WEB EXTRA: From wrong turns to national championship, St. Louis road trip had it all

Wednesday, evening: We were driving through southern Illinois on our way to St. Louis when we had to make an emergency pit stop in "middle of nowhere USA." We had to drive almost three miles off the highway to find the nearest business. When we were retracing our path, trying to find the highway, we made a wrong turn somewhere and wound up driving through a bunch of run-down farmhouses in a rural area of the state. The sky was cloudy, the sun was close to setting and our little lost adventure resembled something straight out of a Hollywood horror movie — guys get off highway, guys get lost, guys get directions from shady villagers and bamn! Guys get chopped up into little pieces and used as fertilizer. We all let out a sigh of relief when we found the highway.

Thursday, early morning: It's last call at all the local downtown bars, and we had been fortunate enough to have bar-hopped since we arrived in St. Louis. (Note: As we were heading out to the bars, we witnessed a high-speed police chase down a main road. It looked like someone had hijacked a cop car. We joked that it was Cardinals manager Tony La Russa mad about his team's start and about to get another DUI.) We ended the night at a small restaurant/bar in our hotel complex and ordered a few pitchers and some greasy food to cap the night off.

(Another note: We felt obligated to drink Budweiser all weekend since we were in the Budweiser capital of the world.) It wasn't long before we all found our stomachs full, and we still had half a pitcher to finish. What to do, what to do? Luckily, Mike Itchue had the smarts to stuff the pitcher under his jacket, and we walked to our room to resume festivities. Sure, Mike's shirt and coat were a little dampened, but why waste some good beer?

Thursday, game time: We were awakened by the sweet sounds of the MSU marching band playing the fight song and parading through the hotel lobby. We thought this was the coolest thing ever until Maine, North Dakota and Boston College's bands all did the same. Still, a neat atmosphere. The Spartans scored four unanswered goals in the game to win, 4-2, and move on to the national championship game. It was fun to see MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, Athletics Director Ron Mason and head coach Rick Comley's son Ricky down by the locker room after the game with smiles on their faces. We were smiling too. The Spartans had just won, and we had a few more days to spend in St. Louis.

Friday, morning skate: The Spartans were as loose as I've seen them all season at their last official practice of the year. It was a light skate that was more of a tune-up for Saturday's big game than it was a hard workout. After the skate, we hit the road and checked out the Gateway Arch. To that point in our trip, we were disappointed with the number of fine-looking females that we saw, so we stopped off at a sure bet to cure our woes — Hooters.

Saturday, game time: We all took turns chipping coins into the wishing fountains outside our hotel for good luck before the game. We started with pennies, then gradually increased the coins' value to nickels, dimes and quarters. I'm not sure how much luck played into the 3-1 MSU win, but it was absolutely fantastic to watch, and it's something I'll never forget. We'll be leaving Sunday morning to hike it back to East Lansing, but that eight-hour drive is going to be so much sweeter now.