Royalty goes to Batavia, NY for a 11AM morning game!

Royal View of the game 

After spending the night in the Buffalo area at Super 8, we were in position to go to Batavia, NY which was only 40 miles away.

We saw a minor league game that was scheduled to start at 11AM. The Batavia Muckdogs were playing the Staten Island Yankees. Our friend Bryan Gilligan who left us in Cleveland joined us in Batavia too.

Thanks to Stadium Journey, Paul Derrick arranged to secure us free tickets for the game.

We arrived with plenty of time to get situated right in front of the press box which is located behind home plate as you can see in the picture above.

We all sat down and relaxed and enjoyed the game. The Staten Island Yankees came in with a league best 29-9 record.

As for the game saw, the Staten Island Yankees built an early 3-0 lead but the hometown Muckdogs fought back to tie the game at 3 in the seventh inning. They took the lead in the bottom of eighth inning and they held on to beat the Yankees, 4-3.

After the game, our friend Bryan Gilligan wanted to have Pudgie's Pizza after reading on my blog how great a place it was. Thanks to our friends, Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell aka the Buffalo Boys who told us about Pudgie's a few years ago. It's a franchise that's located mainly in Central New York with locations in Binghamton and Elmira. They expanded into Rochester and they have a new location near Scranton, Pennsylvania as well as Clarksville, Maryland.

With that being said, we headed to Rochester, NY since that was the closest one to where we were.

Afterwards, Bryan was grateful for the opportunity. It turned out to be a wise choice.

Stay tuned for the next leg of the journey as we made our way to Auburn, NY for another minor league game that night.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Road Trippers Meet Up in Buffalo!

Prince, King, Andrew Kulyk, Jim Vigeant, Peter Farrell & Bob Kelly

Saturday morning I rented a car from Avis for the weekend.

I went to Astoria, Queens and I picked up the King and we made our way to Western New York.

We made a pitstop in Elmira to have some lunch at Pudgie's Pizza.

We continued on our way to downtown Buffalo where we were meeting up with Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell of the Ultimate Sports Road Trip aka USRT as they refer to themselves for the Buffalo Sabres game against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals at 7PM.

We had great lower level seats thanks to the Buffalo Boys as we like to call them.

In addition, thanks to them we were joined by a few other road trippers from Detroit who were also in town for the hockey game.

They were Jim Vigeant and Bob Kelly.

We wound up hanging out together after the game at the Washington Square Lounge.

As for the game we saw, the Buffalo Sabres were still looking for their first home win of the young season. Royalty and company from Motown brought the karma as the Sabres finally won their first home game.
The game wound up being decided in overtime as Thomas Vanek of the Sabres lit the lamp with a minute to go in sudden death.

As we made our way out to the street after the game we thought the Sabres won a playoff game it was that festive of an occasion for the local faithfuls who were on hand.

It was great to see a small market team's fan base get to celebrate something even it was just a regular season game.

As for celebrating, we all went to have some wings, burgers and beers at the Washington Square Lounge which is located within a short walk of the HSBC Arena.

As for can see in the picture above we all had a great time exchanging stories of our road trips from the past.

Jim and Bob stayed over in the area as they were going to see their beloved Detroit Lions play the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Why would they want to see that you must be saying to yourself. Well these guys are true sports fans and they looked at it that one way or another they were going to see history. Will the Bills win their first game of the season or would the Lions finally win a road game.

Jim and Bob wound up seeing their Lions lose again for the 25th consecutive time on the road which set a new NFL record.

Andrew and Peter got to see their Bills get their first W of the season.

As for the King and I we were heading towards Cleveland to see the Jets play the Browns on Sunday.

Stay tuned as I go into detail about our adventurous Sunday.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Pudgie's Pizza in Elmira, NY

Pizza

Pudgie's Pizza

                                                                              Royalty has added another staple to our adventures to Western New York. http://www.pudgiesnorthside.com/

Thanks once again to Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell for this recommendation.

On our way to Buffalo on Saturday we needed to have a quick bite to hold us over for our post game meal with the Buffalo Boys.

So being that we decided to take the route that goes through Elmira, we decided a visit to Pudgie's Pizza would indeed satisfy our taste buds.

Well did it ever, I had a few plain slices as you can tell from the picture.

They were tremendous to say the least.

This is the original location of Pudgie's Pizza, which is located at 526 N Main St.

The First Arena, home of the ECHL Elmira Jackals is within a mile from there.

If you ever get to go to or through Elmira, you should make a stop at Pudgie's and see for yourself.

Road Trip to Syracuse & Elmira, NY this weekend

Royalty is heading back up NY State this weekend. I still have room to take somebody if anybody wants to join the King and I. Our friend and loyal follower of Royalty, Larry Peim, is leaving his wife to join us for this unique event.

In case you didn't know the AHL(American Hockey League) is having a Minor League version of the NHL Winter Classic which was held on New Year's Day in Fenway Park.

Please see my post regarding the Winter Classic for more details.

As for the Outdoor Classic which will be held at the NY State Fairgrounds in Syracuse Saturday at 1PM. The Binghamton Senators, the Ottawa Senators farm team will be playing the Syracuse Crunch, the Columbus Blue Jackets affiliate.

We will then go to Elmira, NY to see the Jackals play the Reading Royals in an ECHL (East Coast Hockey League) tilt that starts at 7:35PM.

If time allows I'm hoping to stop off at Pudgie's Pizza which is right in the heart of Elmira. We've been there once upon recommendation from the Buffalo Boys as we refer to them. This is, Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell who are known as USRT aka the ultimate sports road trip. They have a great website you can check out. It's www.thesportsroadtrip.com

If you're interested in going and/or want to get a taste of royal treatment in the future I strongly suggest that you get in touch with me ASAP.