Hockey Road Trip, Fall 2004

Week One - Southwest - Sat, 10/16 - Fri, 10/22
Week Two - Texas - Sat.,10/23 - Fri, 10/29
Week Three - Southeast - Sat, 10/30 - Fri, 11/5
Week Four - Southeast - Sat, 11/6 - Fri, 11/12
Week Five - Mid Atlantic - Sat, 11/13 - Fri, 11/19
Week Six - Long Island - Sat, 11/20 - Fri, 11/26
Week Seven - Midwest - Sat, 11/27 - Fri, 12/3
Week Eight - Midwest - Sat, 12/4 - Fri, 12/10
Week Nine - Las Vegas - Sat, 12/11 - Fri, 12/17
Week Ten - California - Sat, 12/18 - Fri, 12/24
About Me

Friday, 12/3

Today I balanced my checkbook and visited the town of Hermann, MO.

My checkbook balanced to the penny. Sweet. Even better, there's still money in it!

The town of Hermann, founded in 1836, is of German descent. It has quite an interesting history but I won't bore you with the details.

The town looks like it is in the middle of an architectural restoration to encourage a renewed interest in the German heritage and traditions. There was some construction being done on buildings I passed as I strolled through the streets. I saw quite a few bed and breakfast places but on the whole, there wasn't a heck of a lot to see. I'm guessing touring Hermann in December isn't the best time to visit.

I understand the Octoberfest draws a big crowd. There were quite a few wineries and two breweries near the area. I did manage a tour of the Stone Hill Winery and ate lunch at the Vintage Restaurant.

Here's a photo of the town taken from the winery. I bet in spring and summer it is quite beautiful.


After eating lunch at the Vintage Restaurant (I ate German food - had to), I took a tour of the Stone Hill Winery. Learned all kinds of interesting stuff like during Prohibition, the plant was used as a mushroom packing plant.

Here's one of the cellars I went in. The barrels on the sides are brand new (you can tell by the light color). The ones on the far wall are old.

The life of a barrel is 10 - 12 years. Depending on how old it is, it stores and ages a variety of different wines.

And there's your wine lesson for the day.


I'm heading off to a River Otters game in a few moments. More later.

I saw my first UHL game of this trip at The Family Arena in St. Charles, MO. The River Otters played the Muskegon Fury.

Notes:

• The skill level of play was similar to the ECHL and CHL games I've seen.
• There were many familiar names: Josh Legge, Lars Petterson, Dennis Vial, Brent Belecki to name a few.
• The arena seats 10,000. With 2,489 paid attendance, it looked pretty sparse this evening.
• The UHL goes straight from a tie after the third period to a shoot out. No 4 on 4, 5 minute OT. I was a bit disappointed in that. I kind of like the 'bonus' hockey.
• I sat one row above the media area. That was quite interesting. Radio announcer (he was intriguing to listen to), a guy who must have been updating the River Otters web site (but mostly he was IM'ing people), video and camera crew, 4 men who dressed exactly alike (newspaper?) in tan pants, white shirts and blue sweaters, two TV guys. Yeah, an interesting group.
• The camera man seemed to like to point out and display the pretty young women with tight jeans and low cut blouses.
• The sound system in the arena had seen better days but I was able to catch the goals and penalties (lack of crowd noise).
• The fans were talking about attendance being low (similar to what I hear Grrrowl fans stating). I'm not sure about advertisements in the area but based on passing conversation, I suspect there is little.

Here's Family Arena. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere but that was okay. I didn't have to worry about traffic after the game.




Here's the radio announcer. He got so excited when there was a scoring opportunity.

It was quite nice to be so close to listen to him.




The Family Arena

Here's a familiar face to some ECHL fans. I remember him as a Lynx but he's been a part of other teams since then. Can't quite tell from this photo if he won the face off or not. I'm guessing not.




I don't take many good action shots but I was kind of pleased with this one.




The River Otters beat the Fury 2 - 1 in a shoot out.

Barrie Moore (another former ECHLer) gets the one and only shoot out goal.


Game Twenty Four - The Family Arena
River Otters vs. Fury
Score: River Otters 2 - Fury 1

Click the Next link below to view Week Eight's adventures.

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