Jan. 12, 2012
SEATTLE - Due to a career-ending injury. Senior Anna Epps from the UW Gymnastics team is not able to compete this year but still travels with the team and has embraced her student coaching position. Epps will blog during the road trips to give fans a behind the scenes view into the team. Hello Dawg Fans! After a long weekend of traveling we are back in the great city of Seattle! We had a great weekend and a successful first meet of the year. Here's a behind the scenes look at what we do when we are not competing. We departed the UW campus bright and early at 6:30 a.m. We loaded up into vans and were off to the airport. After an uneventful trip through airport security we arrived at the gate and prepared for a long day of travel. After the first flight of the day we arrived in Denver, Colo., and once we got off the plane we had a surprise waiting for us. Amanda Cline is from Colorado and her mom visited the team at the airport. It's always nice seeing parents from the team and Amanda loved having the chance to see her mom even if it was just for an hour or so. After the surprise we had one more flight and arrived in the Detroit airport. After getting our bags we loaded into our transportation mobiles, big 12 passenger white vans. Once stepping out of the airport we felt the freezing Mich., winter and we sure were glad we brought our big winter jackets. With our trusty coaches becoming our drivers, we were off to dinner in Ann Arbor, Mich. It was a delicious meal and after dinner we finished our drive to the hotel. So two flights and an hour and a half van ride later we reached our final destination of East Lansing, Mich. We arrived late at the hotel and concluded the night with a quick team meeting. The next morning we woke up a bit late due to the three hour time change and had breakfast and got ready for our adventure of the day. For our team activity before the meet we went to a mall because what girl doesn't love SHOPPING!! The mall we went to was an outdoor mall and thank goodness the sun was shining and it was a great day to be outside. After shopping for a bit we met for a team lunch at McCalisters Deli. Lunch was a bit hectic, as ordering with 18 people can be, but we got it all settled and were only slightly behind schedule. When we got back to the hotel it was already time to get ready for the meet. Hats (Akaogia) and Paige (Bixler) were the "hair-doers" for the team and everyones hair look GREAT! After getting ready we were off to the arena. Then it was warm-up and competition time...GO DAWGS! We had some wonderful fans that showed up at the arena and it is so great to see familiar faces when we are on a road trip. A few mistakes were made as it was the first meet of the year but overall we kept a positive attitude and really came together as a team. Our beam team did AWESOME; seven-for-seven including our exhibition routine. After the meet we went to dinner at Champps and it was pre-ordered and ready to go when we got there which was fantastic as we were all starving after a long day. After the meet we enjoy going in the hot tub and spending time with one another. A few of us who love Greys Anatomy watched the new episode online together and whew was it a good one! After a long day it was time for bed. We woke up in the morning, had breakfast, and got ready for another day of traveling back to Seattle. On the drive to the airport we found a Tim Horton's which made, Pheebs (Phoebe Tham), our Canadian teammate, very excited so of course we had to make a quick stop. Back to the airport we went and we flew Frontier airlines - an airline which offers warm chocolate chip cookies - yummm! After another long day of traveling we arrived back home and how nice it is to sleep in your own bed. Overall a great trip filled with team bonding and fun on the road!! Thanks for all the support dawg fans! Check in next week to hear all about our trip to Boise! Anna |
