For a sports fan, it was a long run. The last live sporting event I watched in person was on November 1, 2024, as the Riverton Wolverines edged the Powell Panthers 36-35 in opening round Class 3-A football playoff action. Earlier that afternoon, I was on the sidelines as Saratoga upset the West 1-A 9-Man Champion Shoshoni Wranglers in the quarterfinals at Harold Bailey Field.
In between, I watched the Dubois Rams and Riverton Wolverines on NFHS streaming video the following week in the semi-finals, then settled into isolation for the winter sports season.
My isolation was for the best of reasons. My wife Sue had a compromised immune system as she underwent 16 sessions of chemotherapy beginning in August. The threat of germ exposure isn’t as great in the outdoors, but in the confines of a packed gym, it is very real.
That’s why I missed the volleyball and swimming seasons as well. I was able to attend a few cross country meets, and shot a little golf, but once again they are held in the great outdoors where nature’s germ killer, ultraviolet light from the sun is hard at work.
So, it was a season depending on scorebook pics from coaches, watching games on NFHS, often two at a time, one on the big screen in the living room, and the other on my laptop while taking notes on both. For Riverton and Lander, the coverage Jerrad Anderson and Scott Fuller provided on County 10’s YouTube channel was superb, as was Cody Beers with the Wyoming Indian boys and girls on WyoToday.
The images you may or may not have seen on County 10 were the work of a bevy of talented young women who stepped up and photographed volleyball, and basketball games, and wrestling matches throughout the season.
Maci Evans shot the Wolverines and Lady Wolverines, Margaret Friday the Chiefs and Lady Chiefs, Jessica Schooner the Cougars and Lady Cougars, and Christina Mills, the Wranglers and Lady Blue of Shoshoni. Marvelous work, one and all.
My ace in the hole was Ivonne Chavez, a former student and track athlete who I coached long ago in Shoshoni. Ivonne covered wrestling wall-to-wall with Bridget Truempler of Shoshoni, and Jessica Schooner adding wrestling pics as well. Ivonne went over the top with her photographs of the Chiefs and Lady Chiefs at the state tournament last weekend.
As the winter wore on, Sue progressed well and told me I should go to the 1-A/2-A State Tournament, one of my favorite athletic events of the year.
I wasn’t sure, we were headed to Pittsburgh in mid-February with a surgical date for her at the end of the month, and it would require booking a flight from Pittsburgh to Casper for the three-day event.
In late January, I decided to book the flight.
We had some unused travel credits about to expire in May, so the flight only cost about $250. I found a special with Budget Rent A Car for a three-day car rental in Casper for only $149, and booked a motel room for only $49 a night. All was in place.
On the Wednesday before the state tournament began, a feed popped up on Facebook from my friend Taylor Winland, an assistant coach to his father Pat at Rocky Mountain and the grandson of my longtime friend, retired coaching legend Ralph Winland of Lovell.
Taylor’s post had a forecast of Wyoming weather last Thursday, not a rosy picture. He stated in the post, “If you want to go to the state tournament, you might want to leave on Wednesday.”
Conflicting weather forecasts had me calling another friend, Chris Jones of the National Weather Service in Riverton. I left a text asking Chris to call me and he did a few minutes later.
The forecast wasn’t great. Heavy snow in Casper peaking at my scheduled arrival time just before 2 p.m. on Thursday.
Chris went into an app that forecasted ceiling and visibility, the primary metrics airports use to determine if flights are safe to take off and land. It didn’t look good, there was only a 40 percent chance that a window of opportunity would open during my flight.
I decided to try leaving on Wednesday. This was around noon Pittsburgh time.
I called United Airlines and connected with an agent named Debbie. She was wonderful. I asked about available flights that afternoon, knowing the only United flight to Denver left at 4:20 from years of experience in taking it home.
She checked and told me there was one seat on the Pittsburgh to Denver and one on the 10 pm flight from Denver to Casper. I asked what the cost was to change flights.
“Let’s see,” she said. “$1500…well, that’s not going to happen. Let me see what I can do.”
I could hear her clicking away on her keyboard, and humming as she said, override, override, override.
“There it is,” Debbie said. “No charge, shall I book your flight?”
Of course I agreed.
I called the motel to add Wednesday night, no problem, I had a room.
I called Budget to add a day and a gal with a thick Filipino accent started asking a series of questions, demanding my credit card information even though she had the reservation. I wouldn’t give her the card number and asked her about availability.
She finally acquiesced and said, “That will be an additional $310 for the extra day.”
I asked her to explain how a three-day rental for $173 including taxes and fees had jumped so much.
“You purchased the original reservation on a special promotion,” she said. “You’ll have to pay regular rates for the extra day.”
I canceled the reservation, I was reserving a Honda Civic, not a Rolls Royce.
My son-in-law Adam checked Uber in Casper and found several available at the arrival time. I installed the Uber app.
We picked up Norah from kindergarten at 12:30, and I ran inside the school to explain to Jayne that I had to leave that afternoon rather than the next morning.
I set off with three days of clothes, a laptop, and a camera packed into my backpack.
Just 10 minutes from the airport, texts started streaming in from United.
“Your flight is delayed because of a delay on the incoming aircraft. Departure time is 5:30.”
No problem, I had a two-and-a-half-hour layover in Denver. A minute later came the second message, the flight was postponed until 6:10. A minute passed and the final one arrived, the delay was now 6:45.
The layover diminished to 15 minutes from touchdown to departure gate closure at DIA. Not enough time.
Adam took the next exit to turn around, I canceled the flight via my cell phone and made it back in time to surprise Jayne as she got off the bus in front of her house.
I wanted to surprise my son Brian as well, who knew nothing of the plan. He was officiating his second state tournament and knew he had a chance to officiate a state title game. He did, the Class 2-A boys between Thermopolis and Pine Bluffs.
I called him and told him of my plans, and said I was disappointed. He said, no problem, take care of Mom.
That was it. A great plan foiled again by Mother Nature.