It Was Huge Fun Until It Wasn't

So we drove through the Sacred Valley in the dark to our hotel. Neil was a man on a mission.  And the mission was to get the UNC-Duke Final Four game on TV, preferably on the large screen TV in the bar. 

The Happy Time before the last

two minutes. From left: Carol,

Mary, Neil, your faithful blogger,

Glen, Bruce, and Nancy.

While we all checked in, Neil went to the bar and fixed it up with the entire staff.  They set up a table for us to watch right in front of the TV.  Just you understand, Neil is a Duke grad.  I became a Duke fan one night in December 2012 when middle daughter Maddy received early acceptance to Duke.  

I had been a Duke hater (I would apologize to Christian Laettner, but he doesn’t care) until the moment I was washing dishes and heard Maddy’s happy scream of joy from her bedroom.  Neil immediately came over with a Duke flag to share our joy.  I’m also a Virginia fan as eldest daughter Julia went there.  I watch a lot of top quality college basketball.  And, in case you are wondering, Torie is realistic about my lack of interest in Elon University’s underwhelming team

It was, until the end, a great game.  We skipped the group dinner to eat in front of the TV (makes us sound like a dysfunctional family).  But we had easy access to the bar, had some appetizers, walked around the corner to get our dinner, and generally had a wonderful time.

We also had fun talking with a couple of UNC fans, including one woman who lives in Alexandria.

Until the last couple of minutes, when the refs conspired to throw the game to UNC, by causing Duke to miss key free throws, turn the ball over, and miss shots, I thought Duke was going to pull it out.  Give UNC credit, they are a very resilient team, and came close to winning the best Tournament in sports (yes, Doug Heye, it is painful for me to write that.  It’s also a test to see how much of the blog you read!)  

It’s quite a small world when you can watch an NCAA semi-final game in a very nice hotel (Tambo del Inka) in Urubamba, Peru.  Honestly, I never had “Watch an NCAA semi-final game in Urubamba, Peru” on my life bingo card.  So, even though the game didn’t turn out the way we wished, it turned out to be a memorable part of the trip.  A part, given the final score, that I’d like to forget!