Birthday Trip

^{Outside Marvel Stadium the day after the big win}

It’s my son’s birthday on Thursday and a couple of months ago, I asked him, just in passing, what he thought he’d like to do. He’s fairly predictable and has his routines for the various shops we visit, and the things he likes to buy. I figured he’d want to go to one of his favourite places, buy some footy cards, have a look at Switch games and then have some sushi. These are a few of his favourite things.

Imagine, then, my surprise, when he said he’d like to watch the Crows play at Marvel Stadium. The first problem with his request is that Marvel Stadium is about 800 kilometres from where we live. The second problem is that the game we’d be going to is scheduled the day after work finishes for my wife and I. The third problem is that Marvel Stadium is about 800 kilometres from where we live!

We like to think that we’re fairly balanced with our generosity and that he doesn’t get spoiled as a result of his condition, but I think that as much as we try not to overdo things, he does get a little more leeway because of what we see him going through each day. I told him that I’d consider it and that he probably shouldn’t hold his breath, but did decide that I’d definitely have a chat about this with my wife.

The biggest problem we faced, if we were to embark on such an adventure, was the turn around time from finishing work to the first bounce of the match and the distance we needed to cover. Now, it’s only a 45 - 50 minute flight from home to Melbourne, where Marvel Stadium is located, but I’m not overly inclined to fly. I don’t mind it, but since I had kids, I’ve found my inclination to get onto a plane and travel has waned somewhat. I think this comes more so from the rigmarole of navigating airport security and everything else, which becomes increasingly more difficult and stressful when adding kids to the mix, but then, add in the need to check wheelchairs, borrow airport wheelchairs, and so on, it becomes almost nightmarish.

Our only other options for getting to Melbourne in time were to drive, take a bus or take a train. Like flying, the stress of driving doesn’t entice me, especially since it would’ve been a night drive and I’m not really inclined to be dodging kangaroos looking for a feed on the road in the middle of the night. Hit a big male and your car, and the occupants, are pretty much a write-off. The Overland, the interstate train, is something I’ve always been interested in, but that only travels from home to Melbourne on Thursday’s, which means I would’ve needed two days off work - not a problem, but I’ve already taken a lot due to hospital visitations, his school camp and Friday’s are one of my busiest teaching days, and I really need to be in the classroom for students that day, so bus was the most plausible option. Travel times would be the only real deal breaker.

When you’re over six feet tall, no form of public interstate travel is very appealing, but the coach that services our two states runs a daily and nightly service, so we booked in for the Friday night trip that departed at about 8pm and arrived at 6:30am the following morning. This allowed me the ability to work on Friday, and for us to arrive with enough time to see the football match Saturday afternoon, and if we were really lucky, we’d be able to grab some shut-eye on the trip over.

The Ride Over

The trip over was fun… well, as fun as riding on a bus for 10 hours, overnight, can be. It actually wasn’t all that bad, and the best part was, the kids did get some sleep. My daughter pretty much slept the for the entire ride, which was good, but also had its caveats. I, on the other hand was lucky to get two hours of fitful napping under my belt, so when we arrived in Melbourne and got to the hotel, all she wanted to do was start exploring the new city in which we’d arrived, while all I really wanted to do was curl up in the bed and get some sleep under my belt.

Those of you with children of your own will understand that no matter how tired you are, when your kids are up, so are you! So I sacrificed sleep and we started some exploration. We stayed relatively close to the hotel and found a pretty nice inner-city park that has a really nice little playground where my daughter quickly found her groove. She was very interested in playing a game of ‘The Floor is Lava’ (thanks YouTube!) which was pretty fun and kept her occupied for way longer than I would’ve expected.

^{We found this pretty cool park and had a solid game of ‘The Floor Is Lava’}

It’s been a good while since I’ve travelled interstate on a bus, and I was surprised at how nice a modern coach is. There was a lot more leg room than I remember (way more than a plane, which is probably important as we’re spending a lot more time on board) and the seats were pretty comfortable as well. They still have the incline feature, which I find annoying because it allows the person in front of me to encroach on my space, but I wedged me knees behind the seat in front early, so when they did try to incline (and they did), me knees prevented them from doing so. Jerk move? Maybe, but again, when you’re over six feet in height, regardless of how surprised you are at how much room you have, it’s still valued space, and I see it as mine, so I’ll protect it as my sovereign ground.

We were provided with two refreshment stops along the way. The second was purely for the driver, who has to have two half-hour stops during the trip. He told us that on this second stop, we wouldn’t be awoken and that we could sleep through it if we wanted. The first stop was more of a comfort stop for everyone on board and most people took the opportunity to get off the coach and stretch their legs a little before settling in for the night. At this stop, the person in front of me decided to remain on the bus and at some time during my absence, realised that they could recline their seat, so when I got back on, I could see they’d taken advantage of my not blocking them and had done so. Touché! They’d won that battle. I can’t lie, there was still a good deal of room for my legs, even with the seat in front of me reclined, but I made sure they regretted the decision, giving the seat a good jostle with my legs every hour or so.

There were a further few stops as well as the ones mentioned above because the driver had some passenger pick-ups and drop-offs, but overall, I thought that we made pretty good time and we found ourselves pulling into Melbourne shortly before 7am. I’d be happy to do the bus trip again, especially while my son’s not using the wheelchair full time, and he’s able to ascend and descend the stairs to the bus. It was difficult for him to do this, but not impossible. We were worried about the long hours of inactivity and what that might do for his muscles, but the reality is, sleeping at home is probably worse for him. On the bus ride, he got off the coach twice, so was more active during the night than when he’s sleeping in his bed at home.

Saturday

The purpose for the trip was happening on the day we arrived, which was both good and bad. It was the only event we had planned, which was good because it meant that the rest of the time we were free to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. The downside was that we needed to find activities for the other days. But that’s not much of a downside.

We walked to the hotel from the bus station, dragging our luggage through the streets of Melbourne. We could’ve organised a taxi, but the hotel was less than a kilometre from the station, and I was reluctant to wait when we could’ve walked and been there just as quickly. I didn’t take into account that the walk from station to hotel wasn’t as straightforward as the maps app made it look, so we did get a little lost, but we eventually found our way there and the room we booked was awesome and well worth the money. The extra bonus was we could see Marvel Stadium from the window of our lounge area, so getting there later in the afternoon would be straight forward.

My daughter and I wiled away the afternoon playing on the playground nearby and we also did a few other things including organising some food from the local supermarket. I was able to get a half-an-hour or so laying on the bed to rest, but I think that after a while of so little sleep your body kicks into some sort of maintenance mode and you’re able to run on fumes that you never knew were available until you try, so I was doing okay, and I knew that once we got the the footy game, it’d be easy to forget my tiredness.

^{Completely unrelated image of an upside down house we found near the hotel}

The match was set for a 4:35pm bounce, and we got there relatively early because we needed to find the seats and then get my son’s wheelchair stowed safely at the concierge. We’d managed to organise tickets with the cheer squad and were able to secure seats with them behind the goals. It was a decent place to sit, because as the away team, fans were outnumbered, probably 10 to 1, so it was nice to be safely ensconced with other Crows supporters. The biggest issue with sitting behind the goals is that you’ve got to watch out for the balls that come sailing over into the crowd as the teams kick for goal. This is easily done during the match, because everyone’s watching the same (and only) ball. During the practice sessions for the players before the game, however, it’s another matter entirely. At times, there are up to, maybe, 10 balls flying towards the seats, and while there are nets placed in front of the crowd before the match, stray balls still find their way into the people slowly gathering. At this match, I saw one hit a woman who was sitting a bay over and she spilt her beer all over herself. I didn’t laugh because I was fully aware of how likely it was that the same fate could very easily befall myself, or one of my kids, or my wife.

The cloaking service at the stadium was awesome. They were really polite and more than happy to look after my son’s wheelchair. Way better than at the stadium in Adelaide where he usually watches them play. The stadium itself was really cool also. It has a retractable roof, which was closed so it made the conditions very pleasant.

It proved to be one of the closest games I’ve ever been to, which made it enjoyable, but also nail biting. The Crows hadn’t won a game yet this year, while Carlton, the team they were playing had won every game they’d played. So it was unlikely that the Crows would be victorious. My son really wanted them to win because it was his birthday game, and we’d travelled so far. To give you an idea of how close the game was, the lead changed 15 times and with about 5 minutes to go, the Crows were about 16 points down. It looked like they were down and out. It was pretty grim behind the goal posts as the cheer squad were all drawing the same conclusion. But, from somewhere, they rallied, and 3 goals and 4 minutes later found themselves 2 points up with a minute to go. Now the demeanour behind the goals was distinctly different from just moments earlier and the fans on either side were going nuts. It was absolutely thrilling and my words aren’t doing the atmosphere any justice at all.

A Carlton player missed a goal and the Crows managed to hold on for a 2 point win which sent my son into peals of joy for about 10 seconds before his emotions overwhelmed him and he broke down into tears. I think the culmination of the bus ride, the tiredness and the closeness of the game, and the victory all got the better of him. They were tears of joy, but he was exhausted. Happy, but exhausted.

More To Come

If we were only staying for that day to witness that match, it would have been thoroughly worth it, but we booked ourselves in to stay for a week. It was kind of because that was how long before a train was departing for Adelaide but also kind of because we don’t know how long we’ll be able to do these sorts of trips for. As Dominic loses the ability to walk without assistance, it’s likely that these sorts of trips will become more difficult, so we’ll take advantage of what we have now, while we can, and enjoy it as much as possible.

I’m finally finishing this post a few days after I started writing it, so his birthday has already been and gone, and we’re now nearly ready to depart Melbourne, but it’s been great. Dominic has worn his Crows top every day, and he’s still getting comments about the game wherever we go.

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