Bradley Associate Athletic Director Bobby Parker is travelling with the men's basketball team to the Bahamas Aug. 11-16 and will provide daily updates throughout the trip in his "Blogging with BP" feature.

Day One of our trip to the Bahamas is just about complete and it has been a loooonnnnng day. With our flight scheduled for 6:28 a.m. out of Bloomington, the bus was scheduled to depart Renaissance Coliseum at 4 a.m. Sunday, so that meant a 3 p.m. alarm. I am sure I am not the only one who experiences this, but isn't it crazy how hard it is to sleep when you know you have to get up early? Must be the fear of oversleeping, but I did not sleep well.

For the most part, the trip to Atlantis was pretty smooth, save one hiccup in Atlanta. We were scheduled for only a 30-minute layover, but as we were approaching the gate, the attendant got on the PA to announce that our flight was being delayed because the pilot had reported a mechanical issue. No further detail. Isn't that what you want to hear before you board a plane? I don't know about you, I am fine with a simple "we have delayed boarding of your flight." No further explanation necessary.

So the rest of her message was that there was no indication how long the delay would be, so feel free to go grab some breakfast. Well, I took her up on the offer and headed back to the central terminal area, where I has spotted a Caribou Coffee on the way to the gate. Ordered my Turtle Mocha and headed back to Gate E7, only to find it completely empty - ghost town. That's a sinking feeling. During my 10 minutes away, Delta found us a new plane at Gate E16, which is not as close to E7 as you might think. Found the team and we boarded about 20 minutes later, so really not a bad layover and much shorter than most I have experienced in Atlanta.

Most of the guys slept the entire flight, so deeply that many had no idea the flight attendants had placed their Bahamian travel information forms in their laps during the flight. There were a lot of blank stares when we got to Customs and they realized they were supposed to complete those forms before passing through.

We were greeted in baggage claim by our SportTours rep, Bradley alum Bret Seymour, and the company's island liaison, Wilson. I'll work on getting the last name. While the guys piled into the small tour bus (regular charter buses like we are used to in the States are not permitted in the Bahamas), I opted for the comfort of Wilson's Kia SUV. About a 15-minute ride - on the wrong side of the road - through Nassau and we arrived safe and sound at Atlantis.

Like many of the players, I went exploring the expansive property this afternoon and have many photos and video clips for your viewing pleasure. After fighting through some WiFi, mobile network issues, I believe I have successfully uploaded the future Emmy/Oscar Award-winning file. Not the most exciting video ever shot, but should give you a little flavor of the trip thus far.  The weather was in the upper 80s this afternoon with a pretty stiff breeze off the ocean.  I worked up a bit of a sweat walking nearly two hours around the grounds and I am quite confident another two hours would have been easy to fill.  Thankfully, there is a shuttle from one are to another and I was able to catch a ride back to the Coral Tower in time for dinner.

One major item of note: Monday's opening game for the Braves in the Summer of Thunder Classic against the Commonwealth Giants has been bumped up two hours to a 6 p.m. (CT) tipoff. I am working to create a new Twitter feed specific to game updates (I know many of my Twitter followers will appreciate not receiving the multiple game tweets) that will be embedded in a game article Monday. If all goes well, I'll repeat the process for the remaining three games. Fingers crossed the WiFi at the arena will work well.

Until tomorrow ...

Blogging with BP
Aug. 9, 2013:  Live Stats for the Summer of Thunder Classic
Aug. 8, 2013:  Bradley Athletics Provides Family-Friendly Entertainment Options
Aug. 7, 2013:  Recapping the Bahamas Preview Luncheon and Scrimmage
Aug. 6, 2013:  Check out the Bradley Team Store
Aug. 5, 2013:  Introduction and Bahamas Preview

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