Road Trip Recap - Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Mood: Whee!
State of Mind: Still a bit tired, but mostly hey that was fun!
Location: Home sweet home (but missing my hotel room bed)


I can not believe that it took me until this year to go on a TFC Road Trip! The merriment, madness and meeting fellow supporter folk made it well worth the investment of both time and money. If you have hemmed and hawed about going on one of these trips, stop dithering and do it! I guarantee you will not regret it. 


The exodus began on Friday as Twitter was abuzz as supporters began making their way to Montreal via a wide variety of methods. Saw tweets from Porter, VIA, megabus and of course cars - it was a party on the highway as a tweet from the North End Elite put it.  We traveled by car and spent the 6 hours singing, car dancing and just generally being silly.  An excellent beginning!  The closer we got to Montreal, the more tweets we saw from the legion of supporters arriving, checking in and heading out to see the city (read: find beer). The impact of twitter, social media and smart phones cannot be discounted for trips like this - if you wanted to know where your friends or fellow supporters were; all you had to do was send out a tweet and in minutes you had a place to gather.


So finally we arrive and check in to our hotel - of course running into fellow TFC supporters doing the same thing; "Hi! How was your trip? So excited for tomorrow!" etc.  And although I don't normally post pics of stuff like this I can't help myself; wish I could have taken this home with me:

Giant bed! I fit sideways across it; seriously. I love this bed.  Yes I know this has nothing to do with TFC, you'll survive.

A little resting, relaxing, refreshing and then a quick check of the twitter machine (seriously; you need this!) to find out where everyone is and we're off!  One of the best (or possibly the best given the results on Saturday) things about going to an away game is meeting and connecting with your fellow supporters; especially if you're on social media - it's a great deal of fun putting faces to avatars and names - but it's the sense of community when you're out or at a game in 'foreign' territory that makes the away trip great. 

Friday & Saturday nights I got to meet several supporters that I had run into at previous events but also several I had only "met" in cyberspace and some I had no prior contact with at all. *Special thanks to Swiss for the drinks at Peel Pub on Friday! And thanks to the great band and the staff at Brutopia for making our Saturday night a little happier after our long day.*  Really all that matters is that we're all fellow TFC supporters - everyone is quick to smile, say hello, introduce themselves and make you feel welcome...truly fantastic.


Saturday was the big day - get up, get geared up and hit the Metro! A huge mob of us emerged at Viau Station and headed for the Big O where we had to wait for our security escort - considering the rancor between the two clubs and cities I didn't mind the wait. What I did find funny was that our escort did not stay with us the entire way; I don't know if that's the norm but it seemed odd. Finally get upstairs and in we go! Loved seeing our huge section of away support with flags, banners - just a loud, excited sea of red!!

 

The game; oh the game. Let's not dwell shall we? You were there, or watching at home and well, you know what happened. No life to our boys until they were down to 10 men and yes it's starting to feel like the TFC Time Machine has spirited us all back to 2007...Disappointing yes; am I sorry I made the trip? Hell No! Would not have missed being part of that for any reason. I feel that much more a part of the TFC community having gone on this trip.  I would also like to mention that although I wore my TFC red all weekend I did not get attacked or harassed by Impact supporters - well, there was a couple of them on our way to Brutopia on Saturday night but they were pretty harmless. Even at the match itself the vaunted Montreal Ultras weren't very, well Ultra - it all seemed more like ribbing and poking than true animosity. Oh and I may have been chirped by Noel Butler (of Oranges at the Half fame) while we crossed the street that night. All he did was mention we "needed some proper footballers but to never lose our support for our team" - regardless of who he was, it was a pretty classy encounter.

Best moment of the weekend? After the match there was a huge group of us on the same subway car and someone broke into "3 Little Birds" by Bob Marley; soon the entire car was singing along, smiling, laughing and putting our worries to bed. Don't worry, 'bout a thing indeed. 


This trip served to cement my love for my team and my community even more so than before - thanks for the memories everyone - you guys and girls are the best! I know there will be more highs and lows to share as the season progresses and I look forward to each and every one; well, maybe not the lows but hey,  misery loves company!  See you out there!


Allez Les Rouges!


Les Links: For actual recaps of the game itself visit the usual suspects (if you haven't already): The Yorkies, Waking The Red, Red Nation Online