The night before ran a little long, and since Ann was in the throes of being sick, we gradually worked our way into the day. As she stayed in bed, I went into town to see my friend Joel once again, who came with his wife to see us two nights before. He's a life coach these days, and it was really good to see him doing so well. He's even getting me charged up about things.
Anyhow, I got back to base camp and cleaned up, then the two of us went back to Humperdink's a little bit after noon, and I had what turned out to be my only meal of the day. I'm a big fan of microbrews, so I had one with my sandwich. This is pretty much where we stayed until it was time for...
...the famous Jerry World. It's either a very large stadium, or a small continent. Man, it's huge. Tailgate parties were set up, and it would've been nice to be a part of one, but we went into the corporate party area after they did a brisk search for contraband. If it'd been cold like the Pinstripe Bowl last year, then it would've been easy enough to hide things in layers. This year-- temps in the 60s. So no dice. But we went on in and checked the place out, and I paid for my first $8 adult beverage. There was lots of purple there, and I even thought I recognized the tool store guy from Clay Center who'd always record ads via telephone.
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| K-State band, priming the crowd for the big game |
By this time, Ann and I were just kind of itching to get inside and check this place out. We weren't disappointed.
This was about 1 1/2 hours from kickoff, when the sun was still peeking in. I sat in my end zone seat while Ann went to go find (more) friends. The pregame show on the mega-jumbo-tron was a good time killer, done in part by Brad Sham, voice of the Dallas Cowboys and a gentleman whose hand I shook back in 1998. I got my chance to case the joint a little-- but the place was very segmented and it was hard to get from one section to another. Besides, I wasn't sure how long it'd take to get back. So I cut my losses and stayed in the vicinity. There was a ton of room behind our end zone seats, filled with several vehicles for our viewing pleasure. Like I said, the place is just immense. The crowd was about 60-40 in favor of Arkansas. But the Wildcat Nation represented well.
I'm on record as saying that this is one of my favorite things-- band pregame. Fight song, alma mater, Wabash Cannonball, etc. I can't get enough and still watch the youtube video on occasion.
Obviously the game didn't go as we wanted. My hope was that we'd be able to stay on the field with Arkansas, and we did, but I didn't think it was hard to tell who the better team was. A few things went our way toward the end of the half and into the third quarter, but it just didn't come together. I cheered and yelled as best I could, but my poor wife could only sit next to me, since she still wasn't feeling well. The folks to my right were from the Wichita area. It's never hard to have a new friend for a few hours during the game, but the father of three to my right wasn't really interested in banter. Oh well-- it didn't interfere with my enjoyment. Final score-- Arkansas 29, Kansas State 16.
After adjourning to the hotel, I stayed downstairs for a nightcap or two with Ann's friends as she went upstairs to rest. I really felt bad for her, since she really wanted to stay with us, but just couldn't. Razorback fans that we spoke to seemed surprised that purple seems to travel so well, even though all you have to do is pay a little bit of attention to know how well Cat fans travel to bowl games. It's not our first rodeo.
So with that I went off to join my wife. It had been a big day-- one I'll always remember. But there was still plenty more where that came from. We were scheduled to leave on a jet plane the next day.
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