TR: The 3rd Barnyard Road Trip: Iowa 2007 (1/13/2007)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2007
CARVER-HAWKEYE ARENA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
IOWA CITY, IOWA

This was my second Barnyard road trip that I have partaken in. Last year, I went to Northwestern with the gang, and had a great time, despite the fact that the crowd at Northwestern was the worst thing since Long Island Iced Tea Mix In a Bottle. With that thought in mind, I trudged my way over to Williams Arena on a viciously cold Saturday morning to board the coach buses that would take us to Iowa City.There were two buses packed to the gills with Barnyard members.

The trip through southern Minnesota was a quiet one, but as soon as we hit the Iowa state line, the several Marching Band members who were on our bus started singing, and any premonition of waiting for a while to start the festivities promptly went by the boards. The trip down was fun, and included a conversation between several of us in the front of the bus regarding the origins of some of our Gopher Hole aliases. After we went through Waterloo, it began to snow/freezing rain, and by the time we got to Iowa City, there was a coating of slop/ice on the ground.

Killed a little time at a McDonalds in Coralville, then we went over to Carver-Hawkeye Arena. At first, we weren't sure if this was indeed Carver-Hawkeye Arena that we were driving towards. Oh, that ugly lattice gidrerwork is what holds up the roof? Anyway, we go in and find our seats (the top of Section II, for those of you with a seating chart close at hand.

Carver-Hawkeye Arena has elements of the New Mexico Pit (dug out of the ground), Mariucci Arena (open concourse around the top of the arena), and the old St. Paul Civic Center (a constant oval bowl). Carver-Hawkeye is also the most acoustically dead sports arena I have ever had the misfortune of going into. Abraham Lincoln is more alive than the sound in that arena was. We couldn't hear the ref's whistles, the pep band, or any announcements. I'm not sure what caused the place to be that way, but any noise the crowd made was promptly sucked into the abyss, never to be heard again. There is no way for a rowdy crowd to feed of itself. Between the 8 and 4 minute timeouts of the first half, I went around behind the pep band to see if I could hear any noise the Barnyard was making, and I could hear nothing. I'll take the Barn any day of the week. For that matter, I'll take Welsh-Ryan any day of the week, I just don't want that crowd. Also, is "In Heaven There Is No Beer" the UI alma mater?

There are enough discussion threads about the game to take care of that, although I was STUNNED to see in today's Des Moines Register that we out-rebounded the Hawks.

After the conclusion of the game, another Barnyard member and I were grabbed by a man who told us something to the effect of "As a Minnesota alum, I was very disappointed in you today." Now aside from a few chants that were quite off-color and probably should have been left on the bus (particularly with two small children seated immediately in front of us), I thought we did a good job representing the U of M. He didn't bother to elaborate on that point.

One of many things that the Univerity of Iowa is renowned for is the inability to disperse a big crowd, at least compared with the U and those red skunks in Madison. It took 30 minutes to move the 200 or so yards from where the busses were parked to the light on US 6. During this time, one guy told us that despite Northwestern taking Becky to the wire, they couldn't finish the deal.

We arrive at the hotel, and what a clusterf***! The computers were broken down, room keys were screwed up, etc, etc, etc. I won't elaborate, but it involved a LOT of POed people. At this point, the gathering broke up, with some going downtown to get loaded for bear, and others going to get dinner first. I highly recommend the El Dorado Mexican restaurant across the street from our hotel. Excellent meal for a reasonable price.

I ended up going with alltimetwinsfan to the Fieldhouse for a while, then back out to our hotel on the Coralville strip and Old Chicago where the evening ended with a rousing game of shuffleboard. Someone in the Twin Cities has to get one of those shuffleboard tables. That was, without queston, the highlight of the night, which speaks volumes about the nightlife in Iowa City.

It was quite a bit warmer in Iowa City than it was in Minnapolis, warm enough for the precipitation to stay as freezing rain. By 10:00 PM, there was a protective coating of ice on Iowa City, which made crossing the street a dicey proposition. The ice was still there by morning, but as of the time of this writing (the buses were passing Charles City), the roads haven't gotten too bad as of yet.Overall, I had a great time, and would do this again in a heartbeat. Thanks to all the Barnyard folks for organizing this trip, and hopfully things will work out again next season.