's," a buffet pizza place. There were only two pizzas on the buffet line when we arrived. But they were good. Even their water was good. Chelsea Jones said, "The water here is fresh and pure." I am not sure what other kind of H2O there is.

Stale and muddy, you say? Silly, Hoops! That's the Mississippi!

We loaded the bus again after lunch to finish out the ride to Warsaw, Indiana. Another 103 miles. We passed by the Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the Indianapolis Colts and the spot of Super Bowl 2012. Wished Dallas had a pro-football team!

A lot of us got "bus-sick" after lunch. And all we saw outside was marsh land, which only added to the effect. Our site-seeing critics, Heather Jefferson and Chelz, gave the terrain a thumbs down.

Hawkeye (Stephanie Hawkins) spotted a little dog in the middle of nowhere, it was white and she said it looked like an angel. What's that, Hoopsie? You think she was talking in her sleep. Could've been.

MacKenzie McDowell and Jonesey had their "quiet time" on the bus while the brainiac – Madame Moi -tried to do some of her massive amounts of homework.

All the teams in this tournament are staying at the same Ramada Plaza in Warsaw. It's just two miles from Winona Lake, where the tourney host, Grace College, is located. Well, we finally arrived. The hotel is nice. We're staying three to a room. Who gets the solo bed? Thanks for asking! The four seniors, of course! Three of our rooms are connected so we're able to go in and out of each other's rooms as we please.

Did I tell you how nice the hotel is? They even put mints on your pillow. Well, we thought they were mints. I reached for one... and it moved. Kinda lost my appetite for chocolate.

Wouldn't you know it, as soon as we got in our rooms; Coach Rod (Jacob Rodriguez) called us outside for a workout. Half of the team didn't have running shoes, so some of us went out to run in our slides (sandals). It was cold and rainy when we got outdoors, so we were all bundled up in sweats.

He had us stretch, then run up a hill to loosen up. "It felt like we were in military boot camp," the Hawk pointed out. We did pushups on the asphalt. Did I say it was wet and cold? I don't think Hickory High had to do pushups in these conditions in "Hoosiers." We finished up with sprints and more stretching.

We came up to our rooms and showered to get ready for dinner. Today is a special day because it is Heather's birthday. We celebrated by going to Applebee's for dinner. Everyone shared the 2 for $20 deal and split the appetizers. I don't think any of us were able to finish our dinner, so we took to-go boxes.

Before leaving, the waitress brought out ice cream for Heather and Drea Lugo (Sunday is Andrea's). After we came back we took Heather into a room and showed her a birthday video we all starred in. Chelsea made it.

Overall today was a good day. But we are happy to be staying in one place for a few days. Tomorrow morning we will be waking up to go to breakfast at 7 o'clock. There will be a chapel service for the teams with a former Miss Indiana basketball player, who also starred in the WNBA. We will be serving in a community service project after that. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Almost forgot... tomorrow we play our first game. It's at 5:00pm (EST). We will play a team from Bristol, Tennessee - King College. The game will be videostreamed if you want to watch it. 4:00pm, Dallas time.

Arrivederci,

Lamb Chop (Rachel Harris)

P.S. We're sending photos of the trip. I'll tell you where you can find them.