Road Trip 2002
Well, as the Wings defeated the Colorado Avalanche, my sister and I knew it was time to start planning our road trip. We had been planning on taking a trip to Detroit for the Stanley Cup Victory parade since 1998. We just had to wait a few years. Well, since I now live in Kentucky and she lives in Illinois, this was going to take a little more planning and a lot more travel time. So, after 36 driving hours and over 2000 miles, here is the story of our travels.
Wednesday, June 12th
After the Wings went ahead 3-1 in the series, we were confident that they would win, so I made the trip to IL to pick up my sister (6 hours). We wanted to watch the final game together and since I live in Lexington, I'm just right down the road from Detroit.
Thursday, June 13th
After the 6 hour drive back to Kentucky, it was time to prepare for the game and our trip. We waited to make hotel reservations since we weren't sure which days we would be there. We decided to wait until during the game, after the Wings had a lead. Finally it was game time. The Wings finally took a 2 goal lead and we were ready to call...then Carolina scored to make it 2-1. I still had a feeling they would win, so with 5 minutes left in the game, I called and got hotel reservations. Just after I finished, Brendan Shanahan scored the empty netter and sealed the deal! We were officially going! We ended up being up late watching the post game ceremonies and getting pumped for our trip.
Friday, June 14th
Well, we left fairly early in the morning to head to Detroit (a 6 hour drive). No offense, but Ohio did not really impress up. We were very excited to get to Michigan. One of the first things we noticed...the roads were VERY rough. You could lose your car in some of the potholes. We safely made it to our hotel in downtown early afternoon and after checking in, it was time to explore. We stayed near a People Mover Station, so we jumped on that. We didn't realize it stopped right at Joe Louis Arena, so when we saw that, we had to get off at that stop. We were able to do some shopping and look inside the Joe a bit...very cool. I was so excited to see all the Yzerman stuff. Those steps are a killer though. Luckily I decided to buy a Locker Room cap there because the rest of our trip, every shop we went to people were calling to see if they had that hat. So, after looking around, we jumped back on the people mover, stopped for some supper and headed to our hotel to prepare for the rest of our weekend.
Saturday, June 15th
Unfortunately, it was a little rainy on Saturday, but we were still excited to explore. We headed to the Hockeytown Cafe! First of all, Comerica looks like a beautiful ballpark. We got to Hockeytown Cafe right around the time it opened, so it was quiet and we got a chance to look around. Plus, there was a parade planning session going on, but unfortunately we weren't close enough to get any good details. The Cafe was very cool...the food was good and we loved looking around. After a trip to Greektown and the Greektown Casino (I actually won...$2.65), we decided to take a trip out the suburbs...Birmingham specifically. My sister is a huge Shanahan fan, so we thought we would at least visit the town he lives in now. Plus, we decided to look for the Hockeytown Authentics store, which we were able to find successfully. We didn't really drive around Birmingham, because if we would have, we probably would have seen Brendan and some other guys taking the Cup to a restaurant. We saw that later on the news. That would apparently be our first near sighting.
Sunday, June 16th
After having breakfast in Birmingham, it was time for some shopping and exploring. This apparently was our second near sighting. We were at a mall and someone was talking about seeing Shanahan. We guess it just wasn't meant to be. We spent the day going around town and made it back in time to watch the Rally for the Season Ticket holders on UPN. It was so fun to watch...next time we have to remember to bring a VCR to tape all the stuff. Anyway, the show was supposed to be over at 10:30...but it went until 11:30. This was going to make it hard to get up early the next morning for the parade.
Monday, June 17th
After checking out early, we went to scope out our spot for the parade...at 7am. Our hotel was just 3 blocks away from Woodward, so we were able to walk there early and to scope out a good spot near the Compuware construction zone. We got the last tree planter, so we had an unobstructed view of the parade. Also, thanks to the Detroit Police Department for stationing some fine looking officers near us :)
8am: The crowd started to grow and people were continuing to cruise the street.
9am: The crowd grows more despite moments of drizzle.
10am: We started to realize that we probably should have brought an unbrella...especially once it started to pour down rain. We tried to keep our spirits up, but it was hard in the chilly rain.
11am: The sun started to peak through and it started to become a beautiful day.
11:30am: Parade time! We were near the start of the parade, so it didn't take long for it to reach us. It was so exciting because the crowd was excited, but not rowdy. Fans were respectful and didn't try to run into the streets. We were impressed. It was so great to see how excited everyone was. Probably the most excited people were Steve Duchesne and Luc Robitaille. It was very cool to see Hullie and Cheli riding together on the back of the truck. They looked like they were tailgating. We were most excited to see Jason Williams (he's becoming a new favorite for us), Brendan Shanahan (and his dog), and Steve Yzerman and his family. We had so much fun watching and just seeing our favorite team up close for the first time. I mean, I've met Hullie and Shanny in St. Louis before, I was personally very excited to see Steve Yzerman in person. I've become such a big fan of his that it was just very cool. We knew that there was going to be a ton of people, so we made the decision before hand to just watch the parade and then leave and listen to the rally on the radio. That was probably a good move...although we ended up not really hearing the rally. We had a 6 hour drive back to Kentucky ahead of us, so we needed to get out of town fast. So, 6 hours later we were back in Kentucky and preparing for our trip back to IL.
Tuesday, June 18th
So we made the 6 hour trip to IL and then got our pictures developed. We were very pleased with our results (Check them out here). Our trip together was coming to an end and I was almost done with my journey.
Wednesday, June 19th
The final leg of my journey...the trip back home to KY. 6 more hours and I was back home and very happy about the trip we took.
36 hours, over 2000 miles and every bit of it was worth it. We had such a great time and such a relaxing time. It was so much fun and we were so happy we were able to celebrate with fellow Wings fans. Now we know what we would do on our next trip...2003? Also, our desire is now stronger than ever to make it to a game in Detroit. Thank you Wings for winning the Cup! We enjoyed our experience so much!
