Royalty is going back to the Bay Area for a Roadtripping Reunion in December!

Here's the game plan:

The King & I are flying to San Jose on American Airlines. We leave New York LaGuardia Airport on Friday, December 9th at 6:59AM Eastern Time, we have an hour layover in Dallas. We're then scheduled to leave there at 11:10AM Central Time if we're not delayed for any reason. We're supposed to land in San Jose at 1PM Pacific Time if we're on time. Upon arrival, we're meeting up with fellow roadtripper & a good friend of ours, Tike Narry who's going to drive us around while we're in the Bay area for the weekend. We're also planning to meet up with our pal Scott Bultman who's planning to arrive on Thursday & he'll be with us all weekend long. In addition, we're going to see our good people from Buffalo as well, they being Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell aka USRT if you will. Due to scheduling conflicts, we'll only see them in Sacramento that Friday night. Furthermore, we're going to see a very special guest & fellow roadtripper who normally just focuses on seeing as many baseball games on the road in the shortest time possible. I'm referring to Chuck Booth who will be flying to the Bay area on Sunday for the day to join us in Santa Clara for some football. Before the King & I escape that night on a red eye back home, we're all going to have a farewell dinner to cap off another memorable weekend of road tripping. Our flight leaves San Jose at 11:05PM on Jet Blue & we land in Boston at 7:31AM Eastern Time where we have a connecting flight that departs Beantown at 8:50AM & is scheduled to land at 10:03AM Eastern Time at LaGuardia Airport if all goes according to plan.    
   
Friday December 9th Knicks at Kings 7:30PM Pacific Time

Saturday December 10th San Diego Gulls at San Jose Barracuda 1:15PM Pacific Time

                                           Hurricanes at Sharks 7:30PM Pacific Time
                   
Sunday December 11th Jets at 49ers 1:05PM Pacific Time

If you're interested in going on this exclusive getaway royalty style just let me know so I can arrange to have you join us. If you live in the area and/or happen to be around that weekend & you want to meet up let me know. As I like to say, teamwork makes the dream work. No doubt about that. This weekend getaway is a total team effort.

It's going to be a blast so why not come along for a "royal" ride.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 2/11 in review

Tim Capstraw & Chris Carrino

Monday night after work I came home and I ate dinner then I went out and I did my laundry.

Tuesday night after work I went out to Newark, NJ to see the Devils play the Carolina Hurricanes at the Prudential Center. I wound up having a pulled pork sandwich at the arena for dinner. I decided to take it up to my seat in section 226 row 6 where I met up with the King and our pals Frank Anichiarico, Vincent Ascanio and Dennis Barbera who were at the game too. We were one big happy family amongst the sellout crowd.

As for the game we saw, the Devils broke through first with 4:01 left in the first period when Ilya Kovalchuk scored on the power play to make it 1-0 Devils. In the second period, the Hurricanes got even as Jussi Jokinen beat Devils' goaltender Johan Hedberg 1:36 into the period to make it a 1-1 also on the power play. Later in the period with 1:31 to go, the Hurricanes took the lead, 2-1 as Patrick Dwyer lit the lamp. In the third period, the Devils got the equalizer as Ryan Carter beat Hurricanes' netminder Cam Ward just 1:34 into the period on a giveaway in front of the net to tie the game at two. The Hurricanes broke the tie again 7:25 into the period when Jiri Tlusty scored to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead. He also added an empty net goal with 26 seconds left to seal the deal as the Hurricanes beat the Devils, 4-2.

Wednesday night after work I went to downtown Brooklyn to see the Nets play the Denver Nuggets. By doing so, I've now seen every NBA basketball team play at once this season.

Before I went into the Barclays Center I stopped off at McDonald's in the Atlantic Center Mall across the street to have my pre game meal.

When I was done I went into the arena. Before I went to my seat in section 230, I stopped off by the radio broadcasting booth which is located by section 110 and I said hello to the Nets radio team of Tim Capstraw and Chris Carrino. After talking to them briefly before they did the Nets' inside look, I went upstairs and I met up with the King and our pal Harry Schwartz who was in attendance. It was nice to catch up with him again.

As for the game we saw, the Nuggets led the Nets, 26-23 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Nets scored a season high 39 points to take a 62-57 lead at halftime. In the third quarter, the Nets continued to pull away from the Nuggets as they opened up a 14 point lead, 95-81. In the fourth quarter, the Nets got out scored 27-24 by the Nuggets who failed to come all the way back as the Nets went on to beat them, 119-108.

The Nets played without Deron Williams who was inactive due to an injured ankle. In his place, C.J. Watson scored a season high 25 points and he dished out 6 assists.

Thursday night after work I came home and I made dinner and I relaxed for a change.

Friday night after work I went back out to Newark, NJ to see the Devils play their division rival, the Philadelphia Flyers.

As for dinner, I got a spinach stromboli and a slice of pizza at the arena. I met up with the King and my friend Lloyd Ramsland who was joined by a long time buddy of his who lives out in Denver, Colorado, Dick Harding. I arranged to get them tickets for the game so they could join us. It was great to see both of them again. We see Lloyd from time to time. As for Dick, we've met him a number of times over the years either here or when we've gone to the Rocky Mountain state thanks to Lloyd.

As for the game we saw, the Devils scored first just 40 seconds into the game as Travis Zajac made it 1-0 Devils. The Flyers got even and then some midway through the period as they score three unanswered goals in a 2 minute 36 second stretch to take a 3-1 lead. In the second period, Alexei Ponikarovsky who the Devils had reacquired got the Devils back within a goal just 26 seconds into the second period. Later in the period with 4:20 left, the Devils tied the game at three as Patrik Elias scored. In the third period, the Devils took the lead, 4-3 as David Clarkson found the net with 9:17 remaining in the game. The Devils' Steve Bernier added an empty net goal to give the Devils a 5-3 victory.

Stay tuned for some special posts that I'm going to do regarding our educational and adventurous weekend in New England.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 2/7 in review

With the football season officially ending in Dallas on Sunday night. I followed it up with a night off after work Monday night.

Tuesday night after work I went out to Newark to see the Devils play the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Devils have been playing better lately. On this night the Devils continued their winning ways as they fought back to tie the game at 2 and they wound up winning it in overtime as Mattias Tedenby scored the game winner with 2:42 left in the extra session. It was his second goal of the game.

Jeff Skinner of the Hurricanes scored both goals in the losing effort for the Canes.

This game started slow. It was a boring first period with no goals scored. Both teams were feeling each other out.

In the second period, things started to heat up.

By the third period, we saw some great action as the Devils turned it up a notch.

As a result, the crowd which was rather quiet most of the night got excited.

The bottom line it turned out to be a good match.

In addition, we were joined by our friend Ira Schwartz. Ira took the train with me back to Queens. He had his car parked by the subway and he was kind enough to drive me home which saved me a half hour. Needless to say, I was very grateful.

Wednesday night after work I went to the Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks take on Blake Griffin and the Clippers.

With Blake arriving on the scene after missing his initial rookie season due to injury, they've become known as the "Blakers".

Blake was making his first appearance at the World's Most Famous Arena in the NBA.

As for the game, the Knicks were rather sluggish throughout the game. They did stage a comeback late in the third quarter going into the fourth but the Clippers were able to keep the Knicks at bay as they build their lead back up to put the Knicks away.

The crowd was very disappointed with the Knicks sub par effort.

Blake Griffin had 21 points in his Garden debut.

Third year pro DeAndre Jordan looked impressive in the middle as he finished with 17 points which included a number of thunderous slam dunks before he fouled out in the last minute.

Veteran point guard Baron Davis dished out 15 assists to pace the Clippers to the victory, 116-108!

Thursday night was another night off as I got prepared for the "Lake" Show on Friday night at the Garden.

Friday after work it was "Showtime" at the Garden as the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers made their annual visit.

Just like in Hollywood, the celebrities came out for this one. Jets head coach Rex Ryan was sitting front and center in the first row at center court. He dressed up in a Walt "Clyde" Frazier #10 jersey. He got to see firsthand what a championship team looked like.

Other notable guests included Yankee ace pitcher CC Sabathia as well as Kanye West.

As for the game, the Lakers didn't disappoint even though they played the night before and beat the Celtics in Boston.

The Lakers wound up cruising to a 113-96 victory. Kobe Bryant starred early as he scored 19 of his game high 33 points in the first quarter. He also grabbed 10 rebounds, six of them came in first quarter.

Quite amazingly when he was out of the game the Lakers lead got bigger on two different occasions.

The Lakers are loaded with talent. They have Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum who created mismatches for the undersized Knicks.

Despite the outcome, I was entertained as were many of the Laker fans who were in the building.

Saturday night I went to Newark to see the Knicks try to rebound against their crosstown rivals, the NJ Nets.

The game drew a record crowd of 18,711 as the Knicks who played without Amar'e Stoudemire.Despite that the Knicks still managed to beat the Nets, 105-95!

Sunday the King and I took a ride on Metro-North to Bridgeport, Connecticut to see the Sound Tigers play the Portland Pirates.

The game we saw got off to a bad start for the hometown Sound Tigers as they gave a goal just 13 seconds into the game. 28 seconds later they fell behind 2-0. It was 3-0 midway through the first period before the Sound Tigers got on the board as a result of a penalty shot.

The Pirates made it 4-1 then the Sound Tigers twice in a 15 second span to get within one at 4-3.

Unfortunately the Sound Tigers couldn't get the equalizer as they wound up losing the game, 6-3!

Our friend minor league Pete was there and he was nice enough to give the King and I a ride back.

In addition, I plan to write a review for my buddy Paul Swaney of Stadium Journey of the arena and the experience I had.

If you plan to check out a venue in the future you should check out his site for the invaluable information you'll need to know so you can have an idea of what to expect when you go.

It's on my blog list. I strongly suggest you take a look.

As always, I want to thank you for following and reading about my whereabouts.

When you get tired of hearing about my experiences and adventures, I recommend that you let me know so I can arrange to have you come along and/or I'll guide you along so you can so you can do it on your own.

I can't predict the outcomes of the games but I can make sure you don't get lost along the way.

All you have to do is let me know.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman