This entry will be different from most that came before it. One of the things that sets this road trip off from the others is that it was not a solo road trip. Jack and I had planned this trip for at least a month, and it would be his only trip for the season. Since it was a team, weve begun to think of this as our annual road trip. Last year, we went to see West Virginia, and this year it was Texas. Of course, I did not want to go just to see Texas; the visiting team for this weekends match up was my alma mater, TCU. Last year, I went to see them play at Oklahoma, and we knew from the outset that it was hopeless to expect TCU to win. It was a closer game than people expected, but the was never in doubt.
This is my first game of the season at a Power Five school, and it did not disappoint. Prior to the contest, Texas was ranked 9th, and TCU was unranked and winless. You can imagine that I felt the same way going into this game as I did before
the Oklahoma game last year. And most of the time, I did feel that way. As I told Jack in the car while we traversed the 1000 miles to get to Austin, TX, I just wanted it to be a close game. I just wanted us not to get blown out. Did I expect we would win? Not at all. But spoilers: we did win! Since most people dont read this blog to find out the of the game, I dont mind telling you who won up front. You have ESPN and other Internet sources if thats all youre interested in knowing. But with me, you get a game and a story.
One of the side stories for this trip is that Im still dealing with a pinched nerve that began two weeks ago after the game at Southern Mississippi. It makes life a lot more painful, which makes everything less enjoyable than it could be. So as I write this, Im not sure where its going to go, or how interesting it will be. The pain has left me less able to focus on certain aspects of the trip, but I will do my best to recount
Because Jack had some on Thursday, we didnt get to leave for Texas until Friday morning. This meant that we had only one day to drive 1000 miles. The game was scheduled for noon (Eastern Time) which meant we would have very little time on Saturday morning to drive. We drove through five states by the time the sun had set, and it still felt like we had a long way to go. As Jack put it, Texas is big. That is the truth. I feel like half of the distance we traveled on Friday was just in Texas. That may be an exaggeration, but not by much. In all seriousness, we kept ourselves entertained through conversation and podcasts and the occasional playlist, and never got bored at least until Louisiana. But once we hit Texas, time seemed to dilate. Perhaps this was because we had already driven 9 hours at that point, and we still had 4 hours to go. I had booked a hotel in Waco before the trip, to give us a goal for Friday night. Then we would only have to
drive an hour and a half on Saturday morning. If we could get through Friday, the rest of the trip would be much more manageable.
On our road trips like this, we like to make stops at other college football schools, but this time was different. We decided to save all the stops until the trip home. After all, 13 hours in the car in a single day is more than enough to keep you occupied. We did stop in Tuscaloosa for gas and lunch. Coincidentally, the restaurant we chose is called Jacks. Neither of us had ever tried their food, but as both of us agreed when we were finished, it got the job done. I dont think either of us will go out of our way to find another Jacks, but we wont be afraid of it if we see it on the road. The rest of our drive was pretty uneventful. We stopped for gas one more time, but no more food. We did begin listening to a delightful podcast called Smartless. Its surprising what you will find to listen to when you have an infinite amount of possibilities, but this particular podcast won us over
in several ways: its clever, funny, and overall entertaining.
Travelmates near
