Road Trip USA (10 of 10)_ Tuscaloosa to Champaign

Well, hopefully, the images below of University of Alabama gymnast Kayla Hoffman and University of Illinois gymnast Melissa Fernandez, both of whom recently graduated from their respective schools (we presume) will hold up. The image we had of Borat at a rodeo in Salem, Va., my hometown, alas ran into technical difficulties.

Hoffman was named SEC Female Athlete of the year. Along with her teammates Geralen Stack-Eaton and Ashley Priess, she help the Crimson Tide win yet another NCAA title in women's gymnastics.

Fernandez was named the female athelete of the year for the University of Illinois; her counterpart for male athlete of the year for the school was NCAA track champion Andrew Riley.

Today, we are going to focus on the distance between Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Champaign, Illinois, where these two school are located.

For this, we chose two random places in both towns. For Tuscaloosa, we went with the Handstooth Sports Bar, which states on its web site that "Sports Illustrated" named it as the best sports bar in the country.

For Champaign, we are going with The Art Theatre, a cinema downtown that is now showing "Tree of Life" and the killer-tire movie "Rubber." (Having seen them both, I would definitely recommend "Tree of Life," but I think that is an obvious choice).

The school's also have two happening college radio stations. WVUA (90.7-FM/Tuscaloosa) is featuring the local band Calooh Callay in their spotlight. As we were working on this blog entry at 5:30 p.m., Connecticut time, DJ Natalie Wontorczyk was presumably playing a band like Arcade Fire for WPGU (107.1-FM/Champaign-Urbana).

So, is the distance between these two college towns:

A) 9 hours 15 minutes

B) 9 hours 45 minutes

C) 10 hrs 15 mins

D) 10 hrs 45 mins

For bonus points, you can guess which one of these two schools is the alma mater for my cousin Kurt Gokbudak (it's the one in the Big 10, which now has 12 schools?!).

SIDEBAR: We gave up on getting out of her on time about an hour and a half ago, but before we leave the office here in Bridgeport, Conn. (not really where I am at), I thought I would mention Crested Butte, Colo. A relative of mine went there last week for the annual Wild Flowers Festival that ended yesterday. But, one can still visit western Colorado and see wild flowers, such as the elephant flowers, columbine, blue flax flowers and Canadian thistle flowers. Alas, according to MapQuest, Crested Butte is a 31-hour-drive from where I am at the moment, and the commute would probably even more arduous if it started in Bridgeport, Conn.

PS: In the Whoops Department, this entry was meant for our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." But, as it is, we will be 'taking a day off' here to go hiking in Zion National Park (yes, that is a joke!) The Borat image we mentioned was supposed to go with an entry on that blog about Kazakhstan.