So last night at the game, Ralph Strangis said to find him at practice and he’d see if he could set us up to see Mike Modano. I was looking around for Ralph most of the morning but we couldn’t see him. Practice started and we went in to watch it. We got some great photos, taken by Sam, and Amber and I went to the end of the rink to watch the guys practice.

After a while, and talking to a few people around the edge of the rink, I saw Ralph come out of the Stars locker room and I waved at him. He nodded and walked over, calling out “Hey, it’s the Aussies!” and pronouncing the S like an S… I grinned and said, “Auzzie mate, Auzzie.” And he laughed and said, “Nah, I like it as Aussie.” I replied, “Okay, but only you’re allowed to say it that way!”

He told me he’d been trying to hook us up with Mike, but he wasn’t sure if they’d be able to do it because Mike had a commercial to shoot today and he was a little cranky about a few things Ralph asked him to sign for something - I think a celebrity Auction. Anyway Ralph called Rob, the Senior Director Hockey Communications for the Dallas Stars, over. We said to Ralph, “He’d be called ‘Bluey’ back home because he has red hair!” so now Rob has been christened ‘Bluey’. Anyway Rob was great to us. He said it wouldn’t be a problem to hook us up with Mike and he’d be fine about it all. We chatted away and then he said he’d come and get us when they were ready to film the commercial and we could meet Mike afterwards.

It didn’t take too long before Rob called us over and we followed him down a corridor through the stands in the rink area. Sam forgot the camera so he ran back and got it. While he was gone, Mike - flanked by some other guys from the production company - walked right past me. I couldnt’ stop smiling - or shaking. Anyway Sam came back and we waited with Rob in the hallway - chatting about how we became hockey fans and everything. I think Rob could see I was shaking because he said, “Now you know he’s a regular guy, right? He puts his pants on the same way as everyone else - one leg at a time.”

I grinned and said, “I know! I’m fine.” And I was. I was shaking because I was partly cold. Have I mentioned it’s FREEZING in Dallas right now? Anyway Mike was done pretty quick with the commercial - he must have got it right the first or second time, and I think it meant he was done for the day so when he came out, he seemed pretty happy.

Anyway Rob said, “Mike, this is Wendy and Sam. They’re the two Australian fans who have come to see the Stars.” And Mike shook my hand with a grin and said it was nice to meet us, and then said, “Really? All the way from Australia?” And I nodded and said “Yeah.” We went on to explain we don’t get the games on tv over there, we get them mailed to us on DVD and that we listen to Ralph and Razor on WBAP and NHL radio, and I said, “And you guys play when I’m at work, so I call Sam on my lunch break and he puts the phone by the speaker so I can listen to the call of the game!”

Mike was a little surprised by that but he laughed too. I liked making him laugh. He seemed to be enthralled talking to us, which was great. Rob said “She’s been a fan for 13 years.”
Mike asked, “Really? How’d you get into the Stars?”
I blushed and said, “Uh, actually it was all because of you.”
He, of course, was like, “Uh, what?”

And Rob said, “She saw The Mighty Ducks.” Mike…god bless him, he blushed so bad and looked at the ground and shook his head with a grin, saying “Oh no!” I laughed and grabbed his arm lightly. He looked down at me - because he towers over me (I’m 5″6, he’s 6″3 in bare feet!).
I said, “No, it wasn’t like that!” And Sam went on to explain that I saw him playing first, not the talking part.

I clarified and said, “Wait… the thing was… the first part I saw was the NHL part where you were flying up the ice, with your jersey billowing in the wind scorin’ that goal and I was like, ‘… Wow, who’s that? #9? That’s it I’m gone.’ And since 9 is my number… I’ve been hooked ever since. I had to rewind it to see the rest of it!”

He nodded and said, “Oh, that’s so nice.” He asked how long we were here for and I said until April 1st and he asked where we were staying and I said studio 6 on I35 and Northwest Hwy. He nodded and then I said, “Yeah, we know it’s the “cultural part” of Dallas!” and he laughed so I think he knows the area is full of strip joints! Yes, we picked the prime part of Dallas to stay!

Anyway he happily signed my jersey that I was wearing, and then I asked him to sign my Jokinen jersey that I’m getting the whole team to sign. I fumbled with the pen because I got him to sign in silver on the 6 and said “Sorry, I’m being a pain in the butt.” He was so sweet, and said, “No, no, it’s okay!”

After he signed it, I said, “We actually have something for you.”
He looked really surprised and said “Really? Oh okay.”
I dug around in the bag and got out his silver keyring and as I gave it to him, I said, “Everyone has to have an Australian keyring.” He grinned, I think he liked it a lot because Sam took a photo of Mike looking at the keyring with a wonderful smile on his face. He said thank you, which was nice and then I said, “And we also have this… this is… in Australia, our city has had a hockey team in the national league since last year. SO… we got you one of their jerseys!”

I handed it to him, and he looked at it and his grin was so big. I think he really liked it, but it could have just been Mike being polite. I added, “And it’s got your name and number on the back.”

He turned it around and he was like “Oh wow! This is so great! Thank you so much!” We said he was welcome, and he posed for a photo with me holding up his jersey. He put his arm around my shoulders, and I put my arm around his waist - he’s so small width wise - I mean, he’s tall, and he’s solid, but wow, he’s tiny. He was very, very sweet to us and seriously he was just so much more than I ever expected. He’s a wonderful man, and though I doubt he’ll ever see this site, I just want to say thank you Mike for being a gentleman, a good sport and a wonderful role model. I didn’t get to say all that I wanted to, but that’s okay. I was able to spend a few minutes with you and I know how busy you are, so to generously give a few minutes of your time to someone who has travelled such a long way to see you play just meant the world to me.

I said to him, “Good assist last night by the way,” and he smiled and said, “Well, thank you very much.” I added, “It was a shame you guys didn’t win on Monday night,” and he was like, “Um, yeah, well uh… you know,” and I continued on, “But you know what? It was still the best game of hockey we’ve ever seen!” He laughed. I also said thank you for beating the Kings (he laughed), and that we were in the air flying from LA to Dallas at the time of when they were playing, and Sam told him I was cheering them on in the plane, which of course made me blush but Mike laughed and said something but I can’t remember what it was.

Mike also said that he hoped we had a great trip and that he might see us again and we said thanks and he left. I’ve been on cloud nine ever since. Rob didn’t have any business cards on him at the time after Mike left so he said to wait and he’d run and get one since we gave him one of our on the cheap ones that we made this morning - got some business cards and a rubber stamp that you can change the words on - worked out pretty well. When Rob came back, he said that Mike really enjoyed talking to us. I was a little skeptical but he said that Mike loved the jersey, that when he was walking back to the locker room, he was holding it up and saying, “Wow, this is amazing! This is great!” So I’m really glad he liked it. It was something I wanted to give him, just for no other reason than the Stars have hosted us, and it’s Australian custom to give your hosts a gift of some sort to say thank you.

I have a wonderful memory of my sporting hero that I will always treasure for the rest of my life - and to everyone on hockeypulse… watch out. I’m a bigger Modano homer than I was before now that I’ve met him!

~ Wendy

Day Seven was the Stars Vs Wild game. We got up a little late and drove up to Addison to the Dunn Bros Coffee and bored Amber for two hours while we jumped online and did our email and stuff. Then we dropped into Wal-Mart on the way back to the hotel to have lunch and get ready for the game. I went to Salon Amber (Amber did my hair and makeup for me) and then we headed off to pick up Rhonda. We must be getting to know our way around Dallas because we didn’t get lost once going to Garland.

We talked hockey all the way to the AAC and parked pretty close by as it was REALLY cold last night. It’s freezing in Dallas at the moment! Anyway we saw the line up for the Cup and thought… nah… stuff it. We got a pic from a few metres away and that was enough for us. We dropped in to see Ralph and he was just great. He asked what we thought of the game and then we talked about the after game show. He asked if we listen to it and I said I did but Sam didn’t. And Ralph replied, “Yeah but he’s a kiwi, right?” and I grinned and said, “Thanks for backing me up on that!”

He asked if we’d seen any of the players and we said we’d seen 14 of them but missed Mike cuz he slipped out the back. Ralph said to catch him at the rink tomorrow (Thursday) and he’ll see if he can set it up for us. Then he asked for our card because he’s thinking of taking his family to Australia in the next couple of years. I said we didn’t have one but he said to write our details down and give them to him tomorrow at the rink. I said, “Sure, no problem. And if you come in your summer here, and call us, I can hook you up for tickets for the Australian Ice Hockey League!” and he said “Oh yeah, you can hook me up!” and I replied with, “Yeah, as a way of saying thank you, you know, returning the favour!”

Anyway we chatted until he had to go and get ready for the broadcast, so we went down to the glass in 124 behind Turks to watch the warm up. The guys looked GREAT. I couldn’t help but grin when I saw Mike come out on the ice. He was smiling and flying and looked really relaxed. The guys looked like they were bringing it but good. And it was great to see Robi in the lineup too. That was really a joy. I love watching Robidas play D. He’s an elegant skater, and he’s gritty. He works hard, he plays hard, and he does get the job done. He may not have the hands of Modano, or the shot of Zubov, but … Robi is a decent player and I wish we got to see him play more often. Unfortunately it means that someone has to sit out. Janne Niinimaa may not have won over all the fans in Dallas yet, and considering he was traded for the fans’ whippin’ boy he seems to have inherited the title Erskine left behind, but I love all the boys and that includes Niini. You wear the Green, gold, black and white, you’re alright with me automatically. And I’ll defend ya to the death.

Rhonda and Tatjana left us just before the game started and we went down 1-0 to the Wild 10.57 in the first. Marian Gaborik scored, assisted by Piere-Marc Bouchard and Kurtis Foster. Bastards. It was very back and forth in the first, with the Stars playing a dump and chase kind of game. With 48 seconds left in the second, Left Winger Jussi Jokinen (or as Razor calls him, Jack River - which is what Jussi Jokinen is in english) tied the game, assisted by Jere Lehtinen and Willie Mitchell, who was playing against the team that traded him to us not even a month ago!

In the break, Zack and Andrea came down and chatted with us. It was great to see them and talk about the trip so far. We agreed to catch up after the game and meet up outside the Old No 7 Bar. The second started, with Wild goaltender, Manny Fernandez, at our end of the ice. It was awesome to watch another great goalie in net - unfortunately we didnt’ get to see any goals because the only goal in the second was scored 15.53 into the third by the Wild - Brian Rolston, assisted by Mikko Koivu and Marian Gaborik.

Leni dropped by in the intermission between the second and third, and we had a chat. We agreed to meet up at the Frisco StarCentre the next day at the practice. When the third started, I barely had a voice left. I could be heard screaming out LEHTS GO STARS! I made a few people around me laugh or turn around to see who was screaming but I didn’t care. I was at a hockey game, and you need to make noise at a hockey game! I also took a radio along to listen to Ralph and Razor call the game. It’s SO much better when you have both the live game in front of you and the guys calling it too. It’s like live television. Awesome. Another awesome thing in the third was Marty Turco, our goalie, bodychecking a Wild player - who I can’t remember his name - when he was chasing the puck down on a one on one. Marty came out of his net, poked the puck away and then checked the Wild player - sending the crowd wild themselves! It was a beautiful moment.

3.47 into the third, Right Winger Jere Lehtinen tied the game again, assisted by Jason Arnott and Jussi Jokinen. It was a beautiful goal too. We jumped and screamed and hugged and danced to Rock N Roll II - yelling out “HEY!” at the appropriate time. Jon Klemm, Stars Defenseman, netted the game winning goal at 5.26 in the third, assisted by Jussi Jokinen and Mike Modano. I screamed on that one too. When they were annoucing the names of the scorers I was screaming when they called out MIIIIIIIIKE MO-DA-NO! It was fabulous. The Stars then scored an insurance goal at 9.05 by Stu Barnes, assisted by Brenden Morrow (who hadn’t scored a point in 9 games) and Jason Arnott - or as we like to call him… Tim Tam. *GRIN*

After the game was over, and we were done yelling and jumpin’ up and down and screaming, we met up with Zack, Andrea, Tatjana, Rhonda and Andrea’s sister and brother in law and had a group photo and a chat. We then met up with Gail and her husband who we dont’ know his name but know he’s a Wings fan who lives in Dallas and goes to the StarCentre to get the guys to sign stuff all the time. On the way back to Rhonda’s we listened to the Stars Extra show and were happy to hear Ralphie talking about hockey instead of basketball and football. Marty Turco was the Stars interviewee and he was really good to listen to. When we got back to the hotel, we showed Amber our wares and gave her a program from the game that we picked up.

Tomorrow it’s off to Frisco to hopefully meet more of the guys and watch them practice.

~ Wendy

Finally went to bed at 3am yesterday and once again got a strange wakeup call at 4.50am. I don’t know what the heck is going on with our phone in our room but it always rings at 4.50am. Weird.

So we got up at 8.30am and got ready to head up to Frisco for the boys’ training. We managed to get there relatively early - 10.50am. We dropped into the Stars Stuff Store (SSS) to exchange a t-shirt that we bought Sam that was faulty - unfortunately he couldn’t get one that was the same but he got another for the same player - Marty Turco. After we got the t-shirt, we went outside and in another door to the Executives Offices to meet up with Ian Suber, our ticket agent.

He was really lovely. We chatted for about twenty minutes and thanked him for selling us the tickets. He got our cell number and will call us when he’s arranged a time to take us and Tatjana down the tunnel to where the players walk out onto the ice so we can watch them walk by. That was really, really sweet of him to do that.

Then we went back into the SSS, and found Tatjana there who was trying to buy a jersey but unfortunately they were out of white away jerseys in L and XL replicas in all SSS. She was quite disappointed, as you would expect, and decided that she would get Robidas, the player she came to see play, to sign her Frankfurt jersey again.

The practice was amazing! Robi was the first one out on the ice to start hitting pucks around. The guys were in different coloured training jerseys, according to what line they were assigned. The first line - Jussi Jokinen (Left Wing), Mike Modano (Centre), Jere Lehtinen (Right Wing) were in white. The second line, Brenden Morrow (LW), Jason Arnott (C) and Stu Barnes (RW) were in red. The third line, Niklas Hagman (LW), Niko Kapanen (C) and Antti Miettinen (RW) were in grey and Fourth liners Steve Ott (LW), Jeremy Stevenson (LW), Nathan Perrott (RW) and Jaroslav Svoboda (LW) were in green. The defense guys, Trevor Daley, Jon Klemm, Sergei Zubov, Philippe Boucher, Willie Mitchell, Janne Niinimaa and Stephane Robidas were in black jerseys. Marty Turco and Johan Hedberg were both in net - one either end.

Coaching staff, Dave Tippett (Head Coach), Rick Wilson (Associate Coach), Mark Lamb (Assistant Coach) and Andy Moog (Goaltending Coach) were in Stars tracksuits out on the ice.

They did a lot of different drills and worked really hard for the whole hour. We got a heap of photos of the boys out on the ice and a couple of videos of them skating around doing drills and warming up. The D worked on sliding defense on the ice, the forwards on shooting and plays around the net. The whole team worked on puckhandling, and the power play unit worked longer than the rest of the team, trying out new plays and running them through until after the rest of the team had left the ice.

We met 14 players as they left the building - Jon Klemm, Johan Hedberg (who asked if we were the Australians that they saw on the jumbotron last night?), Marty Turco, Jussi Jokinen, Jason Arnott, Brenden Morrow, Jaroslav Svoboda, Steve Ott (who also asked about us being the Australians), Stephane Robidas (who we said we bumped into at the Mall and he remembered us), Antti Miettinen, Nathan Perrott, Philippe Boucher, Stu Barnes and Jere Lehtinen who we gave a jersey of the Bluetongues with his name and number to. Jere was humbled, surprised and I think a little embarrassed but really pleased to receive his gift. We also gave Jussi a koala and keyring, Marty a keyring and Jason Arnott a box of Arnott’s Tim Tams and explained that we call him “Tim Tam” because we think he’s the greatest and the Tim Tams are the PREMIUM biscuits in Australia - the Best! He said he’d seen them before and wondered what they tasted like. We said he could share them around or keep them - they were his. The guys were very appreciative of their gifts - at least to us anyway.

We didn’t get to see Mike or Zubie but we’ll catch up with them later. We got half the team in one go, so that’s a start.

When we got back to the hotel…AMBER WAS THERE!! We were so happy to see her again after five and a half years since we last got together for our wedding. She’s going to stay with us until Sunday and we hope to be able to sneak down to San Antonio sometime next week between games and meet her folks.

Tonight the three of us went to Denton to hang out with my mate Steve from the Stars forum. We ate Pizza and Buffalo Wings at the Pizza joint he’s the day manager for, and then played pool in a bar a street over. Now…we’re in his apartment and I’m borrowing his computer. He gave us a few presents… Sam was given an autographed Jere Lehtinen hockey stick from Jere’s rookie year, and I got an autographed Mike Modano puck in a frame with a rookie card. We gave Steve a Bodyjar CD, and a gift pack - platypus toy, shotglass, aussie keyring, a Tim Tam, a Caramello Koala and a Violet Crumble.

Tomorrow… we’re hoping to go off to the Zoo before game time! It’s half-price Wednesday at the Fort Worth Zoo! Stars Vs Wild at 7.30pm… but I want to get there around 6pm. The Stanley Cup is in the AAC tomorrow night and we want to get our photo taken with it!

~ Wendy

—

Ok so further to the above, I wanted to just mention how awesome it was to meet Jere Lehtinen! Honestly, what an awesome guy. As Wendy posted above, we met the guys and had them sign our Jokinen jersey. Jere is my sports idol… fave person in all of sportsdom (is that a word?). It was so fantastic meeting him, and seeing his face when we gave him the jersey. I’ve liked Jere for a number of years now and meeting him was very much like a dream come true. I hope to meet him again before we head back home and get him to sign my Rookie card.

~ Sam

We lost. Let’s get that out of the way first. We lost. But the bonus… all goals were in front of us!

Let’s start at the beginning. We got to Jesse’s around 5.30pm and needed to be at the west media gate at 5.50pm - which Jesse got us there only two minutes late. We met Randy, and waited while they shot a couple of small segments, and then met JeffK - who was really personable and easy to get along with.

We did two takes of the small interview, which was really funny. He said, “This is Wendy and Sam, they’re our Stars Fans of the Game and Wendy, when we were talking before, I couldn’t help but notice your accent, where are you from?”

I replied, “I’m from Brisbane, Australia.”

“Really? So it would take a really long time to get to games huh?” he asked, which of course made me laugh.

“About 37 hours, yeah.”

He asked what it was about the Stars that got us into hockey and I said, “Umm Mike Modano.” He laughed and asked Sam if that was the same for him and he said, “No I’m a Jere Lehtinen fan.” And then he asked us to give a big “GO STARS!” which we did. They played it 11 mins into the game. That was really embarrassing.

Anyway after that interview, we met commentator Ralph Strangis who was really, really nice to us and was surprised that we were from Australia and we said we love their commentary and listen to the games over the internet and this is the first time to the US for us and that we only went for Stars hockey. Sam mentioned he was from New Zealand and Ralph said, “Oh so she must like you,” and I replied, “Yeah well I married him because I couldn’t wait for Mike forever, I mean the long distance thing doesn’t work, there’s this big ocean and… you know…” and he grinned and said, “Yeah, of course, I can see that would be a problem.” It was quite amusing.

Ralph asked who was on our jerseys and we said “Modano and Lehtinen.” He said, “Oh Butch and Sundance, nice choice.” I added, “Yeah, we’re like that with almost everything.” The small talk was funny and great and I can’t remember all of it but I have a really lovely memory and impression of him so I’m happy with that.

We then went to see the ice and got some photos of that, and saw Razor up at the booth on section 106, so we walked over to have a chat to him. When Rhonda told him we had come over from Australia, he got up and walked over. He shook our hands saying, “This is where I say ‘Put another shrimp on the barbie huh?’” to which I replied, “It’s a prawn!” with a grin.

He was also surprised to hear that we listened to the games and that we had recorded every game up until the last Kings games and we loved their commentary. We said we thought they were funny and I added that I read his blog, which made him grin and make a smartbutt, wanna-be-modest comment. He also asked who was on our jerseys and we both turned around. Then he asked if it was their commentary that made me go for Mo and I replied, “Uh no, I’ve followed Mike since I was 13.” Razor was great, I really liked him. We told them we were here until April first and going to (at the time) the next five home games. He said he wished he had something to give us, but we said, “Could we get a picture?”

“Yeah, sure come around the tunnel, and we’ll take a picture!” he said, so we walked around to the other entrance to 106 and Sam and I got our picture taken twice with Ralph and Razor, once with and once without the flash. Jesse did the honours. Razor then left to interview Mike, saying to us, “I’m off to interview your guy now!” and Sam called out, “Don’t forget to let him know we’re here!” which he called back, “I won’t!”

Ralph said to us, “I’m at every practice, so just come and see me and I’ll make sure you get to meet the guys, Mo at least.” I said that we’d appreciate that, and we’d definitely see him at the practice because we have a gift for Mike and Jere.

Anyway we then went and sat down in our seats after getting hot dogs and chilli fries to watch warm up. OMG… it was SO AWESOME. I was just sitting there, hugging Jesse going “THERE’S MIKEY!! OH MY GOD.. Look there’s baby daddy,” (Morrow - Jesse’s favourite player) “And Jussi, and Zubie and TIM TAM! Look there’s TIM TAM!! Mmmm he looks GOOD. OH THERE’S MIKEY AGAIN!!” I was in heaven. It was so great.

There were no words when the game started… the lights went down and the Star came down and the smoke machines went off and then… the guys came out! We have about 30 secs on video of it!!! I love our camera! I was screaming so much I don’t have a voice left.

The game was exciting - even though we didn’t win and we didn’t play well. In fact, we had no defense at all and Zubie had a really bad game, as did Niinimaa and Klemm but Lehtinen and Daley had really good games. Mike wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t great either. I jumped out of my seat screaming when Antti Miettinen potted the Stars only goal. The Ducks were just really on their game with their defense. They outplayed us, pure and simple.

Marty let in the first goal, it was awful. It went through his arm, we thought he had it, he thought he had it, but it fell out and went through his arm. The second goal, Niinimaa gave a turnover, and then Klemm didn’t even do much than just poke a stick at it but that didn’t do anything to stop the puck from going in 3 mins left in the game. It was disappointing.

But still the best game of hockey I’ve ever seen in my life!

Afterwards, we met up with Ryan from the forum and his wife and friends, and we went down to the Old No 7 bar and watched the players leave. Mike has a police escort to his car (no smartbutt remarks Muzz). Saw Brenden Morrow’s wife Anne-Marie and their daughter Bryella - she’s so cute. Long blonde curls and a tiny MORROW jersey with 10 on the back. Adorable. We saw Sergei Zubov, Jere Lehtinen, Marty Turco, Brenden Morrow, Bill Guerin, Brett Hull, Niko Kapanen, Stephane Robidas, and of course Mike Modano leaving. It was great. Didn’t talk to them or anything just watched them walk out.

Still… four more games to go. Stars practice tomorrow at noon - 1pm. I can’t wait. I want to get up to Frisco by 11 am. That means I’ll be up at 8.30am. So be it. I can’t wait to see my guys.

*sigh* Good thing this is text, otherwise you wouldn’t hear a thing!

~ Wendy

So we found this wonderful little place in Addison called Dunn Bros Coffee that has free internet access and free computers to use when you buy their coffee. Have I mentioned how much I love Dallas?!?!

So update on the trip so far - Jesse got a shutout on Saturday night but we didn’t go, we went back to Rhonda’s to watch the Red Wings beat the Oilers in a shootout and then the Kings beat the Blues … three games in one night on television. Have I mentioned how much I love Dallas!?!? *GRIN* It’s great here!

Sunday, since the boys won in San Jose, they were given the day off from practice. It didn’t stop us from going to Frisco StarCentre anyway just to have a mooch around and check things out again. We watched the peewee league play on the Stars practice rink - the Dallas Stars unfortunately lost to the Houston Aeros 3-0. We then went back to the Stars Stuff Store and gave in to our temptation and bought 2 jumpers, 3 t-shirts (2 for me and one for Sam), an Olympic puck, a Stars shotglass, 2 foam hands (got to do the stereotypical thing at the games!), a Stars watch for Sam, a Jokinen jersey for the guys to sign that we will frame when we get home, a Stars umbrella, and the piece de resistance…. a Stars Skateboard! I finally got one! I’ve wanted one since they were giving them away with the Christmas tickets on the Stars site. I’m going to ask Mike if he’ll sign it for me since his picture is on the bottom of the skateboard.

The guys at the Stars Stuff Store thought we were hilarious, especially Ben who kept laughing at my accent. I asked what was so funny and he was like, “Nothing, it’s just so cool!” We chatted for about an hour. They looked after our skateboard while we wandered around and went to watch the last few minutes of the other peewee league game, the Aces Vs the Hounds - Hounds won 3-2. Man, the sports parents here are just insane. There was one mother waving a COWBELL… which was fine for all of one minute but then got really annoying. We dropped back into the SSS, said goodbye to the guys and picked up my Skateboard before heading next door to Stonebriar Mall again for something to eat.

And this is where it happened. My first Star Experience.

We went inside at Dick’s Sporting Goods, and up the escalators to the second floor and walked towards the food court. Who is walking the other way with his wife and child, but none other than Stars Defenseman, #3 Stephane Robidas!! OMG it was… exciting, amazing. I don’t know how but I kept my cool. I have a rule. I don’t bug the boys when they’re in their private time. If they’re at the rink, they’re working and fair game. If they’re with their family, I leave them alone. They’re not working and deserve to live their lives as normally as possible. So… Stephane looked at us, and read our jumpers which both said Dallas Stars. I smiled at him and said, “G’day,” and we kept walking. He nodded acknowledgement and gave a small smile, so I think he was grateful that we didn’t bother him while he was with his family. I could see him thinking, ‘are they going to stop me? they’d know who I am…’ but we didn’t.

Anyway I elbowed Sam after he passed and said, “That was Robidas!” (pronounced Roe-bee-dah - he’s French-Canadian) and he said “Who?” because he didn’t hear me, so I repeated, “That was Stephane Robidas! Stars Defenseman!” Sam said, “Ohh I thought I recognised him!” I said “I’d know that nose anywhere, and see I told you I wouldn’t bother them if I saw them on the street!! You didn’t believe me!” Short but sweet. I’ve been on that buzz for the last 24 hours.

Robidas was my first Star. Has a nice ring to it!

Last night we just stayed home and did laundry and fielded phone calls from Rhonda, Chris and Leni. It was good to just stop for a moment and relax. We had steak burgers for dinner, home made in our kitchenette, and watched a couple of movies and tv shows on telly. It was great.

Tonight, its our first Stars Game!!! I’m so excited, because we just got a call from Randy with the Dallas Stars, who said he got an email from JeffK, the Stars Music Director, who said we’d love to be the Stars Fans of the Game and gave him our cell phone number which I’d posted up on the Stars forum because well we’ll only have the phone for two weeks and then it won’t work anymore. Anyway I said, sure we’d love to be! So we’re going to the West Media Entrance at 5.50pm to ask for Randy and he’ll come down and get us and take us up to be interviewed. Jesse has our jerseys from Kelly so we should be dressed up just right!

I’m so … amazed and excited and there are just no words right now. I have butterflies already!! I can’t wait for tonight, it’s going to be AMAZING!

~ Wendy

We finally made it!! 32 hours of travelling - starting in Brisbane (we went to the wrong airport too which was pretty embarrassing but allowed us to get our bags to be gladwrapped for $9 - take THAT drug dealers in baggage claim!) and jumping down to Sydney, then over to LA (LONNNNNNNNG flight) and after a 7 hour (and freezing cold) layover in LA, we finally flew to Dallas.

Oh…my…god. I’ve never seen anything so big in all my life. As we flew in over Dallas… there was nothing but lights to the horizon in every direction. It was spectacular. Rhonda and Jesse met us at the airport, which was fantastic, and we then started the adventure of “Find Wendy & Sam’s Luggage” as it didn’t come off the conveyer belt for C15 where our flight’s luggage was supposed to be. Our bag actually flew in on an earlier flight, so we got into Jesse’s monster truck and drove up to C4, and picked up our bag (I actually hugged our suitcase). While Sam ran back to the car to pick up the ID to get our bag, the guy that was behind the desk told Rhonda and I how much he loved Aussies and kept repeating “Bloody mate” over and over, causing us to be almost on the floor in laughter.

It was too late by then to pick up our rental car, so Jesse drove us all back to our hotel, we checked in and then I took a shower because 37 hours between showers was TOO long. Fresh and ready to go, we then all headed to Rhonda’s house to watch the Stars Vs Kings game. MAN… that was a GREAT game! Not just because we won (4-1!) and Mike got the final goal, but also because it was kind of live, it was on a tv, we were eating Taco Bell, and we were IN DALLAS!! Plus, Pete, I can see what you mean about watching the game without knowing the score now. Still… it was fabulous!

I love my friends. They’re fantastic! We had so much fun with Jesse and Rhonda - Rhonda is as loud as I am when watching it on TV. I bet we’ll be able to hear her from the rafters at the AAC. Anyway we got back to the hotel at 3am.

We got up Friday morning at 9am, and checked out. We took the shuttle to the airport again with our bags and had a really lovely shuttle driver. He was excited to talk to Aussies too. Everyone seems to love them here. The airport had a shuttle from where we got dropped off at Delta to where the rental cars are, and we went to Enterprise where we booked for our car. We were given a PT Cruiser (Exchange PT for CHRYSLER and think Gangsta car!) in red, and we were on our way. Of course we got lost on our way to our hotel that we were moving to for the rest of our stay. Finally there an hour late, checked in and then found our room.

Of course the lock on the door wouldn’t work. Sam had to go back to the front office twice before they gave us a new room. We dumped our bags and ran out the door to meet Leni up at Frisco, but of course we got lost. A guy at a toll booth did a double take when we said “G’day” as we handed over the dollar bill for the toll as we didn’t have any quarters. He said “Did you just say ‘G’Day?’” and we were like, “Yeah.” And he said “My brother lives in Tasmania!” Small world. No, we didn’t know him. HAHA.

We got to Frisco at 2pm, and missed Leni unfortunately. We did go into the StarCentre. OH MY GOD…. I was home. Seriously. I saw the ice where the Stars practice. OH MY GOD… I am home. Yes, I’m repeating myself. I was in reverence silence. We went into the Stars Stuff Store and I almost cried. Jerseys on the walls, tshirts, jumpers, even a BIKINI… which obviously will be staying on the rack. Man there was EVERYTHING there. And I wanted everything too! But we left empty handed. I’ll probably pick up a jersey on Sunday when we go back there.

Stonebriar Mall was our next stop since we hadn’t eaten since midnight the night before when we ate Taco Bell with Jesse and Rhonda. OH man… I though Indooroopilly was big. Oh lord. Stonebriar Mall is a shopaholics dream come true! It’s so huge. We ate and left though because we wanted to get a cell phone and there was no Best Buy at Stonebriar, it was in another mall complex type place up the road. So we went and got a cell phone, which has made our lives a WHOLE lot easier now that we can get in contact with people.

We got lost not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES coming back from Frisco to Dallas. Oh lord. It took us TWO HOURS to get home. Anyway after we got back to the hotel, we called Rhonda, had showers and she arrived for us to go to BILLY BOBS OF TEXAS. Mate… MATE…the place rocked. TOTALLY ROCKED!! Rhonda and Dave came with us, and we just had a total blast. We were ID checked, and then got inside. It was MASSIVE. We almost missed the Rodeo, but Rhonda talked the lady into letting Sam and I get in after they’d closed the gates because we were from Australia and it was the only time we were going to get to see anything like it. That was pretty great of them. We have a couple of photos but I don’t know when we’ll be able to get them uploaded. There’s a computer issue which I’ll get to at the end.

We drank Shiners - Texan beer - and played pool, and ate cheese nachos. We drove DAYTONA video cars and just talked and laughed and took photos and had a fabulous time. It was the best. We got home at 2am.

Today… Saturday, we slept in until 11am. We found a Target and got a couple of Stars t-shirts and jumpers, because man it’s FREEZING here - we thought it would be warmer than it is. We got some makeup for me since i left mine at home by accident, and some food. WOW there’s like NO grocery stores here. We have to find a Wal-Mart. We went to Val’s place to watch the Stars Vs San Jose Sharks game - which was great. Stars won 4-3 in a shootout where Jussi Jokinen was finally stopped, but Mike Modano had a goal, two assists and a shootout goal as well! It was great! We had Pizza for dinner with great people, we’re having a total blast. A TOTAL BLAST!

Tonight, we’re going to watch Jesse play hockey - he’s a goalie - and then tomorrow it’s off to Frisco again.

We don’t have net access at the hotel since we don’t have a net account in the US so we’re basically updating via Internet Cafes and friend’s places. I’m borrowing Val’s net at the moment. So I don’t know how often the updates will be I’m sorry - and of course they’re not as detailed as I was going to do but I’m on a time limit unfortunately.

Anyway I hope to update again soon. Please feel free to leave messages or comments. We’ll reply when we get back on here!
Take care!
~ Wendy

168 days ago we started counting down to when we would arrive in Dallas. And here we are, less than 13 hours from departure time. I have about four things to pack before we’re ready to go, not including my laptop, which I’ll be doing at the end of this post - Thanks Lizzie for the lend of the laptop bag! It’s a gem, and Geoff, I promise it’ll be returned on April 5 in one piece. *GRIN*

Hockey update before we get onto other things - Right Winger Bill Guerin (#13) is currently out on injury. In the game against the Canucks, Billy took a highstick to the right eye, causing him to incur a fractured orbital bone - which is located at the top of the eyesocket. Billy is scheduled for surgery on Thursday (US time) and is expected to be out for a week. Here’s to a speedy recovery Billy!

And onto other things… today was long and fun, but exhausting. I got up at 7am, unable to sleep, and started to pack the suitcase since all the clothes were now dry. Sam got up at 7.45am, and while he cooked breakie, I continued packing. I’m sure I’ve got everything - and whatever I’ve forgotten, we can buy over there. I’ve got the carry on packed - complete with gifts for Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen, Sam’s Finland jersey in case he gets cold, our tickets, and the food, glorious food that we have to declare in LA. I just hope that the Vegemite will be allowed. It’s in tubes instead of jars. We’ll see. No biggie if they’re not. We spent most of the day with our friend who is probably going to be moving to the UK while we’re away. We’ll miss him, and very much enjoyed the 6 or 7 hours we spent with him today!

Our lovely friend, Rhonda, is going to meet us at the airport in Dallas! I can’t wait. It’s going to be great to see her and catch up! After following her to our hotel (I think this is the plan) we’re going to go to her place to watch the Stars play the LA Kings - the game that is playing while we’re actually flying from LA to Dallas ironically. Should be a good game, and one we desperately need to win, if for no other reason than the psychological need to beat them. We’ve lost all except for the first game against the Kings this season, though we should have beaten them in the last game before the Olympic break in February, but we got arrogant when we were in the lead and left our defense in the locker room - and the Kings came back to win by one goal after being down 5-2 at the end of the second. It was downright disgusting the way we played. We need the win in this game!

Anyway enough of my hockey ramblings. Tomorrow is another exciting day. And the next time I post on this blog, we’ll be in the U.S. of A.!! Until then…

~ Wendy