The Hlog

Blowout Before the Iowa-Iowa State Game

Never, ever, ever would I try to convince actual working people who make the world go round that the sportswriter's life is difficult. 

1. Most people do work hard in this life.
2. Sportswriters' lives are not difficult. You go to games, you write stories about sports - it's every bit the Peter Pan sham outsiders are sure it must be.

But it does require travel, and in Iowa, that means occasional hazardous adventures in winter. Saturday, on the way to the Iowa-Iowa State men's basketball in Ames, the car sportswriter Jim Ecker piloted to get yours truly to Hilton had a tire blow out 15 miles east of Ames on Highway 30. So we pulled over, in the snow. And 30 seconds later, a man pulled up behind us to ask if we needed help. I didn't even have time to turn on my cell phone to call someone for assistance, who probably would have shown up an hour later.

This gentleman agreed to drive us to the front door of Hilton Coliseum. On the way, he started a little conversation, asking us why we were going to the game and so forth. We told him we were from Cedar Rapids, and he said he was originally from Los Angeles, but had lived in Cedar Rapids for a couple years. "Well, I was incarcerated there," he said.

"Do they still have the fireworks show (on the Fourth of July)? That was nice. Everybody getting together downtown for that ... I watched it from my cell window." The Linn County Jail is on an island in the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids.

He had a Bible on his dashboard. He provided a great kindness for two strangers. And he balked at taking payment for his help. I don't know what the guy did once upon a time to land in the lockup, but he must have experienced some sort of personal rehabilitation. Good for him.

Ecker arranged for the car to get towed to Ames while we were at Hilton, and we went to a service station to pick it up and head home Saturday night. Because of his doughnut of a spare tire and the poor driving conditions on Highway 30 from snow, we couldn't go over 40 mph during the 100-mile trip home. But it didn't seem so bad, knowing it would have been a much worse day if that guy hadn't chosen to help us late that morning.

Of course, I wasn't the one who had to do the driving.

By the way, it's not like the game was so good that it was all worth the aggravation. Iowa State's 56-47 win over Iowa wasn't good at all, artistically. But this is a night to be grateful, not gnarly. Tomorrow, however, is another day.
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