Sechler column: Car full of fans heads north

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, December 1, 2009

By Drew Sechler
Salisbury Post
The first day of our quest to Fargo, N.D., for the American Legion World Series is now a day old after leaving Salisbury a little after 11 a.m. Wednesday and arriving in Sellersburg, Ind., that evening (just outside of Louisville, Ky.).
I am making the once-in-a- lifetime trek with longtime Rowan Legion fan Jenny Fox, die-hard fan (and cousin) Brent Yost and left fielder Russell Michalec’s grandmother, Genny Reed.
We all know each other very well through the season and the past seasons, so it’s not like I’m riding with strangers. The first part of our journey took us through the mountains of North Carolina heading west on interstate 40, taking us through Knoxville, Tenn. From Knoxville we headed north to Lexington, Ky.
It’s interesting to see a part of the country you’ve never seen before and I know that over the next day or so, I will definitely get to see some country that I’ve never before seen.
I know it sounds cliched to say “once in a lifetime,” but this trip truly is once in a lifetime. I may never get to make it to another Legion World Series in my lifetime and Rowan is not guaranteed another trip back.
I’ve been a pretty avid ósome might say religious óRowan County American Legion baseball fan for the past four years or so, so the decision to make the trip to Fargo wasn’t an easy one but I never had any doubts about wanting to go. At first of course, there was talk of getting together a fan-chartered bus, but with little time to plan and lack of commitments, the bus ended up not being an option.
Plane tickets to Fargo were outrageously pricey, so many of the parents and fans just decided to just drive and take their time getting to Fargo to watch their Rowan boys of summer continue this magical ride.
So with a long day of traveling ahead of me today, I sign off for now, and should report on my Trek to Fargo from Minneapolis, Minn.
Drew Sechler has been a summer intern at the Salisbury Post.