What do you call a good looking girl in Salt Lake City? That's right, a tourist!
Rapids "Inside the Game" Hostess and Donna Baldwin Talent model Lindsay Carroll joined Rapids supporters on the club's road trip to Utah for the June 6 match at Salt Lake; check out here exclusive diary below!
LINDSAY'S ROAD TRIP DIARY
"We had been waiting for this weekend for a while, and when it was finally time to go, I woke up and rolled out of bed here in Boulder on Saturday, June 6th at 7:15 in the morning, anxious to get on the road. My roommate, Brittany and I were pumped and ready to embark on our expedition to good ol’ Sandy, Utah!
We piled everything into the back of my silver Honda and went to pick up our friend Diana. Being girls, of course we packed way too many clothes. We had made a pit stop at the Wal-Mart down the road the night before in preparation for the trip, so in addition to the clothes, we had two coolers full of food.
Our plan (being broke college students) was to save money by bringing our own food and drinks. Our 'mobile kitchen' included bagels, fruit, Jell-O, trail mix, Lunchables (can’t go wrong there), and my personal favorite, CANDY!! What’s a road trip without the excuse to munch out on mouth-watering junk food, right?!
Our goal was to leave Colorado around eight o’clock in the morning to arrive in Utah by four that afternoon. According to MapQuest, the distance from Boulder (our starting location) to Sandy, Utah was 531.79 miles, with an estimated time of 7 hours and 39 minutes!
We brought along Carrie Underwood, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, and other similar girly artists to give us something to sing along with. I wanted to keep the ride exciting so I visited momsminivan.com. I would recommend this website to any Rapids fans who will be roadtriping to any future games! All I have to say is, it's incredible!
That site has over 101 car/road trip/travel games! I printed Backseat Battleship, travel scavenger hunts (which by the way – log trucks are impossible to find), roadside items and vehicles/cars bingo sheets, and my personal favorite, the license plate game!
We started out on I-25 N/US 87 for almost 70 miles and merged onto I-80 W entering into Wyoming. After a ton of snack eating, story telling, and laughing about silly sign names, 427.2 miles later, we arrived in Utah!
Utah is picturesque; there were many parts of Utah that reminded me of the drive from Denver to Grand Junction on I-70. It was very green, scenic, and breathtaking. Brittany and Diana actually attempted to count all of the cows that we could find on the way there, but there were so many that they lost count after awhile.
I had my hopes set on finding a rest stop with the “world’s largest rocking chair” or something, but the closest thing we found and actually stopped to see, was Little America. As far as the license plate game went, we were successful in finding 19 states. Even though I am home now, I find myself still looking for the Maine, New York, and Hawaii plates.
Once we arrived, we were excited to stretch after the long car ride, and even more excited that it was almost game time! We checked into the Residence Inn Marriott in Sandy, Utah and started freshening up. I called down to the front desk to let them know that we would be ready for the shuttle to the stadium at 7:15. The hotel van dropped us off at Rio Tinto Stadium, which was only one mile away from where we were staying.
When we got to the stadium, we felt intimidated walking on grounds that were definitely not enemy territory. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz ('Toto I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore!').
Even though a lot of people stared at us wearing our Rapids jerseys, we just smiled with pride!
Just after that, we noticed there were a number of people getting off a bus wearing familiar colors.....The drum noise coming from the busload of people was also familiar and caught our attention. As it turns out they were the travelling RAPIDS SUPPORTERS! We introduced ourselves and took lots of pictures with our new friends.
Entering Rio Tinto Stadium I could smell sweet caramelized almonds and buttery popcorn.....junk food lovers’ Heaven! The fans were excited and as more people shoved their way through the gates the louder the voices and cheers became.
The stadium was OK-looking I guess, but I love our own Dick’s Sporting Goods Park way more! It was a completely different atmosphere though inside: there was way too much red, yellow and Real Salt Lake blue for my liking! I encourage more Rapids fans to attend more away games to get more burgundy and Rapids blue in there!
I’m a huge fan of American Idol, and for anyone who didn’t know this already, David Archuleta performed after the game and the concert was unbelievable!
Heading back home the next day, honestly though, I would have to say the highlight of the whole trip (other than having awesome bonding time with the girls) was watching Omar Cummings score the goal for the Rapids in the 88th minute! It was great to see the Salt Lake fans get quiet after that! Check the Rapids' website to watch Omar’s goal of the week...it was awesome!
All in all it was a great trip, it was great to see the Rapids get a point on the road, and I can't wait for future road trips!
Thanks for letting me share my road trip diary!"
-Lindsay
