H1 Thunder Basketball: Road trip, day 1: Delay of game (updated 11:20 pm)

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Road trip, day 1: Delay of game (updated 11:20 pm)

H1 Thunder, Honolulu International Airport
Wednesday, July 10, 2013

LOS ANGELES — Our flight out of Honolulu was delayed from 10:15 pm on Wednesday night to 10:50. By the time we actually left the ground, we were 1 hour, 15 minutes behind schedule.

We landed here in LA at about 7:55 am (Pacific time) and missed our connecting flight to Las Vegas. The next available flight for our party of 15 people is 12:51 pm. So we have almost 4 more hours to kill. It's cloudy here and the soup of the day at Klatch Coffee is $10.95. I hate airport prices.

The boys are doing OK considering the redeye flight, slightly cramped seating. It's almost 6:00 am in Hawaii, but everyone is up and active. Not perky, just a lot more awake than I expected. We weren't going to check in at Sam's Town until 3:00 pm (their check-in time), so it's not a time crunch for us. But it would've been nice to get a practice in early as I planned. No courts here at LAX.

They've fot the NBA Summer League in Orlando on one of the TVs here. We'll see the NBA Summer League in Vegas on Monday. I told Kalai about that, and he was stoked. I think he's more excited about that than anything else on the trip.

Twice while we were in HNL Airport, I was asked if we were a neighbor island team. At first I thought maybe we're just a team nobody's heard of (true). But now that I see the guys having fun playing cards here at Gate 71B, maybe it's something else.

Update, Wednesday, 6:13 pm
LAS VEGAS — We finally touched ground in Las Vegas at around 2:00 pm after waiting all morning for the flight. The guys are in pretty good spirits despite the long, long night and day of travel. THANKS A LOT UNITED AIRLINES. Coach Carl tried to talk with a supervisor about some kind of reimbursement for the time delay — spending money for food in LAX is craaaazy — but the supervisor never showed up. Carl thinks (and I agree) that the supervisor was hiding for that 30 minutes he was waiting.

"We're gonna write about our travels with United," Carl promised.

We got to Sam's Town around 4:00 — after almost another hour getting the vans at E-Z Car Rental. The airport in Vegas, btw, is massive and roomy. It was about 90 degrees when we landed; the shuttle bus driver said is was the first day of non-triple digit temperatures in a long time.

Right now, we're at L&L Barbeque. Not bad. The fruit punch tastes like cough syrup, as Chris said. The roast pork special is good, though.

We're trying to find a court to shoot baskets at, do a little running, but no luck. Later tonight, we're going to see the "Fremont Experience." It's a rock show that Carl and Javan saw a few years ago and they say it's awesome. And free!

Schedule
Friday, July 12
7:00 pm - Thunder 13U vs. LA Valley Hoops, DCC

Saturday, July 13
1:00 pm - H1 Thunder vs. South Coast, Heinrich YMCA #2

Playoff bracket games TBA

Update, Wednesday, 11:20 pm
LAS VEGAS — We did a lot of driving all over Vegas tonight. We had dinner at L&L (not too bad). Then we went on the hunt for a basketball court. Not as easy as it sounds. We found one that was locked behind a fence. What a waste.

Then we picked up water and Powerade at Food4Less. By then we were all feeling worn out. I konked out in the van for about 15 minutes. Then we drove all over, following the map Tanielu found, then on the GPS on Kyle's phone, for a place called Sunset Park. It took about 20-30 minutes to get there, but we got there. Good workout, helping Manoa learn some of the stuff we do.

Sunset Park was cool. EIGHT COURTS! The nets are black straps, hard to see, and the rims make a lot of noise when you miss. We got some work done, the first time on the court since Monday's game against Lanakila. We needed it. The only negative was near the end of practice when Tanielu tweaked his left knee a little. He's OK now, walking on it.

As a whole, the team is enjoying this new experience. For at least half of them , it's their first mainland trip. They're behaving so well wherever we go. It's great to have support from our parents (Roy, Aunty Chit, Rob and Carl).

Plan for tomorrow morning: Rise and shine early, meet at 7:15 am, leave at 7:30 am, shooting practice until 8:30 or so. Then we'll go eat breakfast at Eggwork — Carl says it's da bomb. Then we'll rest up for the game.