Enjoying a fun trip to exotic Richmond ... and beyond
It was a fun experience.
Saturday.
When I was assigned to cover the Coal City Coalers at Richmond-Burton IHSA Class 4A second round playoff game.
In Richmond.
Meaning the Coaler Nation headed northwards.
While the Minooka fans and backers were proceeding down Interstate 55 to the hallowed haunts of East St. Louis and the Indians battle the Flyers in Class 7A competition.
But my vehicle was not targeting a southbound direction. Rather, we were making tracks towards Alaska, as Johnny Horton used to sing.
The journey to Richmond would be breaking new ground for me. In all my years of covering sports, I had never covered any sporting event in Richmond.
I knew the distance to Richmond would be about 100 miles. I left home and got all the way to Yorkville when I started hearing myself repeat, "Are we there yet?" way too many times over the next hour?
The journey along Rt. 47 is virtually all two-lane highway.
Interrupted way too frequently by stop signs and stop lights.
I kept my foot on the gas ... and then the brake ... and then on the gas. I got behind a man and woman on individual motorcycles who were alternatedly flying along about 70 miles an hour or trying to take in the atmosphere and going about 40.
We kept going and going. Finally, the couple turned east and headed towards Geneva.
Traffic was heavy. It started to thin out as we got further north although the number of cars would vary depending on how close we were to either a small town or a larger metropolis.
I kept going and going, wishing I had somebody in the shotgun seat to jabber with.
All of a sudden, the landscape started to turn bleak. I was starting to wonder ...
Just a little ways further, I came upon a small building. With some signage that looked vaugely familiar but still spookily eerie.
A guy wearing what appeared to be a uniform leaned out the doorway that faced the road and said, "Parlez-vous au francais?
I somehow guessed that I might have driven a little far. So, taking care not to hit a polar bear when I turned around, I turned back south.
Getting to Hebron, I hung a left. And not long after arrived in the exotic environ of Richmond.
As most Coal City fans have forgotten by now, the outcome of the game was decided early. With the Rockets scoring a pair of touchdowns in the opening three minutes. And adding two more touchdowns and a field goal before half to grab a 30-0 advantage.
The coolest part of the contest was the opening drive of the second half when coach Lenny Onsen and the Coalers unveiled the Lonesome Polecat formation. A pass to senior Tiger Onsen, who normally plays linebacker, picked up 15 yards before the referees decided to throw some yellow hankies. Saying the Coal City formation was actually an illegal alignment because there were not enough guys on the line of scrimmage.
So senior quarterback Colt Smith went back to the shotgun formation, hitting senior wideout Alec Smith on successive plays for for gains of 22 and 25 yards with the latter going for the lone touchdown of the afternoon for the Coalers.
