Dunn Deal: Postcards from the Battle on the Border

The ski jumps used during the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

Day 1 in Canada is just about in the books. It was a long day but was fun all the way around. Calgary did not disappoint. We landed in Calgary around 4 o'clock after our flight was delayed from Phoenix. Going through customs in international airports is a whole different experience than I'm sure all of us are used to.

Once we retrieved all of our bags, we loaded the charter bus and got on the road. Our first stop was Harvey's, a fast food restaurant. I can't speak for anyone else, but I ordered the crispy chicken which turned out to be a good choice. This place had a mix of burgers and chicken on their menu with the majority of the guys getting burgers. 

The verdict is still out on them and I'll have to let y'all know how they tasted. But I heard from De Angelo (Jones) that they had an interesting taste, different from that of a burger in the states. After leaving there we headed to the University of Calgary to play our first game. 

We we're matched up against the University of Lethbridge. We didn't actually get to the arena until about one hour prior to tip off, so once again we were stretched for time. Drew (our trainer) did a really good job of taping everyone's ankles in a timely manner. Once 7 o'clock rolled around it was game time. 

Everyone looked really good out on the court. It took us a while to get going, but once we got going there was no looking back. All the guys played hard and we ended up winning the contest 106-72. 

After a quick post game talk with coach we were back on the bus with Subway sandwiches and Gatorades that were in the locker room after our game. This time we were headed to our hotel in downtown Calgary. We arrived here, and saw that our hotel was right across from the Calgary Tower which sort of resembles the Seattle Space Needle. 

We checked in and got settled before we all decided we wanted to experience downtown Calgary first hand. A few of the guys walked off in one direction and others in the opposite just to make sure we covered a lot of ground. I took to the streets with Danny Redmon and Cam Jones. We walked around with no purpose initially until we became hungry. We bumped into a few interesting people and had some funny encounters along the way. I think Danny ended up making one new friend in particular who decided he wanted to tag along for a little while! 

We finally found a small pizza place that was still open and selling pizza by the slice. Cam and I grabbed a slice and we started our return to the hotel. We have a trip planned for tomorrow that we were told is going to be extremely fun. We'll be gone from the hotel from 9 a.m. to about 4 p.m. then play our game at 8 p.m. The first day in Canada was a success and it's only the beginning... Until the next update.. Stay tuned!