Indiana University Athletics
Hoosier Road Trip with Kara Butler
2/10/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
Feb. 10, 2010
LA JOLLA, Calif. -
Throughout the 2010 Indiana water polo season, various members of the team will be keeping a journal of their travels for IUHoosiers.com. Junior Kara Butler checked in from La Jolla, Calif. as the Hoosiers competed in the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
We had an early morning practice on Thursday, to gear up for the weekend. We all met at the soccer fields at 2:45 to head out to the airport to catch our flight to California. All dressed in khakis and our red polo shirts, we looked like a legit team on the way to a winning season.
We got to the airport and took off on our flight. For some reason, most airlines do not offer straight flights from Indianapolis to San Diego (or Orange County in our case) so we had an hour flight to Atlanta. When we got to Atlanta we were so surprised at how big the airport was. We had to take a tram to get to our gate. Last time we were in Atlanta, we saw the rapper/singer Drake and this time I was crossing my fingers to see Usher (ATL is his home town). I had been warming up my dance moves all week in case I was confronted with my dance idol. Usher was a no-go, as disappointed as I was, but we did manage to meet someone who was the DJ for a band called `Three 6 Mafia.' I expressed to him my ability to "spin a few tunes."
We hopped on our flight to Orange Country (not too far north of SD) and were so excited to see that Delta had monitors on the back of every chair, allowing each passenger to compete in a trivia game. Kelsey Campbell was, once again, the reigning champion. I sat close enough to her to try and steal a few answers (it worked most of the time).
We arrived in Orange County late, and were so exhausted from the time change that we crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Nicole Redder and I woke up at a decent time (8:30 a.m. PT, 11:30 a.m. ET) and ran to the window to see the sunshine. Just our luck, the clouds had hung over the usually sunny city and we were getting rainfall. A sad, sun deprived (lack of tan-ness) team headed to UC Irvine for a light workout.
The rain continued to fall as we got to UCI's campus and changed into our suits. Considering most of us are from California, we are used to playing outdoors with the occasional rainfall, but some of our teammates weren't quite as prepared. It started to come down pretty hard, and Barry (King) and Kandace (Waldthaler) had to suffer the weather conditions.
After practice we headed to find a Wahoo's Fish Tacos, one of southern California's staples for fish tacos. Sara Joseph and I, being the vegetarians, opted for a tofu bowl (YUM) and a bean and cheese burrito.
We hopped in the vans (it was still raining!) and headed to my home town, San Diego. I was so excited to see my home and hoped that the weather was different an hour south. We got to our hotel an hour and a half later and my roommate Jakie Köhli and I headed to our rooms for a quick power nap. We left to go to my house for a team dinner where Susie Butler (my mom) and crew made a plethora of hamburgers (gardenburgers), hotdogs (Lauren Wyckoff could barely hold her excitement for this dish), and macaroni and cheese. We all enjoyed the company of family and friends and ate plenty, then went back to the hotel for a nice food-induced sleep.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Jakie and I woke up this morning and I was pretty sure I was still full from last night, but ate my oatmeal anyway. We packed into our vans and arrived at UCSD to play our first game against UCSB in the POURING rain. Growing up in San Diego, I had rarely seen it rain as hard as it did. The only time you cannot play a game outdoors is when there is lightning so we mustered up the energy and confidence to play in the rain, which felt like daggers from the clouds pelting into our eyes.
To our extreme disappointment, we lost to UCSB and then to Cal Baptist in the afternoon game, but we're ready for tomorrow's games to prove ourselves to a lot of California teams that hadn't seen us play in a long time.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
I had my oatmeal again this morning, along with my green tea and tried to hydrate for the two games that were ahead of us.
We played Sonoma State and won, 15-6, then went to check out of the hotel. The weather was better today, and the sun would peek out of the clouds every now and then. Whenever the sun came out, we all attempted to soak up as many rays as possible. Jenna Tameris's skin clearly wasn't ready for the SoCal rays. She didn't get the memo about sunscreen and ended up getting the world's best and most evident cap tan.
Our final game was against Marist which we won in a grueling and physical battle. We said our goodbyes to our family and friends that came, and headed back to Orange County but not before we stopped at... IN-N-OUT. A California trademark that many of us couldn't hold our excitement for (Kym King forgot to close the car door in her bolt to the cashier; we didn't realize this until later). We were all so excited, and got our good share of the best food that fast food can make. We listened to the Super Bowl on the way to the airport, but I was still bitter about my San Diego Chargers not being there that I didn't care much about the outcome of the game.
Full and happy, we arrived at our flight in Orange County and set for our layover in Atlanta (I was so tired that my practice for Usher's backup dancer would have to wait). I was passed out so I didn't notice if everyone was sleeping but most people were by the time we got to our four hour layover in Atlanta.
We made it home fine. A little sleep deprived and groggy, but eager to get back to the normal daily routine of being a student athlete and preparing for our games next weekend at Bucknell.
