Northern Alliance Blog
Saturday morning dawned bright and early for several members of the Northern Alliance. They came from Washougal and Orchards, and converged on the bus pullouts at the Oregon Convention Center for the long bus trip to Vancouver BC, where the following day the Portland Timbers would be playing their Cascadia rival, the Vancouver Whitecaps, in their first home match at BC Place.
The Northern Alliance bus crew - photo courtesy of Tim Johnson
In the known bus group were Butch and Bradley York, Tim and Casey Johnson, Chris Powell, and yours truly. We were all stationed together in the first bus, “PT”, and congregated in the rear, near the keg and the bathroom. Life’s little conveniences, right?
After checking in and listening to the rules of the trip from our bus captains, we were off to our first stop: LES SCHWAB! Apparently one of our tires was a bit low on air so we stopped for a check. After nearly running over one of the employees and nearly backing into the building, we got the air and were off! (needless to say the keg had been tapped by this point and beers were being consumed, but not by the driver)
A short while later, we crossed the bridge into Washington, and a cheer erupted from our group as we announced we’d arrived in Vancouver! While this was technically true, we hadn’t arrived at the one we were destined for. Still, it was good fun. As the trip went on much beer was consumed. Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla was our first movie of the day, and was still playing when we arrived at the first rest stop (#2 not allowed on the bus). After a few minutes of leg-stretching and so-on, we piled back on the busses (the other bus was “FC”) and hit the road once again.
About an hour later the entire bus got heated as we started to pass through Seattle. I won’t tell all the stories (look on YouTube for that), but there was much gesturing and chanting towards our hated rival.
The Samesun Backpackers Hostel - photo courtesy of Bradley York
As the miles and pints passed we continued our movie watching with “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”, and another rest stop break. Here we filled out our declarations for the Canadian border people. A short drive later we hit Blaine, and had to go through customs. One Northern Alliance member (withheld for courtesy) was detained for a few but no major incidents, and then it was back on the bus to wreak havoc on Vancouver.
About an hour later the buses arrived in Vancouver BC, and we all grabbed our gear and headed off to our lodgings. One member of our travelling party got separated from the rest of the pack, but everyone was reunited at the Railway Club, where the Southsiders were throwing the Portland travelling group a party! And party we did.
Later the majority of the Northern Alliance met up at the Samesun hostel, where we stayed, and chatted up with others staying there. Then the author went to bed (had too much fun for the day), and the rest decided to go out on the town. I’ll leave it to them to tell the stories, but suffice to say it sounded like more fun than sleeping was.
Timbers Army marching to BC Place - photo courtesy of Bradley York
In the morning we all piled downstairs for breakfast, which actually looked pretty good. Then while the train crew walked to the Winking Judge Pub, the bus-goers hitched a ride back to the bus, to go to the same place (about ten blocks away, when the pub was 3 the other direction). After waiting for the booze-selling hour to arrive, the Northern Alliance dove in to several pitchers of beer, which became a small problem when it was announced we were marching shortly after being served (the pub was horrifically understaffed). Then the fun began.
The walk to the stadium began with chants, lots of them, and then the march started. Flags waved in the wind. Vancouver residents stopped and pulled out their phones to record our march. You’d think they’d never seen something like this before…
While chanting “You can’t stop us…”, we did find something that could stop us: the traffic signals. Several times we would have to stop for cross traffic, but we made up the distance quickly. Once we got to the stadium, for the Timbers Army that were unaware, we unveiled our banner (designed by Jacob Wright) to great applause. Then it was off to the gate where we waited to be let in. Must have been about 20 minutes before they opened the gates. Everyone was subjected to a patdown and those with bags or purses got those searched. The banner made it thru ok to my knowledge but they almost didn’t allow the TANA flag that was brought with. We also got a bit of flak from one of the security guys for being from Washington but rooting for a team from Oregon. We squashed that pretty quick.
The section the Army had was in the opposite corner from the Southsiders, and ironically on the south side of the stadium, while they were on the north. I could be wrong, but we did come in from the south side of the stadium. Kelly and others went about trying to mount the banner somewhere, and initially succeeded but then a security person made him take it down. We placed it on one of the tarps covering extra seats. We were directly to the left of the camera so sadly it wouldn’t be seen by the regular camera. We were also in the upper portion of the sections, putting us underneath the upper bowl. Not the best idea, because it amplified the Army’s volume big time. Especially once we Northern Alliance guys realized the wall behind us wasn’t concrete and started using it to make some noise North End style.
We don't need to talk about how the match went... - photo courtesy of Troy Maxcy
We had to wait 20 minutes from the end of the match before we were allowed to leave. The TANA guys said farewell outside of the stadium, as the train guys headed back to party with the Southsiders and the bus guys went to wait for the buses to show up in the right spot. Sadly, we experienced people walking around who asked what we were there for and who we were playing, as well as one person WHO WAS AT THE MATCH asking who won… you can’t make that up. The buses finally arrived, we got on and off we went back to the land of red, white and blue, plus green and gold. After a “short” stop at a duty-free for what we hoped would have food (candy and jerky were really the only sustenance they had) it was back on the bus only to get off like 5 minutes later at Customs. This went several times more slowly than going into Canada. However, there were no detentions this time and we were back on the road.
Shortly after the border we encountered rain. Some very early Family Guy filled the first part of our journey home, as well as the elementary school game of MASH in the back of the bus with some passengers who decided to join our fun after losing their seats from the previous day. After a pit stop for #2′s we continued our journey home. The Family Guy gave way to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, to be followed by Labyrinth. The bus got quieter as the drive got closer and closer to home. Finally, just before midnight, the bus came to a rest in front of the Oregon Convention Center, and we disembarked for the last time. At long last on the sidewalk we came to the end of our fellowship, as Tim and Casey went back to their car and the rest of us headed back to the parking garage we’d left two days before, and headed home.
It was a long, yet short, trip, and I know I will definitely do it again. However, I’ll most assuredly NOT sit next to the keg again.
There will also be video posted on my YouTube page once I edit it into one video, so make sure to check out my channel.
Cheers, and RCTID!
Poutine and Poontang!