EDITOR’S NOTE: Skyline Sports contributor Ryan Tootell is trying to make his way to Frisco, Texas from Polson, Montana on the highways and interstate of the United States. What follows is a journal of his journey.
Departure South – Thursday, January 4 6:30 PM
East Helena, Montana
Only an idiot starts a trucking company. Only a Lunatic tries to launch any business enterprise at all. But the especially dumb ones go with trucking.
I fall into this lowest category. Thirty days removed from carrying my first load and officially being open for business, I’m already prepared to cast my lot in with the flat earthers. Perhaps I may be so lucky as to find the edge and jump off.
One significant contributor to my entrepreneurial mania is the Montana Grizzlies. If only they could’ve found a way to not pull it out in OT against a confident, outstanding Furman team dripping with swagger…if only the Griz could’ve just not scored in either overtime versus the mighty Bison of North Dakota State….if only Junior Bergen was playing for a national championship Monday as a Husky instead of Sunday as a Grizzly, I wouldn’t be in this forsaken position….
The dream of ME making it to the national championship game along side the Griz was on the table the second Corbin Walker intercepted Raja Nelson‘s pass on a two-point conversion attempt in the North end-zone of Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
My pragmatic attempt to get to Frisco began in earnest four days ago on January 2. By anyone’s measure, to trade in my dream job for one that I fear was foolish, but keeping one foot on the right side of the Skyline Sports/ESPN MT fence has its advantages.
Podcast – radio – writing….in exchange for lodging and food in Frisco along with access to cover the game on site. Transportation, my new profession, was on me.
The possibility of actually earning money on the way to Frisco was a major selling point for my wife to sign off on this endeavor. However, the freight lane there from Polson Montana is nonexistent. Shocking, I know.
Search and call as you may, you can only carry what loads are available and tendered to you. Consequently, the first step in the logistical puzzle is Casper, Wyoming.
I found a skid steer that was moving from Kalispell to Casper and that put me 700 miles closer to my destination in the suburb North of Dallas that has served as the host to the FCS national title game for the last 14 seasons. Toyota Stadium has seen more FCS/Division I-AA title games than any other venue and, coincidentally, the Griz have never been to Frisco. Montana played in the last national championship hosted in Chattanooga, Tennessee back in 2009.
Wyoming was all right by me to start this adventure. What I could find going to Texas from Wyoming is impossible to know but you can’t find out if you don’t go…so I accepted the load yesterday and hopes that picking it up late would allow me to leave early this morning and get to Kasper — two days from Frisco, three days before the game — seemed possible…and then snow.
This morning, this very morning, with all the hopes and dreams of the national championship run out in front of me, I had an NAU experience. The first small hill I found at 4 AM brought me to a standstill. Far from McDonald’s Pass, this was a small rise, up out of the Flathead Lake. It stopped me cold, wheels spinning, and un-plowed snow on ice, me, stuck, three miles from home.
One hour and two chains later, I was able to move but not to progress. I drove home, tail between my legs, wondering what would become of my Frisco dream and my children’s college education.
The possibility of making it to Frisco seemed nonexistent. Nonetheless, I’d already excepted the load, and even though I was late by hours if not days, I still needed to go. Time was running out after the roads finally cleared up, so into my truck I went with a second load on, headed for East Helena.
And that’s as far as I’ve made it, some 1567 miles from Toyota Stadium, the Griz, the Jackrabbits and everything I covet on my quest, my once hopeful dream reduced to a mere flicker.
With any luck, I’ll make it to Casper sometime before sundown Friday, but the odds of me actually making it to the game right now sit as a two-touchdown underdog.
But of course, the Griz are two-score dogs against a South Dakota State team that’s won 28 games in a row and upsets happen. Tomorrow is a new day with new miles to cover and new loads to find.
What is the possibility of a national championship miracle?
