A few things about Joyce Frost are for sure: Don’t deny her her basketball and don’t take away her hot sausages.

And don’t tell her to stay away from either, especially at the height of the Eastern Maine tournament, which opens tonight at 7.

On Sunday morning, Frost will make her annual 98-mile pilgrimage from her home in Alexander to Bangor for the tournament. She’s been making the trip every year since 1990.

“Basketball helps keep me a lot younger and alert,” said Frost, 71. “If you just sit in the rocking chair and do nothing, you’re not near as sharp.”

Come Monday morning, Frost will be in her usual seat, which is anywhere behind the Calais bench. She stays for the entire day and watches every game, munching on the hot sausages the auditorium sells during the tournament.

“My doctor told me, `Joyce, you’ll have cholesterol coming out of your ears,’ ” she said with a laugh. “I’ll take along a bottle of that Zantac. If I don’t, I’ll have heartburn big time.”

The trip is a combined Christmas and birthday gift, almost fully paid for by Frost’s nine children, each of whom chip in a little to pay for the hotel room and some food money.

The gift is an opportunity for Frost to live out what she thinks about every day. Early in the morning, Frost makes a trip to a local store to get a copy of the newspaper and read the game scores. If for some reason she can’t get there in the morning – and there has to be a good reason, like a blinding snowstorm – the store sets one aside. Either way, Frost keeps track of every class and team in eastern Maine.

Frost admits to being a little obsessive about Eastern Maine basketball and Calais. Without fail, she goes to every home boys and girls game, varsity and junior varsity. She tries to make every away game, whether it’s against neighbor and rival Woodland, or Fort Kent.

“Joyce is a very refreshing fan,” Calais athletic director Tom Lynch said. “She always sits there with a smile on her face. I’ve never, ever heard her say anything bad to the coaches or referees. It just seems like she’s always there, win or lose.”

Frost said she doesn’t know where her love for the game originated. She tried basketball as a student at Oakfield High School, but she said she wasn’t any good at it.

Terri Spooner, a daughter living in Castle Hill, doesn’t remember Frost being interested in basketball. That may have been because Frost was too busy raising nine children alone.

Frost raked blueberries and made wreaths to support the family after her first husband died and her second marriage ended in divorce.

Now, the Frost kids are all over the place. There are five scattered in Aroostook County, two in Illinois, one in Calais, and one in Waweig, New Brunswick.

One of the reasons the siblings pay for the trip, Spooner said, is that Frost worked so hard taking care of the children.

“She deserves a rest and this is what makes her happy,” she said. “Even now, it’s amazing how hard she works. If there’s one lasting impression for the kids, it’s how hard she works. It wasn’t easy for her.”

Frost makes the trip alone. Her children aren’t as interested in basketball as she is, although Spooner said she may spend a day in Bangor with her mother. A few years ago, Frost took another woman on the trip, but that didn’t exactly work out. The woman wasn’t rooting for Calais and didn’t want to go to all the games.

The annual trip started when Frost mentioned to her children that she had always wanted to go to the tournament. Two of them surprised her with a hotel room in Bangor.

“I told them that they couldn’t get me a better gift,” she said.

For the past three years Frost has stayed at the Penobscot Inn, across the street from the auditorium. Timothy Frost of New Brunswick makes the reservations every winter.

“We can be sure she’ll come up every year,” general manager John Marko said. “It’s always nice to see her.”

Although the hotel room is on the kids, Frost tries to keep her budget to a minimum. She doesn’t head for any fancy restuarants when she gets into town, but Frost said she’d rather snack on fast food and the hot sausages at the auditorium.

Still, her doctor would rather that she stick to something healthier.

“I want to enjoy myself at the tournament. I think one week out of the year, it’s OK to eat sausages.”