People have asked me, "Why do you keep going to the U$c game in LA? Don't you get sick and tired of watching the Bears lose?" I've always replied, "Yes, but I would hate myself if I blew the opportunity to see my beloved Bears beat the Trojans." With this feeling in mind, I decided to go down to U$c.

A Full, but Fun Flight

My weekend began with a Friday afternoon flight to Burbank. I figured that I was going to see some other Cal fans on the flight, but I was surprised to see yell leader Matt Del Bonta with a boarding card for my flight. He and most of the cheerleaders were on the same flight as I was...this helped make the flight go a bit faster. Of course, traveling with the spirit squad reminded me of the a trip I made to Hartford in 1990 for the NCAA Tournament; That time I traveled as part of the spirit squad. Needless to say, some topics of conversation haven't changed in the past six years.

Check that Car

When we landed in Burbank, we all went our separate ways; the cheerleaders to their hotel, Matt to Westwood with a friend, and I to the Hertz counter. When I reached the rental car counter, the agent asked if a Nissan Sentra was acceptable. For $19.95 a day this was a good deal, so I said "Sure". When I got outside to the lot, I had second thoughts. I looked down the row of parked cars and saw one red one close to where my car should have been. As I got closer, I realized that the red car WAS my car. To make things worse, it wasn't just red, but that U$c shade of red. I thought "I should have asked about the color". Oh well...other than the color, the car was very nice.

Surprises for the evening

As usual for a trip for the LA football game, I stayed with Dori and Larry Hoffman. This time I arrived a little early, since I had decided that I should go to the Cal Band's SoCal party. Once Larry and Dori arrived (along with their son Daniel), we prepared to go to the party...and then arrived about 15 minutes before the band performed. This gave us time to look over the items up for auction. These included:


We had h'ordeurves and drinks and then the Band marched in. As the band was finishing its set, Larry and I wandered around to the back of the house that the party was at. We ended up stumbling upon the dinner buffet (grilled vegetables, chicken, and potatoes). We were hungry, so we ate. The dinner wasn't bad, but the caterers supplied some of the flimsiest plastic forks I've ever used. Besides me, at least one other person at my table broke a fork. During our dinner, some of the bandsmen gathered and sang. I wandered and chatted with a few people I knew, and even got in a "long time no see" to the cheerleaders I traveled with earlier that day.

After dinner came dessert--various delicious finger pastries. While I had dessert, the band started its second set. This meant that the auction was just about up, so we all got our final bids in. After the band finished playing, we were treated to a brief concert from the Cal Band Basses (Tubas, Sousaphones, whatever) who showed that Sousaphone players can play several tunes. (Great Job!). With the evening winding down, it was time to find out the results of the auction. Much to their surprise, Dori and Larry walked away with 2 passes to Universal Studios, and a Cal Band mailbox! Even more to my surprise, I walked away with a Cal Band Hat. Actually I paid my money and then put the hat on...everyone said "It just fits you so well" (actually, it's a little small). I just have to wonder who wore that hat before me (it's a 7 1/8 with the tag 11A).

With the surprises taken care of, the next thing was to go home and sleep.

A spur of the moment decision

The next morning, Larry, his brother Morrie (who babysat Daniel during the party) and I woke up early and took a walk (after the desserts, I needed it). I later left for LAX to pick up my friend and recent Cal grad, Cathy Gellis. She had never been to LA for a Cal football game while she was a student.

Two weeks ago, I was at my mom's and my pager went off; It was Cathy asking "I have a chance to go to the game in LA, but I need to decide before midnight before the fares go up." I called her back and discussed the situation. I told her that one pre-season rag predicted that the Cal-U$C would be the biggest upset in conference play, with the caution that this same rag predicted that Stanfurd would win the conference title". The biggest stumbling block was a place to sleep on Saturday night. I called up Dori and Larry, and Larry said "sure, we've got another couch!" After that, I called Cathy back and said "You've got a place to stay." So she decided to come down for the game. How many of you have made spur of the moment decisions like that?

I hate LAX...

I hate LAX--the flights arriving are almost always late. After parking my car in the "metered lot" with enough time to meet her at the gate, I found out that her flight was delayed ANOTHER 20 minutes...so I had to go back to the car and put another quarter in the meter. (Actually, I like the metered lot...it's pretty convenient, if you know how much time you need to put in the meter). After that I had to wait in line as United only had one security gate open...and then I had to wait for Cathy's flight. Once she got off the plane, we had no problems getting to the Coliseum.

'Till the cops kick us out.

Thinking back to the previous trip to U$c, I decided to park the car accross the street, closest to where our seats were. We then walked around the Coliseum to get to the tailgate, which was on the far end of the "green" from the headless statues (all previous times it was on the near end). The tailgate was fine...I bumped into a few people who had been at the SoCal party the night before, and a few gobears members, and Dave Friedman (who I had a ticket for). The band marched over and played a few songs, including "Happy Birthday" for someone.

After the band left we figured that it would be a good time to trudge around the Coliseum to our seats. Our seats ended up being behind the west end zone. This allowed us a great view of the scoreboard and replay screen as well as Tony Gonzales' TD catch and "the fumble". Only rarely did the poles for the "net" beind the end zone get in the way.

From time to time the scoreboard would be used for promotional announcemnts. The best was "USC thanks Nike for its support." Our retort was "Cal thanks Nike for supporting U$c."

The Cal crowd was smaller than the one two years ago. I guess that several other people were still too depressed after that game. At least three members of Bay Area Young Blues made the trip down and sat behind us.

With the smaller crowd, and the more positive results, the crowd was much more well behaved. Only a few people were arrested--some people who tossed some Jolly Ranchers around the student section, and a band member (now an ex-bandsman) who threw an apple at Traveler (the U$c horse). Even the Trojan Band didn't seem as obnoxious. Of course, before the game they started doing their little chant that goes "The Rose Bowl....The Rose Bowl", to which I filled in the pauses:


   ASU is going to   THE ROSE BOWL
   UCLA plays its home games in  THE ROSE BOWL
   You're going to lose to UCLA in   THE ROSE BOWL

But during the game, we didn't hear them too much. Of course it helped that we were in the endzone, and they were playing to the sidelines. I was also glad that our yell leaders didn't try to get the crowd to sing the "Is that the only song you know?" song. I prefer having the crowd focus on the game.

Watching the game included the usual amount of Cal emotions. It started with "Hey! We've already scored more points than we did two years ago" Next came "WOW! We're going to make a game of this!" At the half, I was thinking "We could really beat these guys". In the 4th quarter I started to get the all-too-familiar knot in the stomach. Finally as some of the SC fans started for the exits (even though the game wasn't decided yet), Cathy asked how long we'd stay. I said, "If the scorebard result holds up, 'till the cops kick us out."; Which is indeed how long we ended up staying.

When the game ended, the Coliseum scorebard operator took the score off the scoreboard as soon as the clock hit 0:00. When the band started to play "Palms of Victory", I tried to make good a promise by calling my best friend Andy so he could hear the celebration. It turns out he wasn't where I thought he was, so he didn't get to hear it live (he played the band CD instead). I ended up high fiving and hugging other Cal amuni I knew who made the trip.

After being told to leave the stadium, we walked through the tunnel, still basking in the glory that we had defeated U$c. Cathy jokingly asked "You mean this doesn't ALWAYS happen when you go to LA?" Witt Ashbrook pulled out some victory cigars...and I took a couple of puffs. Even though my car was parked next to the Cal section, we ended up following the band back to their busses just to hear that one last rendition of "Fight for California", and determine what we were going to do to celebrate. Eventually, we made our way back to to my car, and then Dori and Larry's for dinner.

Hey Sean, you just witnessed Cal's first victory over U$c in the Coliseum since 1970. What are you going to do next?

I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!

Actually, I planned to go to Disneyland whether or not the Bears won. I made arrangements to meet some friends (Cindy Yan and Tim Castro) at the park. Dori and Larry weren't able to come, so they offered to give Cathy a ride back to LAX (thanks!)

Following some advice in the Disneyland Information Guide on the web (http://members.aol.com/alweho/index.htm) I arrived a little more than an hour before the park was supposed to open. I purchased my one day passport and got in one of the lines. It turns out that the line was for people who had early admission privlidges to the park. When I got close to the gate, a couple in front of me were told that this was an early admission line. They asked if they could wait next to the gate and were told "Yes", so I got in line behind them. It turns out they too were from the Bay Area. They had arrived the day before, only just in time to get a photo in front of a sign saying "Disneyland is FULL". At 8:25, we heard the Disneyland marching band approaching the gates. The woman of the couple in front of me started jumping up and down in excitement; it was her first ever visit to Disneyland. I was excited too; this was the first time I had been at the gate for opening. After the band played for five minutes, the person in charge of the gates said "OK!" and the gates were opened.

Since I wasn't supposed to meet Cindy until 9am, I calmly walked to the "Blue Ribbon Bakery" to have a small breakfast...they have a small continental speacial (fruit, choice of pastry, and choice of coffee, milk, or juice for just under $5) which was pretty decent. I then made my way back the Main Street fire station, where Cindy was already waiting for me.

A calm day in a sea of humanity

Disenyland was crowded, but it had no effect on ue. Because I was at Disneyland over Labor Day weekend, I was in no rush for any particular rides. Cindy had been to the park not more than two months ago, so she wasn't in any rush either. This meant that we could calmly wander around the park. I asked Cindy where she wanted to go first. She said "Let's go to London". I knew that meant "Peter Pan's Flight", which is one of my favorite rides (it's still magical). When we hopped on the ride, Cindy said "Hi" to the cast member operating the ride. At the same time, I remembered a story former cast member and net god Chuq Von Rospach posted--the ride operators have to be swapped every 15 minutes otherwise they go nuts from hearing "Here we gooooo!" over and over again.

Following our flight over London and Neverland, we came back. Now it was my turn to choose where to go. I said "How about 'Nowhere in Particular'?". I always have one memory of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and it has nothing to do with the ride itself; it goes back to campus guarding sometime ago, when two rally comm memebers (Dori and Rebecca Fehr) used "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" as a code name...but back to our story.

When we hopped into our car, Cindy asked the operator "How's the traffic?" Cindy says that since she was once a cast member, she enjoys doing this to "torment" other cast members. This started to rub off onto me. I'd say "Hi" too, and I'm probably going to keep doing this the next time I go to the park.

Of course, other people started saying things to us, but not because we were tormenting the cast members. I wore my Cal hat and shirt. People would say "Hey! Go Bears!" or "Great game!". I saw a few other people in Cal clothing, but nobody I knew. Funny though, I only saw one person weaing U$c clothing.

Back to our annoying the cast members.. Some of the cast members looked puzzled, other annoyed, and then there were the few who got into what we were doing.

This went on. When we were on the Mike Fink Keel Boats (which was a first for both of us), we waved to people on the shore and in other boats. In the Haunted Mansion, I tried tapping on the "Doom Buggy" behind us. On Alice's Adventures, Cindy high fived the card guards.

Did ya ever notice?

One other thing also happened on the Keel Boats--I started noticing Pac 10 mascots. The Rivers of America includes ducks (live ones), bears, dawgs--er-uh--dogs, and beavers. Mr. Toads' Wild Ride includes devils. On the train ride through the Grand Canyon you get to see a couger (or wildcat depending on your point of view). Of course at the Country Bear Playhouse you have California bears. On Splash mountain, you get to see Brer (Bruin) Bear. And at the Hunchback of Notre Dame Festival of Fools you get to see people in helmets (SC bandsmen?) and of course the odd fool (stanfurd bandsmen?)--ok, so those last three were a bit of a strech.

Eventually we went to meet Tim and some other Disneyphiles (including Al, the designer of the afformentioned Disney Informatio Guide) at the "hub". Al and others discussed different ways in which the "Promote Paul Pressler" portion of his web site was having an effect. Then, after several photos, we all went our seperate ways.

In our case, that meant more attractions. We went back to the Rivers of America for a ride on the Mark Twain, and then to Great Moments with Mister Lincoln (which Cindy had never seen before).

I've had my grease for the month...

By this time we were hungry. We decided to go stand in line for the Blue Bayou. One of the items on the Blue Bayou's menu is the Monte Cristo sandwich...The description is almost enough to make your stomach turn--take a turkey, ham, and cheese sandwhich, dip it in batter, deep fry it, and then serve it with jelly. People on the disney newsgroups have described it as oh sooo GOOOOD. After waiting for about 40 minutes, were seated. After looking over the menu, my decision was between the Monte Cristo and the Jambalaya. I then said "I'll be brave. I want a Monte Cristo sandwhich". When it arrived, it was every bit as disgustingly good as people told me. The jelly serves as a solid au jus like dip and enhances the flavor. The one advantage of eating this was that I didn't have to worry about being hungry for the rest of the day.

Following lunch/dinner, we decided to ride the sailing ship Columbia. It wasn't that good...I think the Keel Boats are the best way around the Rivers of America. To continue the boat experience, we attempted to ride the Storybookland Canal Boats, only to find that they were closed during the Lion King Parade (it was hot, so we had an abbreviated parade). We ended up riding Small World after the parade and then sat through Captain EO. Cindy asked "Do you think Francis Coppolla puts this one on his resume?" Because we were still a little tired, we went over to Rod's Piano at the Coke Corner. Rod puts on a great show, and we managed to hear him play one song and banter with several listeners before he took his break...fortunately he said he'd be in the park until 11:45 that night.

What a skipper!

After we left Rod's piano, we continued the boating experience and went on Pirates of the Carribbean. There were some people taking flash pictures a few boats behind us. If only the pirates could have done something to them ("Dead Men Tell No Tales"). Oh well, after that we went to the Jungle Cruise. Tim had mentioned to me about this fantastic skipper, named Rebecca, he had the last time he rode it. We ended up letting people pass us in line so we could get in her boat. She was fantastic, enthusiastic, and entertaining. It'd take too long to describe what she does on her cruise. If you catch her cruise, you're in for a REAL TREAT.

Goodbye! I'll be in the back!

Next we wanted to ride the Disneyland railroad to see the Dinosaurs. We boarded the train at Main Street. At each stop we waved "goodbye" to the to the conductor. Everytime he said "I'll be in the back". By the time we got to Tommorrowland, he had figured us out and started per-empting us (in a joking sort of way). We decided to ride back to New Orleans Square to watch Fantasmic. When we got off the train, we said "goodbye" to the conductor one last time. He said "Well if you get back on the train, I'll still be in the back."

A View from Backstage (sort of)

The area around the Rivers of America was too crowded. Tim had mentioned another spot where you could get sort of a backstage view of Fantasmic. Since we had all seen the show recently, I suggested that we watch it from that spot. This was a great move...We had enough time to ride Big Thunder Mountain (my first time at night...it's a MUCH better ride at night) and then catch Fantasmic. It was fun to see people boarding the barges and to wave at the cast members, shout things like "Hey King Louie!", "Hi Belle! We love you!", and see the crowd reaction. It made for a neat view.

So, what's the inflight movie?

After the show, we went back to Fantasyland to ride "Pinocchio's Daring Journey" and "Snow White's Scary Adventures". We then walked through the Sleeping Beauty Castle and then sat at Snow White's Grotto while Snow White sang to us. We had time for another ride before the Main Street Electrical Parade, so I suggested "Star Tours". When we boarded our Starspeeder, we asked "What's the inflight movie?" Only one problem occured--when we left the ride, they were showing Return of the Jedi in the store that you end up in after leaving Star Tours. I almost had to drag Cindy out of the store.

What I came for.

The main reason I wanted to go to Disneyland was to see the Main Street Electrical Parade one last time "before it glows away". Originaly this would have been one week before its last performance, but Disneyland management decided last Friday to extend the parade into November (after a two-week respite for Mickey's Halloween). Still, it was my last chance, so I didn't care. We got a good spot on the parade route, and enjoyed the music, and the floats.

One of the floats did remind me of the Bears. During the Main Street Electrical Parade, when Cinderella's carriage passed, I was thinking that this is a Cinderella season. Then a little while later, a float of the clock striking midnight passed by. I'll enjoy the moment for as long as the Bears continue to win, but I realize that the clock could strike midnight at anytime. When it does, the story is not over. The prince still has to find us and see that shoe fits.

Wow! We spent the whole day at the park.

After the parade we went back to Rod's piano. This time we got to sit at a table. Rod treated us to a few more performances. He even let Tim get into the act--he had Tim slam the music holder against the keyboard cover during appropriate parts of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". We'll see how the pictures turn out. It took several tries for Tim to get "For it's One! Two! Three strikes you're out! at the old ball game!" right. Rod then played his "goodbye" medly and it was time to leave the park.

We had one last duty to perform before leaving the park--we wanted to fill out a comment card for Rebecca. Each of us wrote glowing comments. When the cast member at City Hall heard us ask for a comment card, he had this look that said "oh no" on his face. After he read our comments, his face brightened up and he said "I'll be sure that her lead hears this immediately!"

Finally, it was time for the worst ride at Disneyland--the ride home. Tim realised that I had spent the entire day at Disneyland (so had Cindy). The last time I had done that was when Fantasmic opened back in 1992. Andy and I used the final day of our five day Disneyworld passes (which we had bought for the Citrus Bowl) at Disneyland just to see Fantasmic. Still, I know I'll be back. I can dream that I'll have the chance to visit the Happiest Place on Earth at the end of this year and the beginning of next year.

Anyway, this time each of us had long drives "home", and we each got home safely.

An uneventful flight home...

The next morning, I was ready to go home. The flight back was uneventful, and in fact, arrived early. I got home and then spent the next few hours catching up on the gobs of e-mail that was waiting for me. All in all, this was the best weekend I had experienced since the Citrus Bowl. The game helped, but a lot of the fun was due to the people I was with:

  • Thanks Dori, Larry and your son Daniel for letting me stay with you,
  • Thanks Cathy for deciding to come at the last minute; it's fun to share a victory with friends.
  • Thanks Cindy and Tim for joining me at Disneyland; I can have fun at Disneyland on my own, but having you along made it much more fun.
  • Thanks Cal band, for the hat,
  • Thanks Bears for winning.

and finally, thank you for reading this.

Copyright 1996 Sean "Yoda" Rouse
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