Watching the weather this morning I was positive we would never be able to get to Columbus today for Sunday's game with the Blue Jackets. Twenty inches of snow, they were saying. Winds over 35 mph. White-out conditions. The noon bus from the team hotel in New Jersey was pushed back to 5 p.m. That the weather also was awful in Jersey (lots of rain) didn't give me much hope either. So I settled in, and turned on a Mets exhibition game against the Marlins (former Rays infielder Jorge Cantu had three doubles and five RBIs for Florida).

But then the message came that the bus was moved up to 4 p.m., and when we got to the airport, the team plane was ready to go. Seems the snow had tapered off and the wind was down to 15 mph and that made it possible to land in Columbus, so we were on our way.

It was awfully bumpy on the way up, smooth otherwise. Even the landing on a snowy runway wasn't bad. a bit inconvenient was that we had to wait on the plane while they plowed a place for the plane to park. So from the time we landed until we got on the buses to get to the team hotel, it was more than an hour later.

Columbus, I have to say, did a great job of clearing the streets. Especially the main highway into town was passable as long as speeds were reasonable. Things couldn't have gone better until we got to about one block from the team hotel.

The team provides two buses for its players and the media. The players go on the first bus, the media, which also includes the Sun Sports production staff, goes on the second. At one point, someone said, "I think their bus is stuck.'' Sure enough, the players bus, which had stopped for a red light could not go forward through some thicker snow.

The bus backed up, moved forward a bit and stopped. It happened again, and again. The bus spun its wheels so badly, black smoke started coming off the back left wheels. Our bus driver radioed to the other a helpful tip that the players' driver said he already ha tried. Finally the players' driver backed way up and stated he was going to get a good run at it. The media driver decided to go ahead of the players bus to the hotel. As we approached the spot in which the players' bus got stuck, the light turned red. "Don't stop,'' someone yelled. A car waiting to come across our path, saw we weren't slowing down and literally backed up to get out of our way. We made it and watched behind us as the players' bus made it as well.

The hotel was packed with stranded travelers who obviously heard the Lightning was coming to town. The players had to fight through autograph seekers while they tried to get to the elevators to get to their rooms.