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The ride from Princeton to Providence isn't TigerBlog's favorite, largely because of the neverending (okay, a little more than 100 mile) stretch that is I95 in Connecticut.

One time, TB was driving to Brown for a football game, back when TB swore he'd leave by 11 am each football Friday when he had to go to New England, ended up leaving around 2 and ended up getting destroyed in traffic the whole way.

This time, it was 1995, and typical of TB and Tom McCarthy and whoever else went that day, it was a late start.

Now, when you have to drive to New England from here, there are all kinds of options.

TB likes to avoid the Cross Bronx Expressway at all costs, which usually means the Henry Hudson to the Saw Mill to the Cross County to the Merritt and cross over to 95 after the helicopter factory (though the Merritt isn't always a bargain either).

On that 1995 day, TB was following that route when traffic came to a complete stop. And stayed that way.

Eventually, a helicopter landed not far in front of where the line of cars was. An accident?

Nope. It was the Pope.

Anyway, by the time the Pope was all settled into the church where he was speaking, it ended up taking eight hours to get from Princeton to Providence.

TB makes the ride again this weekend, as he heads to Rhode Island for the Princeton-Brown men's lacrosse game.

Since 1995, TB has found a nice sandwich shop in Northern Connecticut, where he got a great turkey club hoagie the first time he was there and then an even-better roast beast, roasted red pepper, onion one the next time.

TB will be on the road this weekend.

Not many others in orange and black will be.

Between the end of the basketball doubleheader against Penn on March 6 and this coming Friday, there have been seven home events on the Princeton campus. For the record, there were two men's volleyball matches, two men's tennis matches, one men's lacrosse game, one women's lacrosse game and one crew race.

And this weekend?

There will be no fewer than 15 home events between Friday and Sunday, spread across seven sports.

And there is no admission charge for any of them.

This weekend marks the home openers and the Ivy openers for the baseball and softball teams, as both host Dartmouth and then Harvard.

In softball, that's Friday/Saturday.

In baseball, that's Saturday/Sunday.

Princeton had its worst Ivy League baseball record ever two years ago and then came back to win the league last year, defeating Dartmouth in three dramatic games in the Ivy League championship series.

The Ivy League format has two four-team divisions (Cornell, Columbia and Penn are in with Princeton) for baseball and softball. Each team plays the other four teams twice and then plays four games against each of the teams in its division.

At the end, the two division winners meet for the Ivy title and automatic NCAA tournament berth.

The women's lacrosse team hosts Cornell, one of four Ivy teams in the Top 20, as the Big Red are ranked 17th, followed by Princeton at 19th. Dartmouth (ninth) and Penn (10th) are also looming out there for the Tigers.

In other words, it's a big game.

There is also a visit from Penn State in men's volleyball as Sam Schweisky's team is home twice this weekend, as well as rowing and tennis.

The full schedule for Princeton games this weekend is here.

For the first time in awhile, it has a lot of events in bold.