Back From Buffalo

by

This weekend, Stacey and I traveled up to Buffalo, New York, for drum corps championships. We caught semifinals on Friday and finals on Saturday. We also took some time before the show on Saturday to go to Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride, which was nice but not nearly as wet as I hoped. The traffic on the way back to the United States almost kept us from being back to the show on time. Luckilly, customs didn’t give us much of a problem.

And here are things I learned this weekend:

  • Although NY-17 is called the “Quickway” (as opposed to “Thruway” or “Expressway”) it might not really be. Especially if you need a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
  • Getting an overtime penalty will make some corps angry. The Madison Scouts performed for too long in their quarterfinals appearance, and made up for it by starting their show before the announcer turned the field over to them.
  • Banner plane pilots don’t always follow instructions. Parents of a Crossmen member hired a plane to fly a banner reading “BEST CROSSMEN SHOW EVER – WE LOVE YOU MELISSA” while the corps was warming up outside the stadium. Athough the instructions apparently were to fly far enough away from the stadium so the audience wasn’t distracted while watching the show, the pilot thought it was a Sunday football game. He circled the stadium for a half an hour, annoying the spectators.

3 thoughts on “Back From Buffalo”

  1. I’ll agree there – I don’t know who came up with calling Rt. 17 the “Quickway”, but damn, that was a poor bit of naming, wasn’t it? (Point of fact, tho: Rt. 17 is only the “Quickway” down to exit 100 (Liberty NY, home of Stagedoor Manor) – after that, it’s just plain ol’ Rt. 17, and resembles something out of West Virginia until you get close to Binghampton.)

    And I’ll say this much – whichever corp did “Moondance” as part of their show (I think it might have been the Glassmen) – damn are they funky!

    Reply

Leave a Comment