The Gophers softball team was flying to the Tampa Bay area on Feb. 7, with two games scheduled the next day to start the Division I Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Fla.
The Delta flight ran into major turbulence as it neared the Florida border, the passengers rocked and rolled for a time, and the plane eventually was diverted to Melbourne, Fla. The Gophers spent the night in a hotel there, had a noon game moved to 6 p.m. and the adventure was started:
Twenty-nine nonconference games scheduled in Florida (two Clearwater tournaments), Alabama, Texas, California and Hawaii, capped by a return flight from Honolulu that reached home last Saturday.
It was an amazing bookend of travel:
The first flight of the season brought tears to several collegians who had never experienced such uncertainty in the air, and the last flight brought them home from waves splashing on Waikiki Beach to an uncertainty that not even us septuagenarians have experienced.
"We got to Honolulu on Sunday night, had a beach day on Monday, visited Pearl Harbor — which was very meaningful — on Tuesday,'' pitcher Amber Fiser said. "Our first game was against Hawaii on Wednesday night, which was after midnight in Minnesota.
"[Coach Jamie Trachsel] was keeping us up to date on the way things were changing back home, but you're out there in paradise, playing a game, and it's hard to imagine your season is going to be stopped.''
The last pitch Fiser threw as a senior was bounced to shortstop Carlie Brandt, another senior, for an out, and a 3-2 victory for the Gophers.