Miles and Miles

There are times when living in a small town is really sweet. Such is the case each year when the annual Muster Day Celebration is held on Memorial Day in Hanover Center, a rural village 15 minutes from downtown Hanover. Here the Boy Scout troop prepares to present the flag.

It's the same basic ceremony each year. The high school band plays patriotic songs. There is an invocation followed by a reading of the Gettysburg Address by children from the town elementary school. A local veteran gives a short speech after which everyone walks to the nearby cemetery where flags on the graves of veterans are replaced by the scouts and other young children. After a prayer, Taps is played by two trumpeters, one in the cemetery and one who echoes the first from out of site. It is a moving ceremony that gets to the heart of what the day is about, and culminates with an old-fashioned barbecue in front of the village church for the 100 or 150 people who turn out each year.

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Yesterday's blog offered up the 2010 schedules for all 10 Dartmouth football opponents this fall. You may have noticed that one year after playing every road game in New England, the Big Green doesn't have a single game in the region this fall. Here are the road trips with round-trip mileage from Yahoo:

Dartmouth 2010 Road Games (round-trip mileage)
at Bucknell 858 miles
at Penn 724 miles
at Columbia 536 miles
at Cornell 650 miles
at Princeton 640 miles
Total: 3,408 miles

2009 Road Games (round-trip mileage)
at UNH 202 miles
at Yale 382 miles
at Holy Cross 298 miles
at Harvard 250 miles
at Brown 352 miles
Total: 1,484 miles

Difference: 1,924 miles.

Editor's Note: Factor in five overnights (probably six with two for Bucknell) for That Certain Big Green Alert Guy and it's going to be a taxing year. Your subscriptions once the new cycle begins will be greatly appreciated. ;^)

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The Dartmouth baseball team will be playing in the NCAA Regionals Friday at Miami with the first pitch at 4 p.m. The game will be carried on ESPNU. Find a Dartmouth release here.

Among those who will be cheering the Big Green on in person will be Matt Whalen, son of Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen. Matt deserves a mention after tossing a no-hitter last evening for our Hanover Green Machine Little League team. Nicknamed "Dart," by his teammates, Matt struck out the final 11 batters he faced.