Feb. 16, 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. We were off for another Gymdawg adventure to Nebraska this past Friday. For this trip we traveled in style to the airport with a large bus instead of our usual white vans. The bus was classy and comfortable, and a great start to this crazy trip. We arrived at the airport, checked in, and went through security as usual. Due to our estimated arrival in Nebraska being extremely late, we had our team meeting to discuss lineups in the airport before jumping on the first flight. As we boarded the first flight adversity struck, we were told that the weather in Chicago (where our layover was) was causing flights to be delayed both coming in and out of Chicago. We were stuck on the runway for over an hour and a half hoping we would be able to get to Chicago and worried we might miss our next flight to Lincoln due to the extreme delay. But no worries, finally we were cleared for take-off and we began our journey to Nebraska. We arrived in Chicago and good news our second flight was delayed due to the weather as well! Our luck was beginning to change. We had time for a quick dinner before boarding the next flight which was perfect as we were all starving. We boarded our second flight and were off. We landed and we were in LINCOLN! Yahoooo! After arriving we went to the baggage carousel and discovered we were missing one bag. Uh oh. Elise's bag had gotten stuck in Chicago so she was bag-less for part of the trip. But once again the GymDawgs will take whatever comes our way! After that situation we headed out to our usual white vans and our faithful drivers David and Elise. Brrrr was it freezing!!! We were sooooo glad we brought our winter jackets. We arrived at the hotel and after a long day of traveling it was time to get some much needed "shut eye." The next morning we woke up and had a fantastic breakfast buffet. After breakfast we had some time to walk around downtown Lincoln. Most of us walked over to a nearby Walgreens and couldn't make it much further due to the cold weather that we are not acclimated to. After our short outing it was time for a team activity. For our activity this week we tried something new - often times if you say your goal out loud, you become more responsible for achieving your goal. That being said, each team member wrote a goal, something specific that they would do for the meet to help the team. We are firm believers that each person on the team has a role, and that each person helps the team achieve our goals in their own way. After our activity we had lunch from Panera picked up and ready for us at the hotel. Then it was time to get ready... hair, make-up, sparkles... and it was meet time! We arrived at the meet location and went to our locker room. We had a bit of time before warm ups so we had our usual pre-meet dance party in the locker room - and we were pumped! Warm up and competition time ohhh yaaaaa!! GYMDAWGS were ready to rock! Right before the meet Elise's bag arrived at the arena. Horrayyy! We had a good meet, not our best, but everyone kept a great attitude the entire time, and the potential of this team was evident to all! After the meet we had a short tribute to Whitney Houston in the locker room before dinner - blasting I will always love you and singing along. Then we were off to dinner at Grisanti's and it was delicious!! After dinner we had some girl time and just chatted and hung out in one of the hotel rooms. The next morning we had time for a quick breakfast before another long day of traveling. After breakfast we were off to the airport. With only four terminals at the Lincoln airport we arrived with plenty of time to spare. The flight was on time and we were off - already a better start to our travel day :) We had a three hour layover in Minneapolis so what girl wouldn't use that time to go to the Mall of America??! A short light rail ride and we arrived at a girls dream. We only had about a half hour there but it was still really cool to see. We had time to get lunch and then it was back to the airport. We got on our flight back to Seattle and had an uneventful trip home. We got our bags, loaded up in our fancy bus, and we were off to the UW. After an exciting trip it was nice to be back in our own beds. There is never a boring moment with the Gymdawgs :) Thanks so much to all our fans and can't wait to see you this Friday for our pink meet!! GO DAWGS! Anna |
