The season is wrapped up (well not quite and just maybe not quite at all........)
my daughters u-15 finished their season last weekend in Denver clinching a banner and laying claim to the best u-15 team in the state of CO and NM. Yea girls.
But why haven't I been posting? After winter break my uber driving services and all around hockey mom coordination skills required:
Jan 10-12 denver
off week (yea no tourney for holiday weekend )
Jan 25 Eagle (vail)
Jan 26 Eagle (vail)
Jan 31-feb 2 Denver
Feb 8-9 Durango
Feb 15-16 home (steamboat came to us and yeaaaaaaaaaaa and we went 2-1-1 against em)
Feb 20-23 Denver
and coming up Feb 28-march 1 denver
ohhh yea and if that team wins in Denver then Phoenix march 13-15 and if they win that Phili April 3-5
that is a grand total of 2450 miles over 8 weekends (not including that potential drive to Phoenix).
But wait......that isn't all---outside of the trips to Eagle there has been snow---pretty much everytime coming home and often on the outbound trip. Heading to Durango I made the mistake of leaving a bit too early which resulted in adding about 60 miles to the trip to Durango because million dollar highway (AKA 550 between Silverton to Ouray ) was shut for avalanche mitigation. The hockey parents that left later didn't have to take the Lizard head detor so they only had a 242 mile drive down vs my 304 miles. But not to worry on the way home it was open (although puking snow on Red Mountain pass). For you East coasters and midwesterns who think you drive distance, look at these roads and then please reconsider how you feel about your interstate highway system before lodging complaints.
highway 550 named to 'most dangerous list
And while Vail pass is a big old interstate highway I can tell ya there ain't nothing like that in the midwest or East coast either.
Cost of all this---maybe $400 in gas, another $40 in windshield wiper fluid, $80 in car washes (with 400 miles of driving over mag chloride you gotta get your car washed) and however much damage 2.5k miles puts on your car and snow tires (yea ya gotta have snow tires not those all season snow and mud tires). Figure the hotels run another $2000. Should I include the pepcid I have to take and the value of my time--nah that is just part of being a parent. So not including my time and stomach lining we are talking about $2.5k but I am sure that is way low.
Remember this is mostly not travel hockey (she does play on an AA team--that is this weekend games) but most of this is just regular hockey. Sometimes it's easy for parents to forget (or at least this parent) to remember that this is kid hockey. Sometimes they are off their game, sometimes they are tired or sick or just not excited to spend a weekend driving to denver, staying in a cheap hotel, and eating crap food. Sometimes perspective gets lost---and sadly I fear that makes sense. Its one thing to watch your kid play like crap and then jump in the car for a 40 min drive home, its another thing to drive back to the hotel, stay around a bunch of parents who are also doing a cost benefit analysis of time and money spent vs kid effort and then after 2 or 3 more games drive home.
Which reminds me of a great line from a East coast hockey dad (2 boys)
Parent of Mites--think their kid will play in the NHL
Squirts--D1 college (full ride of course)
pee wee --high school hockey
Bantams---we should have gone skiing
as a father of a hockey girl I might add
u-15 thank god they smell bad (boy deterint)
u-19 thank god they kept at it ---this is pretty good hockey
Hope they win this weekend, but if they don't well there is a huge silver lining of money saved and a weekend at home. Either way this should be my last trip to Denver for awhile.
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