Chicky's Trip to Charlotte

[chicky9914]

The bus ride with Meika...we left Friday approximately 10pm immediately following the Men's Basketball game

On the bus with Craig

Craig was entertaining me with his funny face making

"This is your captain speaking"...Brian led us in karaoke! (I performed to Michael Jackson at some point)

At some convenience store around 2am...we drove the whole night and slept on the bus.  

We arrived in Charlotte around 7 with about about an hour to check into our rooms and get dressed in uniform.

This was when we first arrived at the stadium

Amarri Jackson was out there warming up

All dressed up and ready to go with Julie!

I was sooo excited to be out there cheering for the Bulls, having lived in the Bay area my entire life.

Cheering some more!

"Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun!!!"

We did standing ripple back tucks before half-time, always a crowd favorite. We tried to keep the energy high!

Leading the crowd with an A-frame pyramid

My stunt group for the game starring Julie Kimmel as our flyer, Rita Irving as backspot, and Jenilee Shaw as the other base

My lovely teamates did a heck of a job cheering!

Eric threw me up in the air yay!

Eric and Julie outside the stadium after the game

ok I'm tired....I will finish this photo expose in the morning!!

[Guest]

Chicky, great photos. It was nice to meet you after the game. Hope your New Year's Eve celebration was fun!  See you at basketball games!

[RHBullsFan]

great pics, thanks for sharing

[chicky9914]

And the photo expose continues...

Ya know, the Bank of America Stadium was really nice...even though I detest the Carolina Panthers!!

So after the game we're waiting outside the stadium for our bus and this really drunk NC State fan wanted his picture with us...so I figured "what the heck!"

These are the USF OG cheerleaders...original gangstas...well close enough. They are all old. Marko actually is actually a member of the BullsPen too.

Now this guy has GOT to be a Bullbacker! I called him "Santa Bull" though

After the game, my team was REALLY hungry.  If you know cheerleaders, you KNOW we love to eat and have excellent appetites

Even I, Jenna Mitcheson, had BBQ...this is Light Blue, from Coed, aka Eric Cribb.  Poor Eric tore his ACL about 2 months ago in practice...he still came to Charlotte to support the team! Sooo awesome!

So after eating some really yummy BBQ (I wish I remember the name of the place cuz it was good!) We went back to our hotel.  For me, it meant a nice, long, hot shower and a big cup of coffee.  After a nice, REALLY long lecture from Kocha (sp?) the guy who basically is in charge of us under the athletic marketing department, we hit up the streets of Charlotte!

So we start walking and we see all these people crowded on a street corner with Indian people pounding at drums and shaking tamberines!  They looked like they were having so much fun!

So I decided to join in...can you find me??

The people were handing out flyers on Krshna and all that jazz...the guy let me beat on his drums.

Then I presumed to have a dance off with some boy in the street...Cocha told us not to do ANYTHING that would embarrass the school...I hope this made him proud cuz I was 100% sober, as were all my teammates

Look who I ran into, roaming the streets of Charlotte...USF's QB, my friend Pat Julmiste.  So what if he had a bad game...still love em.

Look who else I ran into! Mike Jenkins and Andre Hall! Charlotte was really starting to feel like home in Tampa!

I got so excited when I found my friend Tyler!  If you look closely, you'll see me proud holding my Krshna flyer from the nice Indian people.  I figured since I didn't have time to buy David a souvineer, it would suffice...I ended up losing it  :-/

After a while we got a little bored with the Indian dancing...so we all searched for something to do but with so many of us underage kids, we didn't find much So we just took pictures.

After not finding much to do, we all kinda split.  Some went to grab food, some took a cab back to the hotel, and others that were 21 decided to check out some of the bars.  I wandered off with Julian, Tyler, and Niles. Julian and Tyler were adament about showing those NC State fans who REALLY owned Charlotte!

Life's not easy when you're 5 months shy of your 21st birthday, which was the case for both Tyler and I.  Nonetheless, this began our quest of finding an appropriate party place so we could hang out with our friends while they got something to drink.  

I got a phone call from my friend Ryan...she told me that she, along with a gazillion members of the Student Bulls Club were at some Tex Mex place by the ice skating rink.  It was pretty empty, but they were all having a good time.  We decided to hit the place up.

Pablo, the bartender, became everyone's hero that night.  He was ringing bells and singing Mexican songs, and most of all, he provided ample beverages for all.

Watch out, Niles! Julian's popping the cork! ahhh

Thanks to Pablo the Bartender, the spirit was high and the mood was festive...

Tyrell here got kicked out the stadium...in a drunken stupor he climbed into some NC State fans' suite and threatened to "rip all of their eyeballs out" among other obscenities and explicit gestures.  A USF alum and resident of DC, he's made appearences on several road games and could become a force to rekon with at USF athletic events in the next few years.

"OMG! It's 11:50....we have 10 minutes to get to the countdown for fireworks! How are we ever going to make it?!"

We found a small mechanical horsie in the corner of the bar, and being the sober one of the group, I proceeded to tell Ryan to hop on!  We named our horsie "El Caballo"...we needed transportation FAST!

We picked up some more hitch-hikers on the way...this made El Caballo muy consado, and he didn't want to gallop anymore.

El Caballo started getting a little frisky and misbehaving...we had to let him go and fend for ourselves.

Somehow some members of our group didn't get the memo about the city's open container policy...I took a picture to commemorate this display of civil disobedience!!

We made it by about 12:05...Happy New Year!!

There were so many people downtown!!  Ryan and I ended up getting lost and we pretty much lost EVERYONE.  She was intoxicated and needed to pee and I was trying to call my boyfriend to wish him a Happy New Year.

With just about everyone in the city on their cell phones, I couldn't get service, so I settled on blowing him a kiss instead...I was sure it'd make its way to Tallahassee!

Look who Ryan and I ran into next....SG president and vice president!  I knew we recognized them from somewhere!

So both Ryan and I had to be back on our buses at 1AM and we had no clue how the heck to get back to the Convention Center.  She made it back to her bus, but I didn't.  I ended up running into 2 of my teammates on coed, Bernie and Emily, along with some of the wonderful Beef Studs!  Emily and Bernie missed the bus too, and the boys weren't about to let us standing in the cold trying to flag down a cab by ourselves, so we went back to their hotel and hung out while trying to get ahold of a cab!  The walk was long and the Days Inn was in the absolute ghetto...thank goodness for hot chocolate though...kept me occuppied on that scary walk.

These boys are crazy!!!

We started jammin out to the USF fight song! haha

Being silly!

OMG I'm a Beef Stud!

Some stuff just seems to make sense at 2 AM??

Rock on Bulls!

Can ya tell I'm starting to get tired here?  We finally got ahold of a cab company and there got there pretty quick.  The boys walked us outside the hotel and tipped the driver for us...so nice!

In commemoration of my first cab ride ever

Our cab driver was a nice little man with a Haitian accent

The guys in the cab were so stoked that they were in a cab with USF cheerleaders...

That was my New Years...got to bed around 3 AM. Now for the ride home...

Slept for most of the ride home.  We did stop in South Carolina at KFC and McDonalds...

We're on our way home!!

Somehow us cheerleaders never tire of stunting!  Meika and Eric at McDonalds in South Carolina!

---------------------------THE END---------------------------------

[BigEastBeasts]

Awesome pics.........looks like you kids partied it up right!!!!

Do you by chance know of a girl with the last name Giaccone on the squad? Just curious cause I play on the same hockey team as her dad.

[chicky9914]

Thanks...sure do, Kim Giaccone...she's on coed.  Very good cheerleader! I've known her since I was a junior in high school. We cheered together on the same allstar team

[USFFan]

I was on the same plane with "Santa Bull" from Tampa to Charlotte (including the layover in Atlanta).  That guy wore the helmet and Bull horns on both planes.

USFFan

[The_Reaper]

You guys were at the Days also? So were we, Rm 225. But there were parties all over that hotel.

[chicky9914]

I wasn't staying there, but my friends were

[alau255]

wow those pics remind me of a great time with pablo...these people on the board will enjoy the pics but will never know the story behind that mechanical horse...next time plug it in!! lol