FORT VANCOUVER, Wash. - AshfordAthletics.com received a report from junior men's cross country runner Andrew Drinkall of Hooppole, Ill., as he arrived for the NAIA Men's Cross Country Championships.

Drinkall's day was busy to say the least and he was gracious enough to take time and share some of his thoughts from the experience of his travels.

Enjoy the first installment of three blogs from Drinkall:

I want to first start this blog off by giving my thanks to all those who have wished me good luck and showed your support, it means a great deal to me and I really appreciate it. A special thanks has to go out to the girls' softball team for the card and cookie you guys made for me. I also want to thank the cross-country team and coach Tyson (Graham). Without you guys. I wouldn't have qualified. Each and every one of you guys played a great deal in my success this season, we all formed a family-like relationship that will continue even out of season. And last but not least I want to thank Ashley (Murray) and Kemi (Okwumabua) for the poster that you guys made for me,

Well how about we get this party started? The plan was for me and coach Tyson to leave the school at 4:30 in the morning to give us enough time to make it to Moline for our flight, which left at 6:30. So the night before I left, when I should have been sleeping, I decided to do the exact opposite, a group of us rented the new Star Trek and watched it (I highly recommend you do the same). The movie got done a little after midnight and afterwards a few of us cross-country runners hung out and talked for a bit and they all wished me good luck. After about an hour or so, I left to go wish a friend happy birthday. Then after that it was already so late that there was no point in going to bed so I double-checked my bag to make sure that I didn't forget to pack anything. And then it was time to head out!

Coach was right on time to pick me up so we made our way to Moline to get to the airport for our flight. Our first flight was from Moline to Minneapolis, which took right at an hour. It was actually the first time I had been in an airplane so I was excited to finally fly because I've always wanted to. The flight went smooth and we arrived in Minneapolis at 7:30 and had a two-hour wait for our next flight. So in the meantime I decided to get some food at the airport and Burger King was right there so that's where we went. I got the number 6, two croissants and hash browns (which was delicious). Then we just waited for out flight and when we were waiting we were watching the weather and they were talking about a big snow/rain storm in Washington so I got a little nervous about the weather. Then Coach and I just kind of laughed about the idea of me running in the snow.

Well 9:30 finally did come around so it was time for our second flight. The flight was from Minneapolis to Seattle. This would be our longest flight of the day. I used that to my advantage, I slept for about two of the three hours that we were on the plane. When were getting close to Seattle I was starting to worry again about the weather but once we got there I found out that it wasn't as bad as I expected it would be. It was in the mid 50's and raining and I can handle that. When we arrived at the airport it was a little crazy because we only had 30 minutes to find our next flight so me and coach were both rushing around to get there on time. But when we found the terminal we found out that the plane was a little late so we actually had more time than we thought.

The third and final flight of the day was from Seattle to Portland, which was our shortest flight. The airplane was smaller than the other 2 and I wasn't worried about it at first because it was only a 30-minute flight. But once we started flying the pilot told us that we were going to experience a bit of turbulence due to the storm and that got me a little worried. But it ended up being nothing too bad and the flight was really short so everything was fine.

When we arrived in Portland we went and got our bags and then headed to get the rental car. Vancouver is right across the river from Portland and our hotel was only like 10 minutes away from the airport. So we checked in at the hotel and I thought coach was going to have me practice once we got back but instead he had to take a nap because he wasn't feeling very well. So I used that time to check out the hotel (which I like, its very nice).

When I was out walking around I met some pretty interesting people. It was quite the experience but coach got up from his nap so we decided to head to pizza hut. After waiting for like 2 hours I finally got the P'Zone I ordered and it was delicious! Then we headed back to the hotel and I decided I needed to do something to loosen up my legs so I went down to the fitness center. When I was down there I met some more people and we decided that we should get together and watch a movie. Thanks for following me on my adventures!

-Andrew