Color those frequent flyer miles orange

Courtesy of Bernardo Fallas' blog on the Chron site, check out this schedule from now until Halloween for Dynamo, playing CONCACAF Champions League and MLS (not to mention WCQ games for some of them):

Sunday: vs. K.C. at Robertson, 2 p.m. MLS
Sept. 13: at San Jose, 9 p.m. MLS
Sept. 17: vs. L.A. Firpo at Robertson , 9 p.m. CONCACAF
Sept. 20: vs. San Jose at Robertson, 7:30 p.m. MLS
Sept. 23: at San Francisco (time TBD). CONCACAF
Sept. 27: at Toronto FC, 2:30 p.m. MLS
Sept 30: at UNAM Pumas (time TBD). CONCACAF
Oct. 4: at Colorado, 8:30 p.m. MLS
Oct. 7: vs. San Francisco at Robertson, 9 p.m. CONCACAF
Oct. 12: vs. D.C. United at Robertson, 6 p.m. MLS
Oct. 18: vs. Los Angeles at Robertson, 7;30 p.m. MLS
Oct. 22: vs. UNAM Pumas at Robertson, 9 p.m. CONCACAF
Oct. 25: at Chivas USA, 9:30 p.m. MLS (or at least one team is)
Oct. 28: at L.A. Firpo, (time TBD). CONCACAF

Especially take a gander at the Sept. 23-Oct. 4 stretch. That's starting in Panama, then Canada, then Mexico, then Denver. That's three games at altitude and a fourth in the Great White North. According to the Google Earth, that's a grand total of 1,741 miles from Houston to Panama City, 2,380 miles from Panama City to Toronto, 2,043 miles from Toronto to Mexico City, 1,445 miles from Mexico City to Denver and then another 867 miles from the Front Range back to Houston. That's 8,476 miles in a span of 15 days. Now the discussion over at Bernardo's Soccer y Futbol cafe covers the absolute ridiculousness of all this, so I direct you to that discussion there. Just suffice it to say that, even though the Men in Orange get to spend the next three weeks here in Houston after all of that, my reaction to the concentrated travel is pretty much unprintable. I know that MLS denies players the use of chartered jets because (it seems) the care and comfort of their highly specialized and talented workforce is beneath the Don's interest, but this is beyond stupid.

Let's see the Cuba Cinco try that amount of travel!

Here's a great song I found from the Screaming Trees about this:

ORANGE AIRPLANE

Can't take a train you know they move too slow
Gotta take to the airport where I wanna go
Heart beating like a million miles an hour
Listening the wind is turning sweet to sour

Orange airplane
Take me to a new day
Little orange airplane
Take me to a new day

I land downtown in the middle of the day
I'm coming down hard so get out of the way
Looking up to heaven trying to find a clue
Said I'm too far gone, gotta pay my dues on

An orange airplane
Take me to a new day
Come on
Little orange airplane
Take me to a new day

I'll be heading into orbit on a sunday morning
My legs are broken and my ears are ringing
Orange airplane takes me to my home
Take me to the graveyard and bury my bones on

An orange airplane
Take me to a new day
Come on
Little orange airplane
Take me to a new day

Take me far away
On an orange airplane