I've Been Everywhere Man

As the last post during List Week, this post looks at the extensive travelling done by the men's basketball team. Being a manager has allowed me to see places I may not otherwise get to, and I have seen a great deal of this country, particularly the south as a result. So in this post, I break down the mileage I have logged in my two years travelling with the team by reviewing our schedule from the 2011-12 seasons. Check out just how far we have gone (NOTE: The mileage only includes the miles it takes to fly/drive to a given town, so bus rides from airports to hotels/arenas/etc are not included):

2011-12 SEASON

Legends Classic, East Rutherford, New Jersey: 1772 miles round trip

@ Louisville; Louisville, Kentucky: 348 miles round trip

@Davidson; Charlotte, North Carolina: 818 miles round trip

@Marquette; Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 1120 miles round trip

@South Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina: DID NOT GO -- SICK

@Alabama; Tuscaloosa, Alabama: 494 miles round trip

@Arkansas; Fayetteville, Arkansas: 1058 miles round trip

@Florida; Gainesville, Florida: 1156 miles round trip

@Ole Miss; Oxford, Mississippi: 468 miles round trip

@Georgia; Athens, Georgia: 610 miles round trip

@Kentucky; Lexington, Kentucky: 426 miles round trip

@Tennessee; Knoxville, Tennessee: 360 miles round trip

SEC Tournament; New Orleans, Louisiana: 1068 miles round trip

NCAA Tournament; Albuquerque, New Mexico: 2434 miles round trip

TOTAL = 12,132 Miles traveled for me during 2011-12 season


2012-13 SEASON

@Oregon; Nashville to Salt Lake City then Salt Lake to Eugene Oregon: 2407 miles one way

Returning from Oregon, AKA the trip from hell, which you can read about here:

Eugene, Oregon to Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles to Nashville: 3,077 miles one way

@Old Spice Classic; Orlando, Florida: 1378 miles round trip

@Xavier; Cincinnatti, Ohio: 542 miles round trip

@Arkansas; Fayetteville, Arkansas: 1058 miles round trip

@South Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina: 882 miles round trip

@Missouri; Columbia, Missouri: 864 miles round trip

@Tennessee; Knoxville, Tennessee: 360 miles round trip

@LSU; Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 1174 miles round trip

@Kentucky; Lexington, Kentucky: 426 miles round trip

@Mississippi State; Starkville, Mississippi: 572 miles round trip

@Auburn; Auburn, Alabama: 604 miles round trip

@Florida; Gainesville, Florida: 1156 miles round trip

@SEC Tournament; Nashville, Tennessee: 11.4 miles total for 3 games there

TOTAL = 14,511.4 Miles traveled

So to sum it up, over the course of two seasons travelling with the team, I have logged 26,643 miles of travel for team related activities. That is the equivalent to about 9.2 trips cross country from New York City to San Francisco. I have been to 21 different cities across the US (literally), from East Rutherford, New Jersey to Eugene, Oregon. I have seen places I never knew existed before arriving at Vanderbilt or never imagined I'd ever end up in (this primarily applies to Starkville and Oxford, Mississippi).

This wasn't a tour of America's most well known cities or the nicest, but I got to see parts of the country I hadn't been before (and I've been to many, as I went on a bus trip across the US while in high school) and ones I probably won't end up in again. Being a part of a college basketball team is not only a unique experience in seeing what a high-major Division I program is like, but also in getting to explore the country. As a manager, I got to see more of the places we went than most of our players because during down time, I didn't need to rest up for the game, I could actually do and see things.

Some of the highlights of my travels include:

• Hot air ballooning with my dad in New Mexico
• Getting invited by the front office of the Milwaukee Bucks to attend a practice while in Milwaukee
• A night out in Gainesville, Florida
• Walking around Oregon's campus and their athletic facilities 
• Meeting the different groups of people I talk about in this post and in this one
• The heated pool in Baton Rouge with spraying hoses
• Disney World
• Bus tour of New Orleans and a po-boi sandwich there, as well as the World War II Museum
• Skyline Chili in Cincinnati
• The Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville
• The 9/11 Memorial in New York City

I've been everywhere man, and here is a map to prove it (I created a Google Map, with the places I've been marked off, it's pretty cool if I may say so myself).