DEAR DIARY: On the Seventh Day

Lady Lions Final Road Trip

#7 in a Series of Eight Letters about our Final Basketball Adventure

Dear Hoopsie,

And on the seventh day – we rested. Kind of.

Last day...we finally get to come home! Waking up to be on the road by 11 a.m. wasn't bad at all, after all we were kind of just waking up to go back to sleep on the bus. We left Greenville, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, and headed southwest all day. We had our hearts set for home!

We stopped down the road to eat at Culver's where everyone enjoyed a meal. No meal there is complete without frozen custard. We were all ready to get home so we ate really fast and boarded the bus. Once we were on the bus no one was really tired and everyone was kind of in a hyper mood. I guess everyone was excited we were going home!!

Today (Sunday) is also Andrea's (Lugo) birthday, so I think that made the bus ride a little more "exciting." Before leaving to go to Indiana we made a partial team trip to pick up some presents for Heather (Jefferson) and Andrea since their birthdays would be spent on the bus. Andrea was given a wardrobe of Spiderman gear while in transit! I think she was pretty happy!

What's that, Hoopla? Oh, my bad. I didn't tell you about Dr. Dray.

If you don't know Drea, she absolutely loves (the character) Spiderman. He's the way to her heart. Ha!

The Gateway to the West

We soon passed by the St. Louis Arch, which was pretty cool. We were all taking pictures outside of the window. Half of the bus wanted to stop and take pictures, and the other half just wanted to stay on the road. The latter won. We didn't stop.

The bus ride was long, but some of us utilized the time to do some homework. Kenzie (MacKenzie McDowell) and Gabby (Bruner) were probably the ones who studied the most. I was able to finish quite a bit, too.

What about Chels?

Thanks for asking.

Chelsea (Jones) was probably the most comfortable ironically because of her pain meds, which knocked her out for a good part of the trip. She is still in pain (from a bad ankle injury and trip to the hospital) and we all found amusement by looking at how swollen and bruised her ankle is. We may have taken a few pictures, though it was all in good fun.

Taco Bell does the trick

We made a few pit stops. We made our final stop for food at....ding, ding, ding, Taco Bell! It was almost a unanimous vote from the girls on our charter bus. It wasn't the best Taco Bell ever, but it did the trick!

We stopped one more time at a gas station then hit the road for the home stretch. We finally made it back to Waxahachie at about 1:19am. Monday. Shaquita (Roberts) actually pretty much nailed the estimated time of arrival by saying we were going to arrive at 1:20am.

Everyone was ready to get off the bus. We grabbed our bags and were ready to stand up and go when we pulled into the SAGU parking lot.

Welcome Home Kiss

As we were stepping off the bus, Stephanie (Hawkins) fell on the ground and kissed it. She said, "I never thought I would be so happy to be back in Waxahachie!" We all agreed, sans the smooch! Ha!

That was the end of our road trip to the NCCAA National Tournament of 2011. We came in third. It wasn't the best, though we're not complaining. It's been a long ride, but it's been well worth the trip! We won two of three games, beating teams from Tennessee and Georgia, losing to one from New York.

We had great fans all year – at home games and those who were there on the road. Some of Hawk's family who live in Indiana were able to come and support us as well. We were happy to have them at our games!

You know what else was really cool?

"Ah, the weather in the Great Lakes?"

Well, it was a bit chilly, Hoops. But, there was something that really touched us.

Our college president! He (President Kermit Bridges) sent his blessing to us during the tournament while he was in Israel. We know he is a huge SAGU sports fan. There were others who prayed for supported us from back home. We love and appreciated them all!

We are so grateful for our driver. Carl made that long trip and I am grateful for him driving us and bringing us home safely. Thank you Lord for bringing us back to Texas!

Facebook Fan Page filled with Photos

We (Chelsea and I) created a Facebook Fan Page for our fans to see photos from our trip. It has our daily diary entries as well. All people have to do is become a fan to have access to the page! I'll write you again tomorrow with the details.

"Wow, Lamb Chop! That's a great idea! But why not put the pics here?"

Well, our school website is in the process of migrating to a whole new format. For a few weeks there's no way for pictures to join articles, so we've come up with a simple plan for accessing them.

Hoopla, one more thing. I'll write you one more time with a sort of, "What Now" letter. It'll focus on what the seniors and other players will do now that our season is over.

Thirty-six games since we began in early November. What a wonderful ride it's been!

Your friend,

Lamb Chop (Rachel Harris)