Today started with the alarm going off at 4:30am, two showers and melting of ice from our car for the first of 2 five hour drives for the day. We were on the road to “Big D” by 5:10am, and it was I who took the first leg. My extent of driving in the US and Canada, ever, had been driving from the Short’s residence to the Starbucks about 5 miles down the access road. So practically non-existent! But, since Sam only had 2 hours sleep and I had 4 and a half, I took one for the team, stepped up to the plate and took an almighty swing at driving on the wrong side of the road, in an unfamiliar car, at 5am when the road is covered in black ice.

I didn’t do too badly if I do say so myself.

I drove for an hour and a half and we switched drivers at McDonalds for breakfast, where we stopped to eat and then Sam took over for about 45 minutes, while I slept. When he faded again, I took over and drove the rest of the way into Dallas, all the way to Jen’s motel, where we are going to be staying the final leg of our trip.

Jen greeted us with hugs and a gorgeous schnauzer named Stellina. We got a tour of our room, and hung out with Jen while we waited for Rhonda to arrive so we could all go to the Dallas Stars game together. While waiting, Jen, Sam and I went to lunch at the Corner Cafe & Bakery. It was nice to eat food that wasn’t fast food! I had a ravioli and Sam had a turkey toasted sandwich. It was delicious. Back at Jen’s, it was great to catch up until Rhonda arrived and we could head to the game.

Rhonda is sick with the flu at the moment, so it was wonderful that she felt well enough to get out of bed and come along to the game with us. She had arranged the tickets for the four of us with her Ticket Rep (she’s a season ticket holder for The Stars), who was able to compliment her 4 tickets in the lower bowl for us, because she had 2 guests from Australia with her. How awesome is that?

The AAC hasn’t changed – at least not inside – but the courtyard at the front has now been finished being built and HOMG is the big screens outside impressive! But inside, we got there with just enough time to buy new replica jerseys for Sam and I (Richards and Modano respectively) and a game puck before we had to get to our seats for the game to start! I was really excited about this game because not only were we going to watch the new “young guns” Jamie Benn and James Neal play (they weren’t on the team in 2006 as they were still too young), but we were going to see one of my favourite defensemen play. Unfortunately, he’s an Edmonton Oiler, but I do love Lubomir Vishnovsky!

The game started with, as usual, the singing of the National Anthems. It was kind of like a homecoming, hearing the anthem sung by Celina Rae, and the crowd yelling out “STARS” twice through the anthem when the words are mentioned. It’s … it’s hard to explain it. It’s a Stars Fans tradition. Some people are offended by it. I guess I can understand that point of view, but since it’s not my anthem I don’t get offended by it. I do think it’s unique, and something only the Stars can do in the NHL. That makes it special.

When the game started, though, it was all business. I was sitting next to Rhonda, who was next to Sam who was next to Jen. It was great because Jen and Rhonda were picking on Sam, but Rhonda and I were also talking hockey and cheering for the boys! I was so thrilled to be able to see Mike Modano play one more time. I don’t know if he will play another season, as this is the last one he’s contracted to and he is 39 years old, but he may do. I doubt Sam and I will be able to make it back to Dallas next year if he does though, so it was really special for me to see my favourite player, the player that got me hooked and obsessed with hockey in the first place, play one more time.

About four minutes left in the first period I said to Rhonda that I wanted a goal. Not ten seconds later, Jamie Benn scored with a lovely shot in the top left hand shelf over Deslauriers’ shoulder, assisted by Mike “Skeezy” Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow. And then three minutes later I said I wanted another one. With 31 seconds left in the first period, James Neal scored, assisted by Brad Richards and Nicklas Grossman. Both were very pretty goals. Neal’s was just impressive. Brad Richards took the puck up from the defensive zone, all the way to the net and was denied by Deslauriers, only for Neal to “pick up the trash” and score on a juicy rebound.

In the second period, Lubomir Vishnovsky of the Oilers netted their first goal from a slapshot that Marty Turco just couldn’t stop. The Stars still looked good, and for once Trevor Daley was having a good game and not making his usual 50 billion mistakes. Anyone who has sat with me through a Stars game knows that I would trade Daley for a bag of chips and a Starbucks coffee – and I’m not a Starbucks fan. But he made some great moves, was good on defense and his passing and puck handling was great. I don’t know what Crawford is going to get Daley to step up his game, but whatever it is, he needs to keep doing it!

In the intermission between the second and third periods, we went in search of Rhonda’s ticket rep and our friends Mickie, Frederick and their son Alex. They were in section 311, three levels above us! We had to walk all the way around the concourse before we found it, and while we were searching for them, Alex and Mickie had gone off in search of us! We found Frederick though, and managed to catch Alex and Mickie before we headed back to our seats for the start of the third period. Rhonda and Jen arrived at our seats after we did, having found out where the Stars commentators, Ralph Strangis and Darryl “Razor” Reaugh (pronounced “Ray”) were calling the game from – sections 210/211.

It was still 2-1 with 4 minutes left in the third period, and it was then that Sam, Rhonda, Jen and I got up from our seats and headed to the Platnium Level for sections 210/211 to see Ralph and Razor. We caught the game on the television screen in the elevator up, and then watched the jumbotron from the doorway of sections as we passed. As we walked to the elevator, Sam said that he bet the Oilers would score in the last minute of the game. “They always do,” he complained. We were waiting for the elevator when Ladislav Smid scored to tie the game up 2-2, and now we were off to the races! In the 8 games (including the Stars game) we have seen on our trip, only 2 have finished in regulation. 6 of them went to OT (overtime) or a Shootout. And with the score at 2-2, Sam and I felt that impending sense of doom that the game was going to go to OT… or worse, a shootout!

We found 210/211, and Rhonda told the guard there that we were from Australia and wanting to catch up with Ralph and Razor, who were up on the balcony, calling the game. He let us in the area and even said we could sit down in the empty seats of the section while the game finished! That was lovely of him. Regulation ended at 2-2, and into OT it went. The Stars were trying everything they could to finish it in OT, and we were all biting our nails. In the 5 games that the Stars had gone to a shootout, we had won 1 and lost 4. Not a great track record for Marty Turco (our starting goaltender) in the breakaway contest.

Inevitably it did go to a shootout, and while exciting, it was also nerve-wracking and scary. Rhonda and I were standing up for the whole thing, screaming out and cheering – it was so much fun! Unfortunately we lost, and the Oilers took the game 3-2. But at least we got a point.

We had to wait outside the section for Ralph and Razor to do their post game wrap up with the television Stars Live post game wrap up. The guard asked us if they knew we were there, and Rhonda said no, but he could give them a heads up if he wanted. I said to the guard, “Just tell ‘em “The Aussies are back”, they’ll know who you’re talking about!”

That’s exactly what he said to Ralph. And Ralph looked over at the doorway, saw me, grinned and exclaimed, “The Aussies are back!” It was lovely that he still remembered us after 3 and a half years!

When he came out, we had a short chat with him, and he asked us how we were and how long we were there for (great and until Dec 16, so this was our only Stars game and we couldn’t come to the game and not say hello!). We told him about our trip (the exceedingly short version) but we did mention that we’d seen Scott Glennie and Brayden Schenn for Brandon play in Moose Jaw and Scott was awesome! Then I said to Ralph that we had something for him. I handed over the Australian tie we had bought for him (we had one for Razor as well). It was green and gold and yellow and had kangaroos embroidered on it.

“It’s an Australian tie in Dallas Stars colours,” I said as I handed it over. He was blown away and said that it was amazing, and was so gracious and thankful. I explained, “Well, you hooked us up with Mike last time we were here, and we are so appreciative of that, so this is just a token of our appreciation.”

He grinned and said, “Oh wow! I wish you’d come up before the game, I would have worn it!” Then he said his goodbyes, wished us a great rest of our trip, shook Sam’s hand and then gave me a hug. It was so sweet. I love Ralph. Both Ralph and Razor are awesome, but Ralph remembers that when we met him the first time, it was Ralph and Razor that brought us the Stars. We didn’t have cable, and we didn’t have an internet connection we could stream the games – they weren’t available over the internet. The only way we could actually get Stars games was to listen to Ralph and Razor calling the game through WBAP radio in Dallas, which thankfully put their radio streaming online. We explained to him how Sam would record the radio stream on his computer during the day while I was at work and I would come home after work and listen to the game. Or if the game coincided with my lunch break, I would phone Sam and he would put the phone by the computer’s speaker and I would listen to the game over the phone on my lunch break. He was just so blown away by that when we told him last time (Mike Modano was too when we told him as well), that Ralph knows just how dedicated we are to the Stars, and how thankful we are to Ralph and Razor for being the voices of our team. There aren’t enough words in the English language to express what these two men mean to me for that.

Anyway we waited a little longer to talk to Razor because he was saying goodbye to the commentators there for Rogers Sports Net, the main sports network in Canada. One of the Rogers guys though looks like Razor’s doppleganger, it’s so funny. Razor came through the door and he stopped, and looked at us. He cocked his head to the side and it was so funny to see the realisation cross over his face. It was as if he was thinking… “Wait… wait, you look familiar… I know you!” And then he pointed at us and said, “The Aussies are back. The Aussies are back! Well hello! How are you!?”

It was thrilling that they were so happy to see us again. We chatted to Razor for a good 5-10 minutes, which was just wonderful. He too asked how long we were there for and said we should go on the California road trip. That’s how we told him that we’d been travelling for 4.5 weeks already and only just made it to Dallas, which led into where we were, what hockey we’d seen in Canada (mentioned Scott and Brayden again) etc.

He asked us how we liked today’s game, because we got to see some really good hockey – and it flowed from the discussion about hockey in Canada compared to the US. I told him “The Stars game was great and the crowd was a lot louder than it was last time and I see there’s a strip show at one end of the rink now!”

He grinned and said, “Oh yeah, the porn.”

We break this blog post to take a moment – and smack Sam on the arm as he groans again while I explain to you what I’m talking about. Some hockey teams in the NHL have what are called “Ice Girls”. They’re female ambassadors of the team, and every year the teams have Ice Girl auditions for the IG Teams. The girls that can skate go out on the ice during tv timeouts to “clean up the snow”, so they skate out with big scrapers and shovel up all the snow the teams have created during the game and dump them into bins and take it off the ice. They serve a purpose and it’s something for the guys to look at. No problem there. Our Dallas Stars Ice Girls wear black crushed velvet legging trackpants and a short sleeved midriff top with the Stars logo on it. They’re classy and sexy and all things nice.

But now, we also have Stars Cheerleaders. HOHMYGOD. I can’t believe it. Seriously. It’s a team of 7 girls, who stand on a balcony by JeffK, the Stars’ DJ/Music Director, and have pompoms and everything. Now that’s fine. Except they aren’t dressed like the Ice Girls. They wear the midriff tops, what I call bum-covers (spanky pants) and knee high black socks. Which, I don’t think is quite appropriate for an ice rink, but it’s no different to the Cowboys cheerleaders I guess. My issue with the Cheerleaders is not only the “dance moves” which honestly are only missing the stripper pole, I mean honestly, these moves are what you see on stage in a strip joint! I couldn’t believe it! And what made it worse was that it was plastered all over the jumbotron! Now, this is a massive HD cube of television screens. You can’t miss it, and you can’t help but look at it! There are children in this arena. This is marketed as a family event. What the hell are they doing putting the strippers front and centre on the jumbotron?! And the fact that they can’t “dance” in time with each other is just phenomenally bad.

I got the feeling that Razor agreed with my sentiments about the jumbotron thing because from what he said, a number of people had made comments about it, and none of them were complimentary.

Anyway with that aside, we talked about Marty, and I told Razor that he should impart his wisdom to Marty on the shootout after he told us how he was always good at them when he was playing hockey (he was a goaltender before he retired, played mostly in the AHL but did play a few games for the Hartford Whalers before they moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and became the Carolina Hurricanes).

I gave Razor his tie, which was black, silver and green with kangaroos on it and he too was rather impressed and surprised and thankful. He said he’d wear it for their next game, and I said to him, “Actually, if you could wear it for the Sharks game on December 11, that would be awesome because it’s Sam’s birthday!”

That took us into a discussion about how he could remember December 11 to wear the tie. I was a little incredulous. I said to him, “C’mon, it’s not that hard! Kangaroos and sharks are what Australia is famous for! Kangaroos on the land, and being eaten by sharks in the water!”

He was a little confused at first, but then he said, “Oh wait, I see where you’re going with this. How about kangaroos, they’re Australian, just like Greg Norman, he’s Australian, he’s the Great White Shark, Shark Tank, San Jose Sharks. I get it!”

He said he’d try to remember it, but he thanked us again and put it in his bag then and there. Then we said goodbye, shook hands and went our separate ways.

**SIGH** I love those guys!

Afterwards, we met up with Michele, Karin, Julie, Jeff and a few others outside who were waiting to see us! Hugs hello were all around and then we worked out who was coming where and headed back to the car to go to dinner.

We had dinner with Michele (we call her “Val” which is short for her surname) Jeff, Julie (who ended up taking Rhonda’s ticket for the Mavs game because she had to go back to work), and Jen at this tex-mex place they love to go to. It was a fun time! We had enchiladas but I don’t think they agreed with me too well because I wasn’t well later. Thankfully, I didn’t throw up but there were moments on the drive back to San An that we thought I was going to! But we’ll get to that.

After dinner, we went to the Dallas Mavericks Vs Atlanta Hawks NBA game. I was the only person of the four of us that went that actually wanted to be there, so I got outvoted and we left at the end of the first period, but since the game started at 8pm instead of 7pm like we thought, we would have had to leave early anyway. The Mavs game was a completely different experience to a hockey game.

While the Stars play rock music at their games, the Mavs play hip hop. While the Stars will fill the AAC, the crowd isn’t usually very noisy. The Mavs did fill out the AAC (I think the cheaper tickets have something to do with that), and their crowd was very noisy. The Mavs also have cheerleaders, but they weren’t as slutty, and at least danced in time with each other. While they did have some risque moves, it was nothing that you wouldn’t see on So You Think You Can Dance as a choreographed routine. And while they had bikini tops on, their pants were full length, so they didn’t look like sluts either. Man, I wished the Stars had taken a leaf out of their book. The NBA experience was a good one for me, and while basketball isn’t my favourite sport, I’d rather watch it than NFL or cricket any day. I did get a little bored with the play of the game, but that’s just because it’s so slow compared to hockey. And the squeaking of their sneakers would give me a headache if we’d stayed for the whole game – even in the rafters of 322. But still, I enjoyed the game – what we saw of it.

We headed out at the end of the first, and by then it was 8:50pm. We wanted to catch up with our friend Jesse (who I call “Jessebean” … not that he knows it, though if he’s reading this, he will now) who was playing hockey that night but his game finished before we could get there, and he was going to a party of a friend of his that he’d promised he’d go so we didn’t get to see him. I did get to speak to him on the phone though, which was awesome, and he said that they won, 3-1, which is brilliant, because Jesse is the goaltender! We’ll definitely catch up with Jesse later this week.

Instead, we headed back to Jen’s, and waited for Val and her wonderful husband Nathan to arrive (they went to Jesse’s game) and hang out for an hour before we had to start the long, treacherously straight road journey back to San Antonio for our day at SeaWorld!

It was awesome to catch up with friends and just laugh, which is what we always do when we’re with our friends from Dallas. They’re just as nutty and insane and gutter-minded as we are. It’s fabulous, and always a good time.

At ten, we finally stood up and made our way to the car. The drive back was just horrendous. Both of us were exhausted, and Sam ended up having to drive most of the way. I drove for about 50 minutes to an hour and Sam slept for about 45 minutes while I drove, but he didn’t feel like he’d slept at all. I wasn’t well, and had my second asthma attack for the day while in the car. I’d managed to get some sleep but it was stagnated and restless. We were so happy to reach San Antonio and fall into bed to pass out.

Four hours sleep before we get up. Fun times!!!