Back to the friendly confines of the Alamodome!
After four weeks away from home, the Roadrunners finally returned home for a two game stand; New Mexico followed by Florida International. The New Mexico game started with a lot of hope and fanfare. During this game the team was wearing special “lead” uniforms that are now up for auction. So everyone was ready to see them on the field. Also, being the first chance to tailgate at home in a month, the locals were restless.
For Linda and me it meant a chance to pull out all of our UTSA garb and go all out. [Yeah, like we didn’t do much on any of those road trips!] As expected, we did not get a lot of sleep the few days before. [I had the misfortune of spending all day Thursday in the airport and then having the flight cancelled, so I didn’t get back into town until Friday to start getting things ready]. Linda though had made up a fresh batch of her special cookies and had most of the food ready to go.
And not that we ever take on too much, but for this game, our guests were her mother and nephew who were staying the weekend with us. The good news is that this forced us to take two cars. The bad news is that I could take MORE STUFF!
Now, unlike those that tailgate in the desert of Lot C [jk] if you are not in line before the gates open, the good spots in Lot B will be gone. So let me set the scene:
* It’s 7:30am
* We are in line about 7-8 cars double-parked deep along the street
* Our clown-car is loaded just about to the ceiling
* George is giving me the look from the passenger seat
* And we are going on a few hours of sleep
In other words, this is a normal tailgating morning in San Antonio! And yes, we are having fun!
Gates open and by the time I get into the parking lot cars and trucks are speeding to get to “their” perfect spot. Flashback to a scene in the old Smokey and the Bandit movie [I really aged myself there]. So we get to our spot for this week, along with a few of the RowdyTalk folks, on the sidewalk by the RV’s and start with the setup.
The day goes by pretty much as normal for our tailgates. We had a large number of people drop in and pass through. For this setup we had eight tents in a row all opened up so we could walk through from one end to the other. Lots of socializing, food and drink.
The game time was set for 2:30 so we started the teardown at 1:00 and made it into the ‘dome before kickoff. The game… well… you know how that ended up. We had a tough time with too many mistakes and just not being able to generate enough offense. In the end we came up short. Four game losing streak that so easily could have been 3-1 instead. But games are won and lost sometimes on just a few plays. And for UTSA, we have been on the short side of this equation.
But we hopped into our cars and drove home. Next week would be another game and we will be there supporting UTSA and the players! Oh, and next week is a full day of tailgating! Gates open at 8am. Game at 6:30pm. Lots of hours to look forward to!
Until next time….