Cruel and Unusual

As if suffering through a 4-2 road loss at Seattle Friday night wasn't enough, we had to bus up to Chilliwack, B.C., hitting the pillow at 3 a.m. I had to be up by 9:45 for a radio interview on the Whitecaps' station, so those six-plus hours was likely the only quality rest I'll get until the bus rolls into Portland around 10 a.m. Sunday. Bus driver Bill will take us as far as the border tonight, where one of his fellow drivers will board the coach and haul us the rest of the way home. Can't wait for that ride!

My room at the Best Western Rainbow Country Inn smells like bacon grease, and not in a good way. Time to get packed up and head down to Tim Horton's for a coffee for the road. We should arrive in Kelowna, B.C. around 3:30 p.m. in advance of the 7 p.m. showdown with the Whitecaps.

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No luck fiinding a connection today, so this blog edition won't be very timely. We arrived in Kelowna and had an hour and 20 minutes to eat, sleep, etc. Most of us chose the dining route and Jim Taylor and I checked into a hotel room for all of five minutes to change clothes. This is easily the second toughest travel in the five years I've been associated with the Timbers. Number one (2003 season) was flying from El Paso to Milwaukee on the day of the match and driving straight from the airport to the field. That result wasn't pretty, I just hope it's a different story this time.

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Well, that was wishful thinking, the result was actually worse at 4-0. Maybe I was overestimating the ability of a sleep-deprived team with 14 healthy field players to withstand horrific travel and two matches in 23 hours.

The bus arrived at our meeting place at the Delta Park Best Western at 7:30 a.m., capping arguably the most miserable road trip in modern Timbers' history. Looking on the bright side, that was the final trip of the regular season involving a bus, which severely limits the ability to conduct a timely blog (no place to get online, et al).