Road Trip From Hell. Three bus loads of loyal Mystics fans got much more (or, actually, much less) than they bargained for on Wednesday on a Mystics-sponsored bus trip from DC to New York for the All-Star Game. Here's how one fan recounted the story to the BasketCases:

"There were 3 buses that left the Verizon Center at 12:30 PM for the trip to NYC. One of the buses had a mechanical failure on the highway just before Aberdeen Maryland, the 2 other buses waited about an hour on the side of the road while the bus drivers tried to fix the bus to continue the trip to NYC. After tinkering and not being able to fix the broken down bus for an hour, the Bus Drivers decided to send the broken bus back to the garage. The passengers on the broken bus were loaded onto the other 2 buses for a short trip to the Maryland Road House, where we stayed for another 1 1/2 hours until the repair bus came back to pick up its passengers. The Mystics Fans arrived at Madison Square Garden just after 7:30 PM. By the time we got to our seats it was the start of the 2nd Period. (We missed the entire 1st Period.) Yep it took us 7 hrs to get to NYC.

The Game ended shortly after 9:00 PM. The Mystics Fans gathered at the corner of 34th and 7th Avenue for an hour until the Buses picked us up for the return ride to DC. The return trip included 2 Stops, 1 at a Rest Stop and another at a Truck/Bus Gasoline Station. The Buses arrived back at the Verizon Center at 3:45 AM Thursday Morning. Yep 6 3/4 hrs after the end of the All Star Game."

That awful story just speaks for itself. To add insult to injury, because they missed the first quarter of the ASG, the bus passengers missed Alana Beard scoring the first 4 points of the game for the Eastern Conference. It was a terrific gesture for the Mystics to have arranged this trip, and we're sure everyone in the front office feels terrible about what happened. The BasketCases hope the fans on those buses are given something really meaningful as compensation (like a chunk of their $$ back, and their own personal videotape of the game, so they can see what they missed). The Mystics are sponsoring another bus trip to New York in August, for a Liberty game. The BasketCases recommend Amtrak instead.