Cotton Bowl Trip, Vol. II

Continuing with the cotton pickin' theme I seem to have started around here...

My wife and I were in Dallas/Fort Worth for the 2012 Cotton Bowl. Our first full day in the metro was Thursday, January 5.

After a quick run/workout at the dungeon that passed for a hotel fitness area, we drove to Frankie's in the Sundance Square area in Ft. Worth, where we once again witnessed an establishment underestimate the droves in which Kansas State fans travel. The place was packed for Thursday lunch, mostly with purple. That said, the service and food were both decent. During the meal, Ann heard from some of her bowl friends. Seriously-- she stays up with these folks she sees basically only during bowl trips. Anyhow, we met them at Humperdink's, closer to the stadium, for a beverage. Our plan was to congregate there in preparation for the pep rally. I made some new friends and Ann reconnected with some old ones, since she goes back over 15 years with these folks.

Following some refreshment from some unseasonably pleasant January weather, we adjourned to Rangers Ballpark.

This is what became a crowd of about 20,000 Wildcat fans. For a pep rally the day before the game. Not all Cat fans had made it to town yet. The band, cheerleaders, and Classy Cats all found the travel much easier than they did for last year's Pinstripe Bowl. As I've said before, this is the only in-person dose of KSU football we get, so we were both really excited. After an hour and a half of videos (including stadium renovation projects and Wildcat bowl highlights set to Brooks and Dunn's "Proud of the House We Built"), player interviews, a talk from Coach Snyder and general purple merriment, we went on our way. Ann was pleased that the former President of K-State did not speak, as I hear he could be a little, um, windy during these events.

Then the group of what became about 20 was off to Cattleman's in the Stockyards-- a good old-fashioned steakhouse in a neighborhood where you'd expect to find one or two really good ones, of which this was one.  I think I had an eight-ounce steak, baked potato, salad and rolls. Very good eats. A late (about 8 pm) and very filling meal, but well worth the time.

Something we also had to do-- play hard. It was on this day when Ann caught a cold that morphed into a ear infection. We got her some drugs after the pep rally then went and ate. She wore it very well and played very hard and didn't seem interested in this ruining her good time.

We'd done a lot, seen a lot and had a damn good time this day, and the best part of this leg of the trip was still to come. Tomorrow was gameday.