Our second tournament of our 2020-2021 season saw us heading back to Florida to compete in the Gator Invitational. Traveling with the team has always had its good times and occasionally challenging moments, however, add a pandemic to the mix and it raises the bar.
We are doing our best to minimize the airport terminals and number of flights in one given trip, which for those familiar to traveling in and out of State College is almost impossible. The result is a three-hour drive to Baltimore on a Friday afternoon.
We arrive to a very busy and crowded airport terminal giving ourselves enough time to check in and park our Penn State van. After waiting in a very crowded gate for a couple hours our flight is delayed, and we wait longer until finally making our way to Florida. I don't know if it's a warranted "fear" but for whatever reason the longer you spend around unknown people the harder it is to feel safe.
Getting the okay to board the plane is a welcome relief. Unfortunately, we can only fly into a large airport with a two-hour road trip awaiting us once we land. It would have been enough to make this next leg under normal time circumstances but now we are a late arrival. It is 11 p.m. and we board the tram to retrieve our rental van. Needless to say the rental counter is not at the airport and getting back to the airport to pick up the team felt like an eternity. I phone our hotel two hours away to be sure they knew we still intended to show.
We roll in at 2 a.m. thankful that the practice round tee times were delayed 2 hours the next morning due to rain. It's not often we are thankful for the rain! We crashed hard in our rooms and met the next morning to a lobby full of travelers, sports teams and families. It was as if this is completely okay since we all have masks on. We purposely stayed away from the host hotel the tournament offered to avoid crowds like this.
We quickly make our way to the van and make a familiar stop at the local grocery store for "supplies". Eating out at a restaurant is no longer part of our day and grabbing food at the course is no longer an option, since most do not provide much in the way of food anymore.
I grab my usual (those of you that know me that's veggies, bread and cheese), the players purchase some healthy snacks and off we go. Masked faces are everywhere until we finally set foot on the course where we get to be "home" doing what we love. We are fortunate at some events spectators are allowed in which we have our usual Florida fans Mary and Al Bilzi, whom are no strangers to following our tours of Florida tournaments along with being big supporters of our teams over the years. Some parents and a few volunteers round out the extent of our crowds.
The sunny days with cool breezes were not hard to handle, however, it took us a round to settle into our "groove". We came back strong in rounds two and three, however, we set ourselves back behind the competitive pack of teams and could not get ourselves ahead. We managed to close the gaps a little and proved our final two rounds were competitive and good enough for middle-of-the pack.
The Nittany Lions are a bit tired from the last four days however anxious to prepare for our next adventure in Charleston, South Carolina. I am writing from the Tampa Airport and still need to make the long trek home, after starting our day at 6 a.m. We will venture on to State College pulling into the Blue Course by 1 a.m., when Andy will then pop out of the van in the freezing temperatures to unlock the gates! I generally give a little nudge to the sleepy heads in the back of the van, wake up we are home!
