Frerx Adventures: Day 7: CMU Game

We did some basic housekeeping Thursday morning in prep for tomorrow's heading back out on the road. We are still vacuuming up sand from the dunes.

There was a moment of considerable concern late-morning after we had walked the dogs. Ditka started getting sick, like he was trying to get rid of something in his stomach that wasn't setting well. Suddenly he keeled over and went in to a seizure. We've never seen a dog do that before. Ken got on the ground with him, held him and calmed him. I was about to rush in to the office for directions to a vet's office, when Ditka started coming around. Within about 10 minutes he seemed back to normal. We watched him for the next several hours. While he stayed pretty quiet he seemed fully back to normal. Our best guess is that he got hold of a bug or weed on our walk that was toxic in some way. To insure that things were tranquil in the RV while we were gone to the game we decided to close all the windows and turn on the air conditioning to insure Ditka had a dark quiet resting place in a consistent temperature.

We left at 3pm from Cedar Springs and stopped in Mt. Pleasant at the Grand Traverse Pie Company for an early dinner since we were only blocks from the stadium by this time. While this appears to be a chain popular in this part of the country, it was our first time at this cafe style restaurant. We both did their signature homemade pot pies, with mixed reviews. I'm a 'pastry person' and this place does really flaky, homemade crusts. Ken, on the other hand, thought the filling could have been more flavorful.

We called the Larson's, #59 James (Pug) Larson's parents, and, sure enough, they had just pulled in to Mt. Pleasant as well. We met them in the parking lot, to inaugurate the 2008 season of tailgating.

By game time the weather was in the low 70's. The stadium was about 3/4 full, approximately 15,000 fans. However, the student section was jam packed and very loud - always a good thing to see at a university. They were loud enough, in fact, that Bodie, our quarterback, had to call a time out on that end of the field once, because the audibles couldn't be heard.

This was Trevor's first true trial of his 'new shoulder'. His trainer, Jenn, had him bound up tight, and did some last minute checking and adjustments before Trev took the field.

Dr. Karl Rudert volunteers his time with the team. He has been very helpful with us with Trevor's shoulder and we really appreciate the sincere concern he shows for the guys. His wife had joined Karl and the team on this roadtrip and so we enjoyed having her sit with us in the stands. Trevor had been to their farm last year with a couple of his roommates to help put up some hay, a real treat to Trev who loved to spend a day on their farm.

We were right on the 50 yard line and close to the boys but, for some reason, the action shots of the game didn't take this time.

The game itself was disappointing, a loss 31-12.

Trevor's official stats for the game 2 solo and 1 assist tackle, along with one 'BrUp' which apparently means 'breaking up' the play, this was when he did a great volleyball spike of a CMU pass. He also had at least on QB hurry.

There was a frightening point in the game when Trev's good bud, Kevin Mahoney, went down and did not get back up. Kevin was the player who came with Trev from Bowling Green, and has visited us many times in Quincy. It became more frightening when they loaded him up in and ambulance on the field and took off, after lots of discussion pointing to base of his neck. The boys grouped together and knelt for a prayer for Kevin before going back on the field.

Ken called Kevin's Dad, Denny, at the end of the game. At that point they were believing it was either just a sprained neck or bulged disk in the neck but were doing CT scans to make sure.

At the end of the game, we enjoyed some time with the boys.