Today, I got up at the crack of the newly earlier dawn to drive to Cleveland for Bubbles's first competition with the TGA Scorpions. Bubbles went with her mom et. al. on Saturday and stayed the night. They left at 11:00 and got to their hotel at around 3:30 - or something like that. I know it took them over four hours to make the trip because of all the snow.
My drive was mostly just wet roads until I got to where 80 and 90 split. Then, the roads were hard packed snow covered. You could tell the plows had been working all night, but they hadn't put down any salt.
Once I got into Cleveland, it was pretty much as you would expect. Streets were plowed, but still covered with hard-pack stuff. Then, the sidewalks and curbs were piled high with snow.
In that second picture, that lump you see on the ground was a bum staying warm on some kind of vent. There, but for the grace of God, go I.
Since I left so early, and I didn't have any trouble with road conditions, I arrived quite a bit early. Bubbles's mom was nice enough to invite me to hang out at the hotel with them for a bit. I took advantage of the free breakfast by eating a Bavarian Cream filled donut and drinking some coffee.
The convention center in Cleveland appears to be a modern facade build around an older building.
We got our tickets and went to find a seat
This competition was really messed up because so many teams didn't make it to the convention center on Saturday due to The Blizzard 08. All the teams that only showed up for Sunday wanted the opportunity to perform twice - like they would if they'd been there on Saturday, too. Clearly there wouldn't be time for that. So, they made the decision that nobody would perform twice on Sunday, including teams that were actually scheduled to perform twice on Sunday. That included the Scorpions, unfortunately. Teams were performing out of order and they were WAY WAY ahead of schedule. There was lots of time with an empty mat, too.
Bubbles's little sister had the right idea, and the best seat in the house.
There was an awards ceremony just before the Scorpions performed. At a typical competition, the mat would be PACKED FULL of kids.
The Scorpions did really well until it got to the tumbling portion of the routine. Then, it started to fall appart. I don't know what the final score was, but they finished 3rd out of 3 teams. I still think they did great considering this was their first competition against teams that have been together for the entire school year, or longer. I took this video of their performance with my cell phone. We should be getting a better vide from another Scorpion's parent sometime soon. I'll post it if/when we get it.
BizB Mon Mar 10 09:02:09 AM Since when have you known me to be politically correct? Reply
sopops Mon Mar 10 08:18:12 AM To be politically correct, not a bum but a "homeless person" or a "disadvantaged person" . I cant imagine living in such harsh conditions and yes, "there but for the grace of God go I".
The video points out the tumbling part that needs some more work but I did enjoy the first part that was right on.
All of this update points out what we miss by being here in Florida, but then we wouldn't have made the trip to Cleveland because we couldn't stand the cold.
The snow trip pictures really bring back memories of days gone by and cold winter morning trips I have taken. I enjoyed the update and thank you for sharing with us Reply
The convention center in Cleveland appears to be a modern facade build around an older building. 
We got our tickets and went to find a seat 
This competition was really messed up because so many teams didn't make it to the convention center on Saturday due to The Blizzard 08. All the teams that only showed up for Sunday wanted the opportunity to perform twice - like they would if they'd been there on Saturday, too. Clearly there wouldn't be time for that. So, they made the decision that nobody would perform twice on Sunday, including teams that were actually scheduled to perform twice on Sunday. That included the Scorpions, unfortunately. Teams were performing out of order and they were WAY WAY ahead of schedule. There was lots of time with an empty mat, too.
There was an awards ceremony just before the Scorpions performed. At a typical competition, the mat would be PACKED FULL of kids.
BizB Mon Mar 10 09:02:09 AM 
sopops Mon Mar 10 08:18:12 AM