You may remember Ryan Phalen as the winner of the fourth annual Runway Challenge football picks contest this past fall. He actually took me up on my offer to take over the blog for a day. I am planning to run the challenge again this season, and am looking into the possibility of a cash prize or gift card from a sponsor, if that's something you might be interested in.

Anyway, Ryan has been working tirelessly to organize a bus trip from Connecticut to Michigan for the Huskies' season opener on Sept. 4. (I am reminded of "The Simpsons" episode where Homer organizes a bus trip to the Super Bowl...but don't worry about counterfeit tickets being printed on crackers. You have to get those on your own.) The trip has been quite a big hit, and there's now a second bus that will make a stop in North Haven to pick up anyone from the Greater New Haven area. Ryan also has a block of hotel rooms, with some remaining. He emailed me the details this morning, and are as follows:

Chip-

As a follow-up to my blog post a few months back, I’ve been meaning to send you information on my Michigan bus trip and hotel info. We have two buses, with one bus that will be stopping in North Haven (at the Exit 10 commuter lot off I-91). The first bus will stop in Torrington and Waterbury (I will be on this one) and the second bus will stop in Simsbury, Manchester, and North Haven (a very good UConn friend of mine will be running this one).

The buses will have the following itineraries on Friday, Sept 3rd:
Torrington-Waterbury: Torrington at 6am; Waterbury 6:30am
Simsbury-Manchester-North Haven: Simsbury 5:15am; Manchester 5:45am; North Haven 6:30-6:45am

For those that have seen my posts elsewhere, the Four Points is totally sold out (55 rooms! Way to go UConn), but I still have 8 rooms available (for bus people only at the moment) at the Holiday Inn Near U of M for $139/night plus tax for the two nights (about $300 total when I booked it). Also, if anyone wants to share rooms to keep the cost down let me know- I have a few singles that asked if anyone else wanted to split a room.

Both buses will arrive in Ann Arbor around 7 p.m., stopping first at the Four Points and then at the Holiday Inn. The bus will take us to the game around 11-11:30am so we can tailgate (food included! Location TBD), to the hotel after the game, and then back to CT on Sunday morning arriving in CT between 7 and 9pm.

If anyone wants to join a bus please let me know as soon as possible- payment ($150/pp) is due in the next week or so (August 15th at the absolute latest) in order for me to make the final payment on the buses. Also please note that this does not include tickets- people will have to grab their own from UConnHuskies.com. Right now I have 60 people spread across two 56-person buses- come join the largest UConn contingent on the road!

Thanks Chip! Look forward to seeing you out there.

Ryan Phalen
Phalen@ironwoodcap.com