Royalty is heading back to Milwaukee for another reunion of Sports Travelers in February!

Here's the game plan:

The King & I are flying to Milwaukee on Southwest Airlines. We leave New York LaGuardia Airport on Thursday, February 7th at 10:55AM Eastern Time, we arrive at Milwaukee General Airport at 12:30PM Central Time if all goes well. Upon arrival, I'm renting a car for the weekend from Budget Rent A Car. We plan to drive to Chicago to see the Blackhawks that night. We're also hoping to stop off at The Point Pancake House in Gurnee, Illinois on the way so we can have a late royal lunch. After the game we'll be driving back to the Milwaukee area to sleep. We'll either go to Rockford, Illinois or we'll stay in Milwaukee to see a minor league hockey game that Friday night. Saturday will be the main event of this latest getaway. That being the 1st annual Club 123 Group Meet Up. We're expecting to see about 20 other well traveled sports fans that day & night. It's going to be a very memorable day to say the least. 
   
We have to catch a flight home out of Milwaukee at 6:15AM Central Time Sunday morning. We should land at 9:30AM Eastern Time if I don't get delayed for any reason.  

Thursday February 7th Canucks at Blackhawks 7:30PM Central Time

Friday February 8th Tucson Roadrunners at Rockford IceHogs 7PM Central Time or Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins at Milwaukee Admirals 7PM Central Time
                            
Saturday February 9th Chicago Wolves at Milwaukee Admirals 1PM Central Time                                                                  

                                       Magic at Bucks 8PM Central Time

Sunday February 10th Wild at Islanders 3PM Barclays Center

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 & the other great people we plan to meet while we're out there.

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

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty goes to Auburn Hills to see the Pistons after Lions football!

Prince at the Palace of Auburn Hills

After I had dinner with Paul Swaney, I arranged to meet up with my pal Domish who went to see college hockey at the Joe as they call it in Motown while we were watching football and eating. I walked back to the car after I said goodbye to Paul. I sent Domish a text and he said to meet him by the Greektown Casino which wasn't far from Ford Field. He took the People Mover which is the monorail that moves people around the downtown area of Detroit. I picked up around 6:25PM. We proceeded to drive out to Auburn Hills which is a suburb that's 30 miles north of downtown on I-75. We got off the exit that goes to The Palace of Auburn Hills which is the home of the Detroit Pistons. We had to park in the parking lot for $10 because there's no other option out there. After I parked the car, Domish and I parked towards the box office. Domish said a friend of his told him tickets should be $10 to get in. We were going to get on line when I heard somebody say and I quote "anybody need two tickets." I walked over to that person and I said I do. The guy handed me two free tickets for the game. Too bad Paul Swaney couldn't join us to see how easy it was to get tickets. It took literally a few seconds. Timing is everything. This time I was in the right place at the right time. Unlike at Ford Field, where I couldn't even get a reasonable offer to buy a ticket for the longest time. What a contrasting experience it was.

After we got the tickets we went inside to walk around and then we went upstairs near center court and we sat down and enjoyed the game as the Pistons were hosting the Milwaukee Bucks. The place wasn't too crowded. They announced a crowd of 14,219. It should be noted they have a special promotion on Sundays for families so that helped to enhance the actual attendance figure. The arena does hold over 22,000 and they used to sell out often in back in the day especially during the Bad Boys era when they won their championships. Those days, tickets were nearly impossible to come by. Nowadays they beg people to show up. We still got to see a professional basketball game for free.

As for the game we saw, the Pistons raced out to an early 13-0 lead. They wound up leading, 30-23 after the first quarter as the Bucks staged a comeback to get back into the game. At halftime, the Pistons got the lead back up to ten, 55-45. In the third quarter, the Bucks sliced the lead back to seven, 78-71. In the fourth quarter, the Pistons did their best to try and give the game away. The Bucks took a two point late but in the Pistons came back and they wound up beating the Bucks, 96-94. It turned out to be an entertaining game.

The Pistons got 20 points from Tayshaun Prince who led the way as four other players scored in double figures to help the Pistons escape with the win after blowing a big early lead.

As for the Bucks, they got a game high 30 points from guard Monta Ellis and forward Ersan Ilyasova came off the bench to finish with 24 points in the losing effort.

After the game, we drove to Coldwater, Michigan which is about 12 miles from the Indiana border and we spent the night at Super 8.

Stay tuned as I recap the way we spent the last day of 2012.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 3/12 in review

This week turned out to be a very royal week of stadium travel. Some history was made along the way as well.

Here's how it played out:

Monday night after work I went out to Newark, NJ to see the Nets play the Milwaukee Bucks at the Prudential Center. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the evening since there was a small crowd on hand which included my pal Vincent Ascanio. That's understandable for a few reasons. First of all, it was only Monday night which is notorious for being the slowest night of the week. Secondly, the Nets haven't played well and to add insult to injury they were playing without their superstar point guard Deron Williams aka D-Will who got hurt in Charlotte during their road trip over the weekend. With that being said, I still expected to see a competitive game.

As for the game I wound up seeing, I was right on. The Bucks have played better lately especially because of forward Ersan Ilyasova who has been pouring it points and ripping down rebounds at a torrid pace. In February, when the Bucks were at the "Rock" he led the way with 29 points and he grabbed 25 rebounds before he fouled out with a few minutes to play.

This time he wasn't a factor in the game since he got two quick fouls early so he sat on the bench most of the first half. He wound up scoring only four points in the game. His teammates rallied together to pick up the slack. Brandon Jennings was the hero for the Bucks as he scored 34 points, pulled down 7 rebounds and he dished out 7 assists as the Bucks overcame the Nets, 105-99. The Nets lead most of the game but the Bucks kept it close. Late in the game, the Bucks turned it up a notch as they emerged victorious. On the bright side for the Nets, their forward Kris Humphries scored a career high 31 points and he grabbed 18 rebounds.

Tuesday night after work I went home and did my laundry. I passed up a chance to go to the Garden to see the Rangers because I needed to get my clothes washed, pack up my bags and get some rest so I would be ready for my big extended weekend getaway.

Wednesday night after work I did go to Madison Square Garden to see the ushering in of a new era of Knicks basketball. Earlier in the day, I heard that Knick coach Mike D'Antoni decided to resign. He mostly likely got fired but they reported it as a mutual decision by him and owner Jim Dolan. Mind you Dolan is one of the worst owners in professional sports who always likes to have positive feedback no matter what the circumstances are.

Mike Woodson who was an assistant under D'Antoni was named the interim head coach for the rest of the season. Woodson played for the Knicks back in the day in 1981. He was also been a head coach for the Atlanta Hawks in recent memory.

With Woodson aboard a new philosophy was instilled at the Garden. Unlike D'Antoni, Woodson is a defensive minded coach. It showed instantly as the Knicks shut down the Portland Trailblazers, 121-79.
It was a total team effort as Linsanity had a bad night. He finished with only 6 points and 6 assists. His teammates picked up the slack as they all contributed. Amar'e Stoudemire had 15 of his 17 points in the first half. Carmelo Anthony had 16 points all in the first half as well. In the second half, Steve Novak had 15 of his 20 points all three pointers. J.R. Smith scored 23 off the bench in the second half too.

The rest of the week I finished out West as the King and I flew out to Albuquerque, New Mexico early Thursday morning for fun filled getaway.

Stay tuned for the various special posts I'm going to do to recap the epic journey.

I know it will be worth the wait. It definitely lived up to the hype and then some. Please bear with me as I play catch up.

As always, thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman