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 And those two fans were going to do
whatever it took to get to Seattle. There was only one problem, they
didn’t have any way to get out there. And as the hours passed away,
it became an even more hopeless venture. When they checked airfares,
the prices were outrageous, so that wasn’t going to happen. When
they calculated driving out and back, they didn’t have enough
vacation time to pull that off, so it was out too. And as they
exhausted all of their ideas-it looked like their quest was over…
This writer was reminded of that story as the Illini had a game
Saturday hosting and losing to Penn State 76-83, where the 1988-89
Flyin’ Illini were welcomed back and honored. The celebration was
fun, but the game wasn’t. Not much to write about there, so we’ll
get back to the story at hand…
…with no workable solution in sight…suddenly, one of them got a
brilliant idea that was like a lightning bolt from heaven. What
about the train? What? What about taking the train? But wouldn’t
that take forever? And what if there were any delays?...
I think you may have guessed it by now, but these two fans are two
of the craziest Illini fans out there. And they couldn’t afford a
sleeper car & they couldn’t afford too many days off work. But at
least a coach seat ticket on a train was a reasonable price and one
that they could afford. [In fact, it saved them enough money to take
advantage of Amtrak’s “fly back home one-way discount pricing!”
Which is another story for another day, but exactly what our guys
did!]…but I digress…
So, our two heroes boarded the Amtrak train in Lincoln, IL and made
their way to Chicago. Their wives had packed them meals for a couple
of days along with some snacks [however, the story goes that one of
the wives packed some kiwi fruit in the cooler? Is that a little
known specialty of train travel? The guys didn’t know and gave the
kiwi to some fellow travelers.] Anyway, when they got to Union
Station the boys boarded The Empire Builder, one of Amtrak’s
featured long-haul trains, and nestled in for a two-day+ trip across
the country. To say that the trip was an adventure would be
the understatement of the century. The guys saw sights and things
they had never seen before. They met people from all over the
country. But amazingly they met only two other passengers who were
bound for Seattle and the Final Four.
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One of the funniest things they saw happened in Montana. There
was a short delay there because of a big scare in the area. A
grain train had spilled a bunch of grain-corn to be exact-off a
bridge and down a hillside. The bears had apparently come down
out of the mountains and had discovered the corn. They proceeded
to hammer that corn and became drunk as a bunch of skunks! The
authorities were worried as they didn’t know what the bears
might do under the influence. So the Amtrak train was delayed as
they tried to figure out what to do next.
After we laughed a while, the train was released ahead to
proceed towards Seattle. When we finally pulled into Seattle on
Friday morning we were blessed to have a friend from
Springfield, IL, Gary Winkleman, who had recently moved to
Seattle, who picked us up at the train station, hosted us for a
few days, and took us home so we could grab a badly needed
shower. After we had gone to so much trouble we expected the
best Illini game of a lifetime…they were going to have to tangle
with Michigan who had just fired their coach before the NCAA
tournament had even begun! Illinois had clobbered UM twice
during the regular season, so we were hoping for a 3rd-time beat
down.
Instead, we got our worst performance of the year. And IF memory
serves, it was the only game that season that Kendall Gill
played in that the Illini lost. We were heartbroken, but still
glad to have made the trip, as it was truly the adventure of a
lifetime!
Oh, one last thing. I know this story well because one of those
guys was Lincoln’s own, Craig Zastrow. The other one…yours
truly! What can I say, guilty as charged!
GO ILLINI! [By JEFF MAYFIELD]
Respond to the writer at
jeffqmay@gmail.com.
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