I apologize if I haven't said much in the past few weeks. My stint in Seattle came to an end this past month, and I parlayed that with my cousin's wedding in Colorado to make for an epic trip across the American West. Here are some random thoughts from the trip.
-Most of the interior West would not exist if it were not for irrigation. Washington is supposed to be the Evergreen State, but most of the state is barren scrubland that's barely fit to run cattle on, much less farm.
-I didn't think that there were any mosquitoes in Utah. However, when we got out to change drivers at a rest stop on I-15 north of Ogden, we were ambushed by the monsters. I'm used to Minnesota mosquitoes, but these things were just as numerous and agressive. Washington State mosquitoes are slow, lazy, and easy to kill.
-My car (a 1990 Buick Park Avenue with a 3.8L V6 under the hood) got 28-29 MPG while roaring across Utah and Wyoming averaging 75+ MPH. This is with the trunk and back seat full of my crap.
-Why is 85-octane gas for sale in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado? Altitude?
-My cousin and his bride are both Colorado Buffaloes, but her family is full of Nebraska Cornhuskers. There was a large TV showing VaTech-Nebraska outside the ballroom at the hotel the reception was being held at. Just as the best man took to the microphone to deliver his speech, yelling was heard out in the lobby. The door was quickly slammed shut, but it was still a bit embarassing. I learned later that this was the Huskers' punt return for a TD.
-I'm not bothered by very many things, but beef feed lots are truly the pillage of the earth. We drove past several in southern Idaho and northern Colorado. I realize the economics of agriculture are forcing up the size of operations, but ye gads! We drove past one on Highway 34 east of Greeley, and there had to be 75,000 head of cattle on about 50 acres of ground. And they stunk for two miles in all directions.
-There is a lot more civilization on Interstate 80 across Nebraska than there is on 90 or 94 across the Dakotas. Maybe that has something to do with the Platte River valley being the traditional highway west (the Pony Express, Oregon Trail, and the transcontinental railroad all parallel Interstate 80 at some point)
-The tallest building in the state of Nebraska is the state capitol building. However, as I saw it from I-80, the second-tallest appears to be the press box at Memorial Stadium. I'm gonna have to go there for a game someday.
-On the way back, we got a partial tour of the Big 12 North. Boulder, Lincoln, and Ames all were on our path of travel.
-I mentioned earlier getting 29-30 MPG roaring across Wyoming. The rest of the family that came to Colorado for the wedding drove an RV, and never bothered to take it above 65 to see what kind of mileage it would get. Following them back, I got the exact same mileage going 65. Go figure. Also, what should have been a 14-hour trip back dragged into 25.5 hours due to their paranoia about going a shred over 65.
-Since I no longer live in Washington, I'm going to have to figure out a new avatar. And no, I do NOT have the "SKIUMAH" plate that I had in my avatar. I got my normal plates before I thought about the "SKIUMAH" custom plate, and I didn't want to go through the trouble of getting another plate. Any suggestions are welcome.
2,275 miles, 8 states, and Lord only knows how many bottles of Coke later, I'm home. I'm looking forward to a bit of an unwind weekend in Madison this weekend.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
The 61st Axe: Random Thoughts
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2008
CAMP RANDALL STADIUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
MADISON, WISCONSIN
Some random thoughts, game and non, from this weekend's extravaganza in Mad-town:
-I bought a couple of car magnets, and I put them on the side of my car for the trip down on Friday afternoon. I got a few honks and waves, as well as a few middle fingers. You have a nice day too, sir.
-State Street Brats was swamped with Gopher fans on Friday night, taking over the upstairs. If looks could have killed, the Dane County coroner would have been a busy man.
-I don't like how Mad Hatter's is set up. No one downstairs while the upstairs resembles the Black Hole of Calcutta? Set it up like Burrito Loco here.
-I first found Silver Mine subs in Boulder, Colorado. The location next to Hatters' makes for a fine addition to the Madison late night menu.
-Finding cabs at bar time is a beyotch. My hotel was out on High Crossing Blvd., and by the time I found a cab that wasn't hired and got back, it was after 3:00 AM and my buzz was totally gone. Cabbies, if you're hired, TURN YOUR LIGHT OFF!
-Tailgating was great. One buddy of mine made arrangements with his sister's future in-laws for us tailgate with them. We were in the corner of the Regent Apartments parking lot. I also saw GopherLady, NateDawg, Crazy Tony, et al. at the same party.
-I know the U is going to have to learn how to do game-day tailgating once we get back home next year. However, I think that as long as Bob Bruininks is the president of the U, he's going to do everything he can to make it happen. The U is a better place because of him.
-My brother has poo-poohed the Gopher fan base, claming that we're going to want the Dome back as soon as a cold-weather game hits. Yesterday afternoon, it was cold, it was windy, and it started to snow at the end. And I loved it. Just how November football in Big Ten country ought to be. Sure I was frozen through by the time it was over, but it still was great.
-Good grief, was I getting flashbacks to "Punt Kucek Punt" when that kick return got muffed.
-Two points on the little rhubarb during "Jump Around." A) I have no problem with the Gopher bench jumping around like they did. It sure did pump 'em up. The only trouble was that it also pumped up everyone else in the stadium. Seeing the entire stadium doing it was a sight to behold. B) One friend of mine pointed out that the display was borne partly because few of the Gophers had been on the sideline of a game in Madison, and mostly as a "shot across the bow" at Wisconsin, saying something like "Hello Wisconsin! How do you like us breathing down your neck?"
-For all the Gophers' muffs, penalties, screw-ups, and other misadventures, they still had the ball with 2:30 to go with a chance to win or go to overtime. In hindsight, when I planned to come down, all I asked for was a game that wasn't decided midway through the first quarter, as my only other football trip to the Camp was.
-Was it just me, or was the band a little quick to start "Varsity" at the end of the game, before the Axe even got hoisted? I'm watching them hoist the Axe out of the bag just as the students get to the last "U-rah-rah Wisconsin!"
-I realized when I woke up this morning that other than one plate of heavenly cheesy potatoes, I drank ALL of my meals on Saturday. Fortunately, a Mickie's Dairy Bar scrambler was there to save the day. Not only do Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa share heated sporting rivalries, they also share quality breakfast locations (Al's Breakfast, Mickie's, and the Hamburg Inn).
Now only one more game in the Dump. And I still f'ing hate Iowa!
GR
CAMP RANDALL STADIUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
MADISON, WISCONSIN
Some random thoughts, game and non, from this weekend's extravaganza in Mad-town:
-I bought a couple of car magnets, and I put them on the side of my car for the trip down on Friday afternoon. I got a few honks and waves, as well as a few middle fingers. You have a nice day too, sir.
-State Street Brats was swamped with Gopher fans on Friday night, taking over the upstairs. If looks could have killed, the Dane County coroner would have been a busy man.
-I don't like how Mad Hatter's is set up. No one downstairs while the upstairs resembles the Black Hole of Calcutta? Set it up like Burrito Loco here.
-I first found Silver Mine subs in Boulder, Colorado. The location next to Hatters' makes for a fine addition to the Madison late night menu.
-Finding cabs at bar time is a beyotch. My hotel was out on High Crossing Blvd., and by the time I found a cab that wasn't hired and got back, it was after 3:00 AM and my buzz was totally gone. Cabbies, if you're hired, TURN YOUR LIGHT OFF!
-Tailgating was great. One buddy of mine made arrangements with his sister's future in-laws for us tailgate with them. We were in the corner of the Regent Apartments parking lot. I also saw GopherLady, NateDawg, Crazy Tony, et al. at the same party.
-I know the U is going to have to learn how to do game-day tailgating once we get back home next year. However, I think that as long as Bob Bruininks is the president of the U, he's going to do everything he can to make it happen. The U is a better place because of him.
-My brother has poo-poohed the Gopher fan base, claming that we're going to want the Dome back as soon as a cold-weather game hits. Yesterday afternoon, it was cold, it was windy, and it started to snow at the end. And I loved it. Just how November football in Big Ten country ought to be. Sure I was frozen through by the time it was over, but it still was great.
-Good grief, was I getting flashbacks to "Punt Kucek Punt" when that kick return got muffed.
-Two points on the little rhubarb during "Jump Around." A) I have no problem with the Gopher bench jumping around like they did. It sure did pump 'em up. The only trouble was that it also pumped up everyone else in the stadium. Seeing the entire stadium doing it was a sight to behold. B) One friend of mine pointed out that the display was borne partly because few of the Gophers had been on the sideline of a game in Madison, and mostly as a "shot across the bow" at Wisconsin, saying something like "Hello Wisconsin! How do you like us breathing down your neck?"
-For all the Gophers' muffs, penalties, screw-ups, and other misadventures, they still had the ball with 2:30 to go with a chance to win or go to overtime. In hindsight, when I planned to come down, all I asked for was a game that wasn't decided midway through the first quarter, as my only other football trip to the Camp was.
-Was it just me, or was the band a little quick to start "Varsity" at the end of the game, before the Axe even got hoisted? I'm watching them hoist the Axe out of the bag just as the students get to the last "U-rah-rah Wisconsin!"
-I realized when I woke up this morning that other than one plate of heavenly cheesy potatoes, I drank ALL of my meals on Saturday. Fortunately, a Mickie's Dairy Bar scrambler was there to save the day. Not only do Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa share heated sporting rivalries, they also share quality breakfast locations (Al's Breakfast, Mickie's, and the Hamburg Inn).
Now only one more game in the Dump. And I still f'ing hate Iowa!
GR
Monday, November 10, 2008
Trip Racap: 2008 CFN Board Meeting
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2008, 4:30 PM
CONCOURSE B AT MIDWAY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
It’s been a long day already. En route to the 2008 CFN Board Meeting, I’ve gotten caught in morning rush hour traffic in the Twin Cities, driven across a Wisconsin that is now eight different shades of drab gray, and roared through a driving rainstorm on the Northwest Tollway that reduced visibility to almost nothing. By the time I zap a text to ElTigreRex and 847Badgerfan, who are already in Nashville, I’m ready for a drink. However, those two gentlemen have already beaten me to the punch. A few minutes after I message them, Badge calls me back and informs me that I need to take a cab to the hotel, because they have been drinking all day and neither is sober enough to drive to the airport and get me. Ah, the Board Meeting has begun!
A bit of backstory here. It was determined at last year’s extravaganza in Austin, Texas that the next Board Meeting should take place in SEC country. A couple of weeks after that, the executive decision came down that this Board Meeting would take place in Nash-vegas (as the place is often referred to on SEC message boards). Since several of us (or friends of ours) had been there for bowl games, it was agreed that this would be a great place for it.
My flight from Midway to Nashville had a rough climbout due to said rainstorm, but once we got out of the soup, it was a smooth flight. This was the shortest flight that I had taken in at least three years. Being used to 3½ hour hauls to and from the West Coast (and last year’s 6-hour drag to Austin), it was surprising to start descending almost as soon as we got to cruise altitude. The Nashville airport is an easy airport to get through, but I found it to be a dump.
Since the Nashville street grid isn’t set at right angles relative to a north-south, my sense of direction was all discombobulated, and as such I was totally lost on the cab ride to the hotel. I was staying in the same room as TigerKing, and he met me in the lobby to get the hotel keys. Once I dumped my stuff off, we took a cab back downtown. We had a cabbie who was telling jokes that weren’t very tasteful in light of Tuesday’s election, and that’s not even close to describing how this cab ride went.
We met Badge in the lobby of his hotel, and end up eating dinner at an Irish pub. Badge and TigerKing have managed to drink the bar out of Johnny Walker Black, and in punishment we have to suffer through two guys trying to cover various country standards. They ended with a horrendous treatment of the Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel.” Since we were all quite tired, we decided to withdraw to our hotels for the evening.
Next morning, Badge comes by our hotel with the minivan he rented to shuttle people around in. We head out to the airport to pick up MikeTheTiger and BurntEyes. After that, we head over towards the Vanderbilt campus to scout out places to drink the next day. Since it’s not 11 AM yet, none of the watering holes are open yet. We end up stopping at a place called the Corner Pub that is showing some signs of life. It was only 10:40, but the barmaid agreed to serve us drinks. It was here that most of the gang finally trickled in. UTErin, razorchique, theumrebel, buckeyecraazy, Gatorama, and DavidG all rolled in while we were at the Corner.
Shortly before 3, the party moved over to barbecue restaurant, across 5th Street from the hockey arena. Badge had arranged for us to take over one corner of their outside. This is where SunDevilFroggy, MarqHusker, and his wife came and joined the party. As for the food here, I was not overly impressed by their barbecue. I know that most Southern barbecue is pork-based compared with the Texas beef, but my biggest problem was that it was tough as nails. I’ve eaten good barbecued pork ribs (oddly enough from a joint on the eastside of Seattle), and these were not one of them. Usually pork ribs have a much higher meat-to-bone ratio than beef ribs, but these did not.
It was at this point that Badge pounded on the table and called the 2008 Board Meeting to order. The only thing that he did was order us to drink. Seeing that we had been doing that for some time already, the call ended up being more a “Bottoms up!” command than anything else.
We stayed here until nightfall, which is when the gang briefly retired to their hotels to change clothes and possibly eat supper. After a couple of hours, we met up at The Big Bang, a dueling piano bar on Broadway. I’d never been to one of these places, and it was pretty crazy. It was loud, raucous, bawdy, and an all-out blast. All things considered, the first day of the meeting went pretty well.
On the way back to the hotel, someone suggested that we stop through the Waffle House that is a hundred yards from the hotel. I’m riding with LilDawg, BuckeyeCraazy, and UTErin, and they’re looking at me as if I ought to find the number of this place so we can call in a to-go order. I tell them that I’ve never been in a Waffle House before in my life, and I haven’t a clue what to order. So they order their food, and by the time that they pass the phone to me, we’re pulling into the parking lot. Wonderful timing. They convince me to get an order of grits to try and eat. We end up eating our breakfast haul in Erin and BC’s room. LilDawg insists that the grits are the best thing since sliced bread, but I found them to be more efficient as brick mortar than as breakfast food.
Saturday morning dawned with continental breakfast at the hotel, then everyone converging on the Vanderbilt campus. We got parked about 10:30, and several of us walked into the campus to find a bookstore so we could get some souvenir swag. The campus of Vanderbilt University is a gorgeous little gem in the middle of Nashville. Both Badge and I commented that it was very similar to Northwestern University in Evanston (small but, and then a massive, modern hospital).
We had been recommended to a joint called Sam’s Place for watching the day’s games. A friend of Burny had recommended it, and it did not disappoint. The place opened at 11:00, and before long it became college football central. Other than our bunch, I counted at least a dozen different school colors in there, just for the early games. Sadly, unlike in the Buck Owens song, there were no waitresses named Hattie from Cincinnati or Rita, who hailed from Pasadena.
The 18 of us took over a corner of the front veranda, pushing tables together in a large L formation. At first, the waitress who was working our section of the restaurant was worried about us making our $10 minimum. We assured her that she would not be disappointed. The food and beer quickly started flowing while we digested the early games. Gator and I focused on the 91st Little Brown Jug, while everyone else paid attention to their games. If their team was on, they watched it, but most of the freelancers were watching the wild gunfight-at-the-OK-Corral that was Kentucky-Georgia. For a neutral observer, it must have been an interesting thing to see 18 different people screaming and yelling at different screens at the same time, trying to figure out which was which.
At this point, I should also mention that the city was overflowing with Florida Gator fans. I had at least six of them on my plane down from Chicago on Thursday. The actual makeup of the crowd at Sam’s was very heavy Florida Gator, with the other colors sprinkled among them, much like chunks of ice in a giant blue Slurpee.
The early games ended, and it appeared there was a bit of a “shift change,” if you will. Folks from the early teams left, and fans from the late games came in. Included in this bunch were a few Penn State fans in the back of the restaurant, and a decent-sized contingent of bammers at the other end of the veranda. As the game went on, someone in the group of bammers kept letting off these high-pitched, grating, fingernails-on-the-blackboard style screams whenever anything happened to Bama. Razorchique thought that it was a guy for a little while, only to find that the guilty part was a small, 5-foot-nothing beanpole of a girl.
We took our group picture when all three of the 2:30 games were at halftime, and then things got REAL interesting in the second half. Penn State had their chances to draw away from Iowa, but the chickens played some tough D. For one afternoon, all the SEC folks in the bar became really big Iowa Hawkeye fans. Also, for some reason that I could not fathom, all the Florida fans in the bar were cheering for Bama.
The crowd exploded when Iowa hit their FG, but Badge and I laughed our butts off when the Idiots Out Wandering Around students charged the field with one second left, setting up what could have been a big choke job. But give the Hawks credit, they were able to avoid a The Play-like return. They’re going to be a tough out the rest of the way.
The seminal moment of the weekend took place late in regulation of LSU-Alabama, after PSU-Iowa had ended. All of us at the CFN table were cheering like mad for LSU, partially because MikeDeTiger was in our midst, and mostly because the shrieking bammer from the other end of the veranda was getting REALLY annoying at this point. Anyway, John Parker Wilson broke off a 40-something yard touchdown run. The Florida and Bama fans were going nuts, with plenty of shrieking. The more eagle-eyed observers among us had noticed that the Bama backfield was littered with yellow penalty markers. Sure enough, it was a holding penalty that wiped the touchdown, and caused our table to go just as ballistic. The blocked field goal at the end of regulation drew a similar reaction.
After the end of overtime, we all closed our tabs, and then the group split up. Big kudos to the waitress. How she kept our drinks filled and the tabs straightened out is beyond me. Most folks went to another bar, but some of us decided to see if we could actually get into the game without forking over an arm and a leg. Several contacts assured us that it wouldn’t be any trouble. The walk to the stadium was kind of surreal. Normally, with the game a short time away from kicking off, there’s a lot more buzz and foot traffic around the campus. There wasn’t much of anything happening until you were three blocks from the stadium. We hawked tickets for $40, and went in, hoping that we could meet up at some point. The five of us that went in were SDF, MDT, LilDawg, BuckeyeCraazy, and myself.
Vanderbilt Stadium is by far the smallest stadium in the SEC, and may well be the smallest football stadium in any BCS conference east of the Rockies. I’ve been to a few stadiums in different portions of the country, and I have to tell you that this was the worst college football stadium I’ve ever been in. Even Reser Stadium at Oregon State, which has a similar capacity, is vastly superior to Vandy. Most of the places I’ve been would eat this joint for lunch and still have room for dessert. When we got in there, the stadium was well over half full of Gator fans. I am aware that football is a distant afterthought on the brainpower campuses, but I didn’t think it was that bad.
Either way, this was the first time I’d seen an SEC game in person. A basketball-sized pep band from Florida was there, and they were keeping the crowd well into it. On the field, the Gators were doing whatever they wanted to whenever they wanted to. The offense looked like a well-oiled machine that was FAST. The Gators didn’t start in their own territory until after the second quarter, which meant that all the action was in front of us in the early goings.
The five of us got back together early in the second quarter, and we quickly found ourselves surrounded by kindred folks who wore a similar spread of gear that we had (We had tOSU, Miami Ohio, and a couple of others around us). They thought it was really cool how we all post on a message board and get together once a year.
The game was lousy, and the only thing that kept us in there as long as we did (we stayed to the end of the 3rd when Urban Meyer pulled Tim Tebow and Co.) was the funnel cakes the ladies ordered at halftime. BuckeyeCraazy’s peacoat ended up covered with powdered sugar, since she happened to be on the downwind end of all the funnel cakes.
Once we got out of the stadium, we started calling around to see where everyone went. It turns out that most folks had gone back to the hotel, with a few going back to bed. We stopped at a Quick-Sack for some beer, and joined the gang that was at our Holiday Inn Express. We watched the postgame from USC-Cal and Texas Tech-Oklahoma, drank more beer, and discussed where we might want to take this flying circus next year.
On Sunday morning, the people who were staying at our hotel, plus SDF and MDT who cabbed it over from their hotel, invaded the Waffle House that was a hundred yards from our hotel. I’m a big fan of the waffles and hash browns, but the biscuits and gravy were ice cold. We bid our adieus outside here, which is always tough, but we know that we’ll do it again before too long.
Granted, I’ve only been to two of these things, but I’m always a bit sad when I leave events like this. I’ve had a really crappy-ass year, but I know that for one weekend every year, everything can be right with the world.
The drive from Midway Airport in Chicago back to Minnesota was long but uneventful. I will let you guys in on one thing I do every time I drive across the border from Wisconsin to Minnesota. As part of a college song podcast, I have “Varsity” on my iPod. I play “Varsity,” then go right to the Rouser with the full opening fanfare. I’ve timed it such that when they get to the start of the Rouser, I’m crossing the river bridge into civilization/Minnesota. On a related note, I also play “Hail Minnesota” whenever I leave the state. Go figure.
I’ve got two more college football games on my slate, this week in Madison for the Axe game, then the last Gopher game ever in the Metrodome the following Saturday. I’ll catch you then.
GR
CONCOURSE B AT MIDWAY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
It’s been a long day already. En route to the 2008 CFN Board Meeting, I’ve gotten caught in morning rush hour traffic in the Twin Cities, driven across a Wisconsin that is now eight different shades of drab gray, and roared through a driving rainstorm on the Northwest Tollway that reduced visibility to almost nothing. By the time I zap a text to ElTigreRex and 847Badgerfan, who are already in Nashville, I’m ready for a drink. However, those two gentlemen have already beaten me to the punch. A few minutes after I message them, Badge calls me back and informs me that I need to take a cab to the hotel, because they have been drinking all day and neither is sober enough to drive to the airport and get me. Ah, the Board Meeting has begun!
A bit of backstory here. It was determined at last year’s extravaganza in Austin, Texas that the next Board Meeting should take place in SEC country. A couple of weeks after that, the executive decision came down that this Board Meeting would take place in Nash-vegas (as the place is often referred to on SEC message boards). Since several of us (or friends of ours) had been there for bowl games, it was agreed that this would be a great place for it.
My flight from Midway to Nashville had a rough climbout due to said rainstorm, but once we got out of the soup, it was a smooth flight. This was the shortest flight that I had taken in at least three years. Being used to 3½ hour hauls to and from the West Coast (and last year’s 6-hour drag to Austin), it was surprising to start descending almost as soon as we got to cruise altitude. The Nashville airport is an easy airport to get through, but I found it to be a dump.
Since the Nashville street grid isn’t set at right angles relative to a north-south, my sense of direction was all discombobulated, and as such I was totally lost on the cab ride to the hotel. I was staying in the same room as TigerKing, and he met me in the lobby to get the hotel keys. Once I dumped my stuff off, we took a cab back downtown. We had a cabbie who was telling jokes that weren’t very tasteful in light of Tuesday’s election, and that’s not even close to describing how this cab ride went.
We met Badge in the lobby of his hotel, and end up eating dinner at an Irish pub. Badge and TigerKing have managed to drink the bar out of Johnny Walker Black, and in punishment we have to suffer through two guys trying to cover various country standards. They ended with a horrendous treatment of the Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel.” Since we were all quite tired, we decided to withdraw to our hotels for the evening.
Next morning, Badge comes by our hotel with the minivan he rented to shuttle people around in. We head out to the airport to pick up MikeTheTiger and BurntEyes. After that, we head over towards the Vanderbilt campus to scout out places to drink the next day. Since it’s not 11 AM yet, none of the watering holes are open yet. We end up stopping at a place called the Corner Pub that is showing some signs of life. It was only 10:40, but the barmaid agreed to serve us drinks. It was here that most of the gang finally trickled in. UTErin, razorchique, theumrebel, buckeyecraazy, Gatorama, and DavidG all rolled in while we were at the Corner.
Shortly before 3, the party moved over to barbecue restaurant, across 5th Street from the hockey arena. Badge had arranged for us to take over one corner of their outside. This is where SunDevilFroggy, MarqHusker, and his wife came and joined the party. As for the food here, I was not overly impressed by their barbecue. I know that most Southern barbecue is pork-based compared with the Texas beef, but my biggest problem was that it was tough as nails. I’ve eaten good barbecued pork ribs (oddly enough from a joint on the eastside of Seattle), and these were not one of them. Usually pork ribs have a much higher meat-to-bone ratio than beef ribs, but these did not.
It was at this point that Badge pounded on the table and called the 2008 Board Meeting to order. The only thing that he did was order us to drink. Seeing that we had been doing that for some time already, the call ended up being more a “Bottoms up!” command than anything else.
We stayed here until nightfall, which is when the gang briefly retired to their hotels to change clothes and possibly eat supper. After a couple of hours, we met up at The Big Bang, a dueling piano bar on Broadway. I’d never been to one of these places, and it was pretty crazy. It was loud, raucous, bawdy, and an all-out blast. All things considered, the first day of the meeting went pretty well.
On the way back to the hotel, someone suggested that we stop through the Waffle House that is a hundred yards from the hotel. I’m riding with LilDawg, BuckeyeCraazy, and UTErin, and they’re looking at me as if I ought to find the number of this place so we can call in a to-go order. I tell them that I’ve never been in a Waffle House before in my life, and I haven’t a clue what to order. So they order their food, and by the time that they pass the phone to me, we’re pulling into the parking lot. Wonderful timing. They convince me to get an order of grits to try and eat. We end up eating our breakfast haul in Erin and BC’s room. LilDawg insists that the grits are the best thing since sliced bread, but I found them to be more efficient as brick mortar than as breakfast food.
Saturday morning dawned with continental breakfast at the hotel, then everyone converging on the Vanderbilt campus. We got parked about 10:30, and several of us walked into the campus to find a bookstore so we could get some souvenir swag. The campus of Vanderbilt University is a gorgeous little gem in the middle of Nashville. Both Badge and I commented that it was very similar to Northwestern University in Evanston (small but, and then a massive, modern hospital).
We had been recommended to a joint called Sam’s Place for watching the day’s games. A friend of Burny had recommended it, and it did not disappoint. The place opened at 11:00, and before long it became college football central. Other than our bunch, I counted at least a dozen different school colors in there, just for the early games. Sadly, unlike in the Buck Owens song, there were no waitresses named Hattie from Cincinnati or Rita, who hailed from Pasadena.
The 18 of us took over a corner of the front veranda, pushing tables together in a large L formation. At first, the waitress who was working our section of the restaurant was worried about us making our $10 minimum. We assured her that she would not be disappointed. The food and beer quickly started flowing while we digested the early games. Gator and I focused on the 91st Little Brown Jug, while everyone else paid attention to their games. If their team was on, they watched it, but most of the freelancers were watching the wild gunfight-at-the-OK-Corral that was Kentucky-Georgia. For a neutral observer, it must have been an interesting thing to see 18 different people screaming and yelling at different screens at the same time, trying to figure out which was which.
At this point, I should also mention that the city was overflowing with Florida Gator fans. I had at least six of them on my plane down from Chicago on Thursday. The actual makeup of the crowd at Sam’s was very heavy Florida Gator, with the other colors sprinkled among them, much like chunks of ice in a giant blue Slurpee.
The early games ended, and it appeared there was a bit of a “shift change,” if you will. Folks from the early teams left, and fans from the late games came in. Included in this bunch were a few Penn State fans in the back of the restaurant, and a decent-sized contingent of bammers at the other end of the veranda. As the game went on, someone in the group of bammers kept letting off these high-pitched, grating, fingernails-on-the-blackboard style screams whenever anything happened to Bama. Razorchique thought that it was a guy for a little while, only to find that the guilty part was a small, 5-foot-nothing beanpole of a girl.
We took our group picture when all three of the 2:30 games were at halftime, and then things got REAL interesting in the second half. Penn State had their chances to draw away from Iowa, but the chickens played some tough D. For one afternoon, all the SEC folks in the bar became really big Iowa Hawkeye fans. Also, for some reason that I could not fathom, all the Florida fans in the bar were cheering for Bama.
The crowd exploded when Iowa hit their FG, but Badge and I laughed our butts off when the Idiots Out Wandering Around students charged the field with one second left, setting up what could have been a big choke job. But give the Hawks credit, they were able to avoid a The Play-like return. They’re going to be a tough out the rest of the way.
The seminal moment of the weekend took place late in regulation of LSU-Alabama, after PSU-Iowa had ended. All of us at the CFN table were cheering like mad for LSU, partially because MikeDeTiger was in our midst, and mostly because the shrieking bammer from the other end of the veranda was getting REALLY annoying at this point. Anyway, John Parker Wilson broke off a 40-something yard touchdown run. The Florida and Bama fans were going nuts, with plenty of shrieking. The more eagle-eyed observers among us had noticed that the Bama backfield was littered with yellow penalty markers. Sure enough, it was a holding penalty that wiped the touchdown, and caused our table to go just as ballistic. The blocked field goal at the end of regulation drew a similar reaction.
After the end of overtime, we all closed our tabs, and then the group split up. Big kudos to the waitress. How she kept our drinks filled and the tabs straightened out is beyond me. Most folks went to another bar, but some of us decided to see if we could actually get into the game without forking over an arm and a leg. Several contacts assured us that it wouldn’t be any trouble. The walk to the stadium was kind of surreal. Normally, with the game a short time away from kicking off, there’s a lot more buzz and foot traffic around the campus. There wasn’t much of anything happening until you were three blocks from the stadium. We hawked tickets for $40, and went in, hoping that we could meet up at some point. The five of us that went in were SDF, MDT, LilDawg, BuckeyeCraazy, and myself.
Vanderbilt Stadium is by far the smallest stadium in the SEC, and may well be the smallest football stadium in any BCS conference east of the Rockies. I’ve been to a few stadiums in different portions of the country, and I have to tell you that this was the worst college football stadium I’ve ever been in. Even Reser Stadium at Oregon State, which has a similar capacity, is vastly superior to Vandy. Most of the places I’ve been would eat this joint for lunch and still have room for dessert. When we got in there, the stadium was well over half full of Gator fans. I am aware that football is a distant afterthought on the brainpower campuses, but I didn’t think it was that bad.
Either way, this was the first time I’d seen an SEC game in person. A basketball-sized pep band from Florida was there, and they were keeping the crowd well into it. On the field, the Gators were doing whatever they wanted to whenever they wanted to. The offense looked like a well-oiled machine that was FAST. The Gators didn’t start in their own territory until after the second quarter, which meant that all the action was in front of us in the early goings.
The five of us got back together early in the second quarter, and we quickly found ourselves surrounded by kindred folks who wore a similar spread of gear that we had (We had tOSU, Miami Ohio, and a couple of others around us). They thought it was really cool how we all post on a message board and get together once a year.
The game was lousy, and the only thing that kept us in there as long as we did (we stayed to the end of the 3rd when Urban Meyer pulled Tim Tebow and Co.) was the funnel cakes the ladies ordered at halftime. BuckeyeCraazy’s peacoat ended up covered with powdered sugar, since she happened to be on the downwind end of all the funnel cakes.
Once we got out of the stadium, we started calling around to see where everyone went. It turns out that most folks had gone back to the hotel, with a few going back to bed. We stopped at a Quick-Sack for some beer, and joined the gang that was at our Holiday Inn Express. We watched the postgame from USC-Cal and Texas Tech-Oklahoma, drank more beer, and discussed where we might want to take this flying circus next year.
On Sunday morning, the people who were staying at our hotel, plus SDF and MDT who cabbed it over from their hotel, invaded the Waffle House that was a hundred yards from our hotel. I’m a big fan of the waffles and hash browns, but the biscuits and gravy were ice cold. We bid our adieus outside here, which is always tough, but we know that we’ll do it again before too long.
Granted, I’ve only been to two of these things, but I’m always a bit sad when I leave events like this. I’ve had a really crappy-ass year, but I know that for one weekend every year, everything can be right with the world.
The drive from Midway Airport in Chicago back to Minnesota was long but uneventful. I will let you guys in on one thing I do every time I drive across the border from Wisconsin to Minnesota. As part of a college song podcast, I have “Varsity” on my iPod. I play “Varsity,” then go right to the Rouser with the full opening fanfare. I’ve timed it such that when they get to the start of the Rouser, I’m crossing the river bridge into civilization/Minnesota. On a related note, I also play “Hail Minnesota” whenever I leave the state. Go figure.
I’ve got two more college football games on my slate, this week in Madison for the Axe game, then the last Gopher game ever in the Metrodome the following Saturday. I’ll catch you then.
GR
“Trip Recap: Ohio State at Wisconsin, October 4, 2008”
“Trip Recap: Ohio State at Wisconsin, October 4, 2008”
OR
“I didn’t just drive all the way from Minneapolis to watch an NFL game, did I?”
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2008
CAMP RANDALL STADIUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
MADISON, WISCONSIN
This past weekend brought me down to Madison for a rare night game at Camp Randall Stadium, this time against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Perhaps I had better back up and cue you in on the backstory of what brought me to Madtown this weekend. It’s been a crazy month for me. I’ve moved back to the Midwest from Seattle over the course of September, as well as dealing with/staying out of the way of all of my blood relatives at a wedding in Colorado. To celebrate surviving this gauntlet, as well as reinforcing my enjoyment of college football, I asked 847Badgerfan if I could come down to Madison for a night game at the Camp against Ohio State. He gladly agreed, and I made the necessary arrangements to make the epic drive across Wisconsin. Before you call me bat-guano crazy for going to Madison to see a non-Gopher Badger game, I like college football too much to let something petty like archrivalry get in the way of enjoying the game.
Other than the 400-mile distance, the drive from Minneapolis to Kenosha on Friday afternoon was uneventful, for the most part. On I-894 around downtown Milwaukee, a truck was stopped in the left lane, jamming up traffic on the southbound side. I thought he had killed his motor until I got around him and saw why he was stopped in the traffic lane instead of pulled off to the median. It appeared that someone had hit a dog, and he stopped in the traffic lane to get the corpse off to the side. That drive should get a nice fat illegal stopping ticket.
I’ve been trying all summer to get down there, but this was the first time I’d been down to see Badge’s boat. He has a very nice setup, and the other folks that were there were fantastic people. We ate dinner with a one of them at the Kenosha Yacht Club. Badge’s friend then brought us back to his boat and served us the most lethal white Russians any of us have ever had. There was no messing around with those drinks. After three of them, we staggered across the dock to our sleeping quarters.
6:00 Saturday morning came way too early, and after hitting the boathouse for a shower, we were on the road to Madison. Before we got on I-94 in Kenosha, we stopped into a McDonalds for a McMuffin to keep our stomachs occupied. I saw a stack of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinels stacked next to the register. Something about “UW band” caught my eye, and I went over for a closer look. The headline, above the fold and in boldface, said something along the lines of “UW Marching Band Shelved.” Below was the article outlining why the band had gotten suspended. I showed this in disbelief to Badge and Gator, and it took a while for the news to sink into their heads as well. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they were feeling just as awful as I was.
There was a lot of company on 94 between Milwaukee and Madison, but for some reason the coffee I had with breakfast was doing nothing for me, as I was yawning like crazy all the way up to the hotel. We parked the other vehicles at the hotel, then headed over to their tailgate lot on Regent Street. We arrived shortly after 10:00 AM, and there was already more life around the campus than there has ever been 9 hours before a night kickoff in Minneapolis.
Between my seized-up back and a wicked hangover from those white Russians, I was not feeling too chipper. After the first round of brats had been served, I crawled up in the Tahoe for a brief siesta. I was out of it for about 40 minutes, and I felt much better once I woke up.
The band suspension was the talk of the tailgate, at least in the early goings. Personally, I’m withholding judgment on the situation. On the one hand, not having the band at Camp Randall was a loss not only for the Badgers and their faithful, but all of college football. If the University of Wisconsin Marching Band isn’t the best band in the country, they aren’t far from it. This also has the makings of a nasty power struggle, with all accounts saying that the director made no consultation with any higher-ups before making the call. On the other hand, whatever happened on that bus must have been a real doozy in order for the director to get that wound up. Regardless of what comes out of this, I think it’s safe to say that the UW band won’t be going to Ann Arbor again anytime soon.
The spread of food put out at the tailgate was hard to beat. Bratwurst on multiple occasions, hamburgers, hot homemade soup, pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, lots of dips, bacon-wrapped jalapeños, and probably a dozen other things that I forgot about. Every bit of it was fantastic. I really liked the mac-and-cheese, not just for the spiral noodles they used, but whatever else got mixed into it. Someone said it was creamed corn.
Gatorama had not been feeling well all day, and around 5:00 he decided to go back to the hotel. When trying to unload his ticket, I found out the hard way how rancid the re-sale market was. A little while later, WifeOfBadgerfan went back to the hotel to stay with him. I managed to get $45 for the two of them, and I had to work very hard to get that much.
The band getting shelved made a big difference in game atmosphere. I’ve been there before for a Gopher game, and even though the game was effectively over midway through the first, the band kept everyone much more involved than if nothing was keeping the crowd around. Canned music played with the volume pegged doesn’t make for much of a college football game. I didn’t drive all the way down from Minneapolis just to watch an NFL game. However, the crowd in there last night was a very smart bunch. They knew when to
I also found it VERY strange that the recording of “Varsity” that was played during halftime wasn’t played after the end of the game. The tOSU fans and team were belting away on “Carmen Ohio” even without any musical accompaniment, “Varsity” shows up at all other Badger events, and even “Hail Minnesota” is a postgame staple at all of our athletic events. Someone dropped the ball big-time on that one.
On the way back to the tailgate lot, a conversation was overheard between two Ohio State fans. It went something like this: “I have heard nothing good about the Wisconsin fans ever since that 2003 game. I was the only Buckeye in a whole section of Badgers, but it ended up being a great time as we were surrounded by great people.” I didn’t notice any other altercations between Buckeyes and Badgers, and the Buckeye fans that came by our lot were all very friendly.
The group that tailgates with Badge has some of the nicest folks you ever met in your life. I plan on being down there again on November 15 for the Gopher game.
Sunday morning I went to Mass at the UW Newman Center at the west end of State Street, then ate breakfast at Mickey’s Dairy Bar, across from the Fieldhouse on Monroe Street. Mickey’s is a must-eat place for visitors to Madison, as the pancakes are big and very, very tasty. It poured rain most of the way back to the Twin Cities, so I got a free car wash out of the deal.
Some brief thoughts on the actual game:
This isn’t the first time that BB’s time management skills have cost the Badgers a win, and nor will it be the last.
I can see John Clay becoming an Anthony Davis-style thorn in the Gophers’ side. It seemed as if Davis always went for about 250 yards and 3 TDs whenever he played the Gophs. However, that would require the coaches to keep giving him the rock, and the Badger coaching staff seems quite content with PJ Hill getting stuffed at the line of scrimmage every time.
Terelle Pryor is a horse. There were a few rookie mistakes (a couple of bad sacks where he had all day to throw it away and took a 10+ yard loss), but there was still plenty of brilliance too. He was able to shake off the first man more than once without slowing down.
Say what you will about the Badgers’ inability to defend it, but that option was a brilliant call by tOSU on the go-ahead TD. Put the ball in the hands of your two best players (Pryor at QB and Wells as the pitchman) and let ‘em loose. Granted, Wells hadn’t been doing much in the second half, but it was still a great call. I once saw the Gophers run an option on a had-to-have 2-point conversion, with Brian Cupito at QB and Marion Barber III and Lawrence Maroney as the pitchmen. Needless to say, they got the conversion.
If the Badgers had Adam Weber at the helm, they would be undefeated and a sizable favorite over Penn State this Saturday night. Everidge single-handedly cost them this game. On the last series, the Badgers had way too far to go and not enough time to get there for Everidge to be running around in the backfield like that, on 1st down no less. If no one is open, roll out, throw it away, and try it again on second down. And make sure you don’t go over the line of scrimmage before you do. Instead, the last interception gets thrown without a single red jersey within striking distance of catching the pass.
A big thank you to everyone who I ran into this weekend for making it a blast. If you ever get the chance to go to a night game in Madison, go!
OR
“I didn’t just drive all the way from Minneapolis to watch an NFL game, did I?”
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2008
CAMP RANDALL STADIUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
MADISON, WISCONSIN
This past weekend brought me down to Madison for a rare night game at Camp Randall Stadium, this time against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Perhaps I had better back up and cue you in on the backstory of what brought me to Madtown this weekend. It’s been a crazy month for me. I’ve moved back to the Midwest from Seattle over the course of September, as well as dealing with/staying out of the way of all of my blood relatives at a wedding in Colorado. To celebrate surviving this gauntlet, as well as reinforcing my enjoyment of college football, I asked 847Badgerfan if I could come down to Madison for a night game at the Camp against Ohio State. He gladly agreed, and I made the necessary arrangements to make the epic drive across Wisconsin. Before you call me bat-guano crazy for going to Madison to see a non-Gopher Badger game, I like college football too much to let something petty like archrivalry get in the way of enjoying the game.
Other than the 400-mile distance, the drive from Minneapolis to Kenosha on Friday afternoon was uneventful, for the most part. On I-894 around downtown Milwaukee, a truck was stopped in the left lane, jamming up traffic on the southbound side. I thought he had killed his motor until I got around him and saw why he was stopped in the traffic lane instead of pulled off to the median. It appeared that someone had hit a dog, and he stopped in the traffic lane to get the corpse off to the side. That drive should get a nice fat illegal stopping ticket.
I’ve been trying all summer to get down there, but this was the first time I’d been down to see Badge’s boat. He has a very nice setup, and the other folks that were there were fantastic people. We ate dinner with a one of them at the Kenosha Yacht Club. Badge’s friend then brought us back to his boat and served us the most lethal white Russians any of us have ever had. There was no messing around with those drinks. After three of them, we staggered across the dock to our sleeping quarters.
6:00 Saturday morning came way too early, and after hitting the boathouse for a shower, we were on the road to Madison. Before we got on I-94 in Kenosha, we stopped into a McDonalds for a McMuffin to keep our stomachs occupied. I saw a stack of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinels stacked next to the register. Something about “UW band” caught my eye, and I went over for a closer look. The headline, above the fold and in boldface, said something along the lines of “UW Marching Band Shelved.” Below was the article outlining why the band had gotten suspended. I showed this in disbelief to Badge and Gator, and it took a while for the news to sink into their heads as well. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they were feeling just as awful as I was.
There was a lot of company on 94 between Milwaukee and Madison, but for some reason the coffee I had with breakfast was doing nothing for me, as I was yawning like crazy all the way up to the hotel. We parked the other vehicles at the hotel, then headed over to their tailgate lot on Regent Street. We arrived shortly after 10:00 AM, and there was already more life around the campus than there has ever been 9 hours before a night kickoff in Minneapolis.
Between my seized-up back and a wicked hangover from those white Russians, I was not feeling too chipper. After the first round of brats had been served, I crawled up in the Tahoe for a brief siesta. I was out of it for about 40 minutes, and I felt much better once I woke up.
The band suspension was the talk of the tailgate, at least in the early goings. Personally, I’m withholding judgment on the situation. On the one hand, not having the band at Camp Randall was a loss not only for the Badgers and their faithful, but all of college football. If the University of Wisconsin Marching Band isn’t the best band in the country, they aren’t far from it. This also has the makings of a nasty power struggle, with all accounts saying that the director made no consultation with any higher-ups before making the call. On the other hand, whatever happened on that bus must have been a real doozy in order for the director to get that wound up. Regardless of what comes out of this, I think it’s safe to say that the UW band won’t be going to Ann Arbor again anytime soon.
The spread of food put out at the tailgate was hard to beat. Bratwurst on multiple occasions, hamburgers, hot homemade soup, pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, lots of dips, bacon-wrapped jalapeños, and probably a dozen other things that I forgot about. Every bit of it was fantastic. I really liked the mac-and-cheese, not just for the spiral noodles they used, but whatever else got mixed into it. Someone said it was creamed corn.
Gatorama had not been feeling well all day, and around 5:00 he decided to go back to the hotel. When trying to unload his ticket, I found out the hard way how rancid the re-sale market was. A little while later, WifeOfBadgerfan went back to the hotel to stay with him. I managed to get $45 for the two of them, and I had to work very hard to get that much.
The band getting shelved made a big difference in game atmosphere. I’ve been there before for a Gopher game, and even though the game was effectively over midway through the first, the band kept everyone much more involved than if nothing was keeping the crowd around. Canned music played with the volume pegged doesn’t make for much of a college football game. I didn’t drive all the way down from Minneapolis just to watch an NFL game. However, the crowd in there last night was a very smart bunch. They knew when to
I also found it VERY strange that the recording of “Varsity” that was played during halftime wasn’t played after the end of the game. The tOSU fans and team were belting away on “Carmen Ohio” even without any musical accompaniment, “Varsity” shows up at all other Badger events, and even “Hail Minnesota” is a postgame staple at all of our athletic events. Someone dropped the ball big-time on that one.
On the way back to the tailgate lot, a conversation was overheard between two Ohio State fans. It went something like this: “I have heard nothing good about the Wisconsin fans ever since that 2003 game. I was the only Buckeye in a whole section of Badgers, but it ended up being a great time as we were surrounded by great people.” I didn’t notice any other altercations between Buckeyes and Badgers, and the Buckeye fans that came by our lot were all very friendly.
The group that tailgates with Badge has some of the nicest folks you ever met in your life. I plan on being down there again on November 15 for the Gopher game.
Sunday morning I went to Mass at the UW Newman Center at the west end of State Street, then ate breakfast at Mickey’s Dairy Bar, across from the Fieldhouse on Monroe Street. Mickey’s is a must-eat place for visitors to Madison, as the pancakes are big and very, very tasty. It poured rain most of the way back to the Twin Cities, so I got a free car wash out of the deal.
Some brief thoughts on the actual game:
This isn’t the first time that BB’s time management skills have cost the Badgers a win, and nor will it be the last.
I can see John Clay becoming an Anthony Davis-style thorn in the Gophers’ side. It seemed as if Davis always went for about 250 yards and 3 TDs whenever he played the Gophs. However, that would require the coaches to keep giving him the rock, and the Badger coaching staff seems quite content with PJ Hill getting stuffed at the line of scrimmage every time.
Terelle Pryor is a horse. There were a few rookie mistakes (a couple of bad sacks where he had all day to throw it away and took a 10+ yard loss), but there was still plenty of brilliance too. He was able to shake off the first man more than once without slowing down.
Say what you will about the Badgers’ inability to defend it, but that option was a brilliant call by tOSU on the go-ahead TD. Put the ball in the hands of your two best players (Pryor at QB and Wells as the pitchman) and let ‘em loose. Granted, Wells hadn’t been doing much in the second half, but it was still a great call. I once saw the Gophers run an option on a had-to-have 2-point conversion, with Brian Cupito at QB and Marion Barber III and Lawrence Maroney as the pitchmen. Needless to say, they got the conversion.
If the Badgers had Adam Weber at the helm, they would be undefeated and a sizable favorite over Penn State this Saturday night. Everidge single-handedly cost them this game. On the last series, the Badgers had way too far to go and not enough time to get there for Everidge to be running around in the backfield like that, on 1st down no less. If no one is open, roll out, throw it away, and try it again on second down. And make sure you don’t go over the line of scrimmage before you do. Instead, the last interception gets thrown without a single red jersey within striking distance of catching the pass.
A big thank you to everyone who I ran into this weekend for making it a blast. If you ever get the chance to go to a night game in Madison, go!
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