Born and raised in a hockey town

I grew up in Detroit, MI and if anyone knows Detroit it is a real hockey town.  In the winter the fire department would flood a portion of our neighbor park to create a skating rink.  It was a big rink and the whole neighborhood would be skating.  We could even skate from the park to our home a block and a half away since the sidewalks were also frozen.  That is where I played hockey.  I was small for my age so never was a great player, but that is all I would think about.

Hockey was always on my mind

My father also flooded out back yard so we could have our own skating rink as well.  Me and my friend would spend hours back there trying to shoot a puck past each other into a goal.  We also had a goal in my garage that we used to shoot a tennis ball into.

Needless to say I grew up to be a real hockey fan.  One year I took three buses down to the Olympic Auditorium where the Detroit Red Wings once played to get standing room tickets only for my dad and our neighbor and myself.  We wound up sitting in the aisle of the upper deck to watch a Stanley Cup game.  They lost the game and also lost in their bid to win the Stanley Cup (hockey’s most coveted prize).   I was devastated.

I think I got my interest in hockey from my grandfather who was on an all star team somewhere in Saskatchewan.

Our family moved out to California after I graduated from high school.  I kind of lost interest in hockey as my interest seemed more about girls and goofing off at the time.

Always thrilled watching hockey

But I never ever lost the thrill I got when I saw a hockey game.  It was about the late 80’s that I first became interested in the LA Kings hockey team.  Then when they got Wayne Gretzkey I thought they were the greatest team ever.  In 1993 they went to the Stanley Cup Finals and lost and I was really devastated.

Then the playoffs this year really got me going.  While I was staying at the Oceanside Elks I invited my son over and we went to a sports bar and had a great time watching them win the game.  They kept getting stronger and stronger.  By this time I was out of local LA TV range and the best I could do was listen to the games on the radio.

Well to make a long story short, the LA Kings beat the New Jersey Devils tonight 6-1 to win the Stanley Cup.  It had taken their franchise 45 years to win a championship and I was there through about 25 of those years.

I know this has really nothing to do with RVing or places I have stayed, but it has a lot to do with where my mind has been.  I feel like I am right down on the ice skating rink with the players as they each take a turn hoisting the Stanley Cup over their heads.  They are the World Champions for sure.  I am high in the clouds I am so elated.