Destination Phoenix - Die hard fans from down under unite!

The suns are a classy organization from management right down to the players and support staff. So its no wonder that so many international fans with no ties to any NBA cities, choose to support the mighty Suns. In some cases these fans are even more die hard than some locals, having to take days off just to watch big games, getting up at 3 am for live playoff matches, watching grainy stop start low quality streams on 15 inch monitors just to see the suns somehow, and even travelling the 30 thousand plus km's just to catch a regular season game live.

That last scenario is about to take place, with 4 die hard suns fans from Australia and New Zealand (only 2 of which have met each other before) getting together in January to make the trip to the USA with the sole purpose of cheering on the suns and seeing some games live!

Myself from Adelaide, South Australia, as well as 3 other members of Planet Orange ("Tastic" from New Zealand, "Nevetsov" from Brisbane Australia, and "NF33IH" also from Adelaide South Australia) will be leaving from Sydney on January 12th, 2009 and after brief stops in Berlin and London will be landing in Toronto on the 18th of January ready to catch the suns first game of a season long 6 game road trip.

We have hired a car, and will be following the suns through all 6 stops on the trip, Toronto, Boston, New York, Charlotte, Atlanta and Washington, before flying from Washington to Phoenix (WOO HOO!) to catch games against the spurs (BOO), bulls and kings, hoping to enjoy a superbowl party somewhere and then leaving the great state of Arizona on the 3rd of February heading back to australia via New Zealand (ending a complete trip around the globe just to watch the suns)

Were going to be blogging all the way, right from the start to the finish, with details on planning, things that go wrong, things that go right, posting videos, reviews of each game, city, stadium, photos etc, we all hope that it gives the international suns fans (of which there are many) an insight on what its like for die hard suns fans to finally get to see them in person!

Keep an eye out for part 2 of the Desitnation Phoenix Blog. All we have done now is booked flights and car hire, hopefully by part 2 we will have started finding accommodation, game tickets, and our itinery for travel and what to do on days off in all the cities.

If you have any advice, comments, are we mad to try and drive that road trip (6 cities in 8 days?) or anything, we love to hear any input anyone might have.....

until next time, go suns!

>> Edited 2nd September 2008: R ead part 2 of this blog here

Read part III of this blog here