After five nights in San Antonio it’s now time to head to Cleveland.
Travel is never easy during the NBA Finals, especially after having a late game and an early flight.
So here is the rundown of our adventure to get to Cleveland (All times central):
10:30 p.m. - Final horn blows as the Spurs win 103-92 to take a 2-0 series lead against the Cavaliers.
11:30 p.m. - NBA managing editor Mary Ciecek and I finish the edit about an hour after the game ends. The total tally for the night was 4,457 images ingested from Lisa and Ronald. We ended up sending 134 pictures in just over three hours. Pretty impressive!
12:15 a.m. – After helping the photographers pack all their gear (remotes, cameras, lenses, etc.) and packing our equipment as well we do one last walk-through to make sure we have taken down all the necessary equipment for our trip to Cleveland. Some of the gear we will be taking with us on the plane and some of it will be shipped via FedEx.
12:30 a.m. - We say our goodbyes to our field IT specialist Bob Covington who is heading to Vancouver for a technology walk-through for the 2010 Olympic winter games. He will meet us again in San Antonio if there is a game 6. DJ Maria will be meeting us in Cleveland to take over for Bob and provide on-site IT support.
12:45 a.m. – We exit the AT&T Center and head to our hotel to finish packing and shower. We decided early on that we wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight because of the late finish to the game and our 7:05 a.m. flight to Cleveland
1:30 a.m. – We check out of the Marriott Rivercenter and Lisa, Ronald and myself head over to the house of Ed Ornelas., a photographer for the San Antonio Express News and the longtime best friend of Ronald. Ed came through with recording the series finale of The Sopranos and we can’t wait to see if Tony Soprano can make it through the episode alive. With everyone having their different theories on how the show should end we all can’t wait to see what they came up with.

2:15 a.m. – After starting a couple loads of laundry and eating some pizza we finally get to start the Sopranos.
3:24 a.m. – What the heck was that? We all seem a little stunned or should I say saddened at the series finale of the Sopranos. After watching the show since its inception, I wanted more of a conclusion. However, seeing Phil Leotardo get whacked was a great scene. I’m sad the show is over.
4:15 a.m. – The last load of laundry finishes and we begin repacking our bags back up and start to load up the car.
4:45 a.m. – We thought fitting four people’s luggage into a Ford Explorer would be no problem but after seeing that we had 15 bags between the four of us the car was completely full. Minus Lisa – who was driving – we each had two bags on our laps. Luckily the airport was close.

That’s me crammed in the car with the luggage.
5:15 a.m. – We arrive at the airport and see cars backed up and realized the airport is crowded already and the sun still isn’t even close to coming out. It takes Ronald and I nearly an hour to check our bags and 35 minutes to crawl through security.
6:55 a.m. – We finally make it through the security line with no time to spare and head for the gate. We are practically the last people on the plane but lucked out and both avoided the dreaded middle seats.
6:58 a.m. – As we walk onto the Southwest plane we notice a bag in the front row of the aircraft. It’s the Larry O Brien trophy given to the NBA Champion. The trophy has its own seat in the first row of the plane.
7:05 a.m. – Our plane finally takes off and we are finally able to get a few hours sleep before heading directly to the Quicken Loans Arena to setup remotes and check the wiring on the internet.

Ronald takes advantage of the time in the air and catches a quick nap.