On the Road with the Sky - June 6, @ Atlanta

Hey, Sky fans! Welcome to On the Road with the Sky! I�m Ronnie, the Sky�s public relations manager, and I�ll be blogging this season about one of the best parts of my job: travelling with the team to all the away games. I�ll keep you posted on the team�s �life� away from home, and I promise you won�t be disappointed. You�ll get to see a side of the players that few rarely do, and they are guaranteed to entertain you.

Road Trip 2 - Atlanta

Thursday June 5, 2008
Today marks our first trip ever to Atlanta to take on the newest WNBA franchise, the Dream. The team has been looking forward to getting to the south, and enjoying some HOT, HOT weather, and well, it hit us as soon as we landed and stepped off the plane. Since some of our girls are from the South, including Armintie, Quianna, Chasity and Jia, they knew exactly what to expect. As Armintie put it, �It�s like hell heat down here.� Just take my word for it, it was extremely hot. After we made it to the hotel, Chas mentioned the Celtics-Lakers game, so we all invited ourselves to her room to watch. The rule of the night was that you could only join the viewing party if you were cheering for Boston, and we all were. So we ordered dessert from room service and watched Boston win game one of the NBA Finals, then called it a night.

Friday June 6, 2008
Game day! We had shoot-around at 11:00 a.m. at Phillips Arena. Atlanta is the birth place of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., so I did some research, figured out how to get us to the National MLK Museum and then mentioned that I was heading out to see it -- and several players signed on to my adventure. However, I �accidently� forgot to mention one part of the adventure -- that we were taking the Marta train! The group included KB Sharp, Quianna Chaney, Cathy Joens and our assistant coach, Michael Mitchell. We ride the �El� in Chicago and can appreciate its convenience, but the Marta trains in Atlanta put the �El� to shame. I�ll just say this, there were TV�s in all the trains.

The museum was amazing!! The first landmark we saw was the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church which was closed for renovations. However, to be at the entrance of the church where Dr. King served as co-pastor with his father, and where the Southern Christian Leadership Conference would meet to plan civil rights strategies was an awesome feeling for all of us. I could go on and on with the history we learned about the church during the visit, but I�ll move on. We read some literature and watched several videos, and were mesmerized by the strength and determination of Dr. King. The highlight of our visit was definitely seeing the gravesite of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, along with the eternal burning flame. The trip was definitely worth it, even if we were walking around in 103 degree weather.

We then made our way back to the hotel, to get game ready. Headed back to Phillips Arena and walked away with our second win of the season. The team was in high spirits after the game, but it was going to be short lived, because as soon as the celebrations began, we were reminded that tomorrow�s bus to the airport would be leaving the hotel at 5:30 a.m. for the return trip home to play Atlanta again on Saturday.

Saturday June 7, 2008
Like I said, 5:30 a.m. bus ride, which meant an airport gate full of players trying to catch some shut eye!! It was hard to believe that we were flying back to Chicago to play the Dream again that night, but we did, and we won. I was one tired girl Saturday night, can�t imagine having had to play 40 minutes of basketball two nights in a row.

Sunday June 8, 2008
I know we aren�t on the road but I wanted to share a bonus story. Sky guard Jia Perkins threw a birthday party for her daughter Aalirah at Chuck E. Cheese today. The only people in Chicago she knows are her closest friends and teammates, so Lirah had a table full of WNBA players eating pizza and drinking soda. There was absolutely no way the team would miss Jia�s party. The best part is that the players were having just as much fun as the kids. Check out the party video!

Click here to view Ronnie's video blog