The View From Afar

A group of Dartmouth football players studying this winter in Barcelona recently made an all-day hike through the mountains to a small town where they were welcomed by the mayor and enjoyed a traditional Catalonian dinner. Pictured are (top row, left to right): Receiver Ed von Kuhn, defensive back Phil Schmidt, receiver Joe Dowdell, defensive end Robbie Rodriguez, tight end Luke Dornak and tight end Dean Bakes. Bottom row (left to right) tailback John Higgins, linebacker Bronson Green, receiver Peter Calvanelli, receiver Austin Katigan and punter Dan Barstein.

(Thanks for the photo and the note – and keep them coming ;-)

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I had to work up my "away-game" mileage from the fall this week as I pull together my expenses (If you don't recognize the acronym FAFSA, good for you.) In case you are wondering why the schedule is being switched around, here's how the road trips totaled up two years ago and last year, and what they look like for the coming fall:

2010 – 4,408 miles (no New England road games)
2011 – 1,802 miles (all New England road games)
2012 (projected) - 2,476 miles (two New England)

Having games at Yale and Holy Cross replace the traditional "even-year" games at Penn and Colgate next year means 1,932 fewer miles on the bus for the players.

Any wonder why the schedule is being reworked?

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A little disappointing last night that the temperature bottomed out here on the mountain at 7-below. I thought it was going to get cold.

Nothing to brag about from last night, which is what you do in these parts when it gets really cold. At least it got to double digits in Lebanon (10.3 below) but even that pales compared to the 24.9 below we had for several nights a few years ago. Actually, it got colder than that but the lithium batteries in our thermometer always punked out at 24.9, so we don't know how much colder it got.