The following is a blog from Wildcat assistant coach Kelly Kielsmeier on Day 4 (Thursday) of his experience in Brazil representing USA D-2 Women's Basketball. The team is 2-0 on the tour so far and Kelly's blog is about a travel day for the team. Team USA plays Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Brazil Time against Mangueira in Rio de Janeiro.
Day 4 seemed liked any other Northern Sun travel day. We woke around around 7:30 a.m. loaded the bus and then went to breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast has been your typical carb loading meal. All kinds of different breads and rolls. I guess even chocolate cake falls in this category also for breakfast!
Once we loaded the bus I remember thinking it was going to be a nice easy trip and should be about the same distance as Wayne to Mankato. But then I realized Brazil is in the winter months right now. So who knows what can happen.
We are traveling and it gets to be about noon so they pull the bus over for us to eat at there version of a truck stop. Well right next door is a McDonald's. I'm not a huge fan of McDonald's but I'm excited to know something about what I am eating. I thought it was going to be easy going to McDonald's. Just point at the chicken nuggets and order a coke. Walk in... no chicken nuggets. So I order a burger and try hard to get the lady to understand no onions or mustard. Needless to say, I failed! It was full of mustard and onions.
So we get back on the road and think okay just a couple of hours left, be there in no time at all. We drove through some beautiful country, but the roads became really hilly and curvy. If any of you have traveled from Winona to Fayette you will understand what I am talking about, just think way more than that. So that slowed us down a lot, but it was worth it seeing the beautiful country side.
When we got to Rio we hit traffic worse than what you would see in MSP. Good thing was if you were hungry all you had to do was roll your window down and buy food. People were walking up and down the slow moving traffic selling different food items.
On our way to the hotel we are about three or four miles away and our bus blows the back tire. Lucky for us it was the back tire because there was nowhere to stop. So what was supposed to be a bus ride to Mankato turn into a bus ride to Duluth. I think it took us almost 7.5 hours to get to the hotel. The trip was not what I expected, but I saw a lot of neat things and definitely created some unique memories.
We got all checked into the hotel had some free time before we ate so everyone headed to the beach to walk around. The water was really cold and it started to rain. So the beach got cleared out pretty quick, but the rain didn't stop the street vendors. You can buy just about anything from the street vendors even sweet corn with different toppings. I was not brave enough to try it. When we were walking around I was surprised by all of the restaurants and huts playing American music. It was mainly 80' and 90's music mixed with a little Miley Cyrus.
It was a great day experiencing new things. I am really excited to see what this group is going to learn over the next few days!
