Breaking News : minnesota gophers football respond to their main prayer….

The Erbans have taken Gophers fans around the country, from Hawaii to Puerto Rico, Alaska to New York City, and over 400 other places in between.

Since 1993, Steve and Dorothy Erban, based in Stillwater, have arranged and led trips for Gophers fans to cross the country and cheer on their favorite maroon-and-gold teams. They’ve become renowned as the Travelin’ Gophers as the years have passed.

With their first football trip of the 2023 season, the Erbans’ Creative Charters company will commemorate 30 years. Approximately 150 supporters are traveling from the Twin Cities to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Gophers-North Carolina football game on Saturday.

“We appreciate everything they are doing,” said Mike Wierzbicki, senior assistant sports director at the University of Utah. “No better place to celebrate than on the road with the Travelin’ Gophers, so good for them.”

On Thursday, the Travelin’ Gophers performed a few high-speed laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It added a one-of-a-kind experience to the group’s many others.

“We were in the mountains up there,” Dillon explained. “We had Thanksgiving dinner up in a resort, and the locals joined us.” Steve and Dorothy had put together a fantastic party. You really don’t come across those on your own.”

Creative Charters also organizes other events, such as the Kentucky Derby. They had an extraordinary, circuitous journey to Cooperstown, New York, in 2001, for Kirby Puckett’s induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Attendees boarded scheduled commercial flights for that trip, and around 25 of the 100 people had a delayed departure out of Chicago, so they took an alternative, late-night flight to Burlington, Vt., and needed a ferry across Lake Champlain to meet up with the remainder of the group.