Bowl-bound Pit Stop

Karina Holm (front left), a freshman at Fresno State University, relaxes for a moment atop a pile of luggage while she and the college’s marching band wait for tire repairs in the parking lot behind Carl’s Jr. on East Main Street Thursday.

The 170 students from the Bulldog Marching Band were en route to Saturday’s 2009 New Mexico Bowl — where the Fresno State Bulldogs will face the Wyoming Cowboys in Albuquerque — when two tires blew out, according to 20-year-old Regina Harris, a baritone horn player. The 170 students who left Fresno at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday had been traveling through the night when one of their three buses broke down shortly after passing Bakersfield, Harris said.

Despite being stuck since 8:30 a.m. Thursday behind Carl’s Jr. as the band waited for hours for another charter bus to arrive from Fresno, the students made the most of the break as several ate breakfast at IHOP, some recharged their cell phones inside Burger King, and others napped, said xylophone player Joseph Rodrigues.

The marching band will arrive in Albuquerque nine hours later than scheduled but will still make it in time for the game, said Fresno State senior William Melendiz. The game starts Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on ESPN (Time Warner Cable channel 14).