Labor Day Weekend

One of the key factors of traveling for 3 months is figuring out how to still stay in touch with loved ones back home. Of course, we call and text daily. But, this Blog entry is about supporting Sean's family as Maxx has a hockey tournament this weekend. Maxx plays on an twelve-and-under AA-Competitive Team out of Dublin, Calif. called the Tri-Valley Bulls. Susan and I try to attend most of Maxx's hockey games. We've traveled south to Los Angeles and east to Stockton and Reno just to see Maxx's team play. This particular tournament is being held at the Sharks Ice Center in San Jose. This is an amazing ice hockey complex and they actually have 6 full-size hockey rinks!

But when we can't be there, we are most likely able to view Maxx's game live on a closed-circuit feed! The company that does this is LiveBarn and they have placed unmanned web cameras on just about every hockey rink in the country! These cameras use AI to determine where the puck is and then pan left/right and zoom in/out as needed! It works pretty well! We pay $16.95 a month (for just the months that Maxx is playing hockey) and are able to see every one of Maxx's games in Hi-Def! This includes the game that Maxx had on Saturday and Sunday, and the two games that Maxx had today, Labor Day.

The first game today was at 8:30 AM pacific time, so, 11:30 AM for us in Ohio. We were driving to the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, but Susan was able to watch the game on my tablet using my cell phone as a hotspot. Susan gave me the play-by-play the whole way.

Some screen-shots off of the tablet. Maxx is in the white jersey and is #80. In both screenshots he is the farthest white-jersey player to the left (playing defense.)

So, how did Maxx's team do? They won two games and lost two games. Not bad! They will be playing these same teams again several times throughout this season.

Jason brought Elliott to see Maxx as well.

Maxx gearing up for play!

The second game was at 2:45 PM pacific time, so, 5:45 PM for us. We had already arrived at our site in Cleveland and had run out to pick up a pizza. We watched Maxx's final game from the rig as we chowed-down.

A lot of the former NHL San Jose Sharks players still live in the area and many have children that are now playing hockey. Maxx played against Joe Thorton's son's team last season, where we caught this picture.

This tournament we played against Scott Hannan's son's team. Also playing was Jonathan Cheechoo's son's team, but we never played them. And also at the tournament Cristina & Sean & Maxx bumped into Patrick Marleau.