Our Columbus NCAA Tourney Trip (Day 1)

Last night after the show Roser and I left Memphis to head to Columbus for the first round of the NCAA tournament.  We made it almost all the way to Louisville before we got tired and had to pull off and get a hotel.  We ending up stopping and getting a hotel in Elizabethtown, KY - where we saw nobody that looked remotely like Orlando Bloom.  When choosing our hotel we weighed the risk of getting murdered vs. price.  We thought the Motel 6 attached to a Shoney's had a ratio that favored murder so we picked the La Quinta (which was $80 with my AAA card and seemed like low chance of being murdered). 
At the front desk the lady told me 3 times that if we smoked in the room there would be a $250 fine added to our charge.  She then handed me the keys to the room which had a warning on the little envelope that said if we smoked in the room there would be a $250 fine.  We got into the room and there were no less than 5 signs or warnings about smoking in the room.  It was incredibly weird.  Smoking in the rooms at La Qunta in Elizabethtown is a very serious issue that will be dealt with in a serious manner.

We drove to Columbus this morning and checked into the media hotel (which is the Hyatt Regency).  The hotel is super nice but there are a million high school kids here for some "future business leaders" conference.  I hate these nerds because we are on the 17th floor and it takes an hour when we want to get to and from the room.  The elevator stops on every floor and these nerds just keep piling in .  One of the nerds farted in the elevator and almost ruined my day.

Columbus is a really cool city from what I've seen so far.  The arena is nice, everything is centrally located downtown, and they have a bunch of cool bars and restaurants.  We went the Josh Pastner press conference and he charmed every media member in the place.  When you see media members that have never seen him in action before you remember how different he is (in terms of how happy and nice he is to everyone).  The team looked really loose but who knows what that means.  I guess we will know after we see them play.  I think they will beat St. Louis because their athletes will be able to swarm defensively and turn it into easy buckets on other end.