I haven’t road tripped in a while, and haven’t made it to any UTexas games in Austin all year, so I finally decided late friday that I’d hit the road saturday morning to Austin. I haven’t been on the road on game day in a very long time (I usually go in friday night if not earlier). I haven’t seen all the oranged and longhorned cars in caravan from Houston to Austin in a while.

Stayed with Bob & Cristen, and went to their place in NW Austin about 1 pm. We soon left for the Tialgate – in a parking garage to fend off the weather. Unfortunately, a pinched nerve (sleeping wrong?) kept getting worse throughout the afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day is sharp pain. Though beer did a decent job of muscle relaxing.

I didn’t have a ticket and was just planning on watching the game at the Texas Exes center across the street; i’ve never really done that. There were many people looking for tickets as well. Texas Tech had too good of an offense for the game to be an easy one. And this was the last home game of the season. But BobCristen had a ticket (from Ken, who was out of town) they were going to use for Coleman. So, Bob tried getting in first without the ticket, and was successful, so I got in with the unused ticket and got to see the exceedingly close and exciting game.

The stadium stayed pack to the end (since we had to wait for the last second missed field goal to see if the game would go into overtime). Afterward, Roy Williams took a victory lap, high-fiving fans and getting some gifts tossed his way. He forewent the NFL draft last year to play this year, and it was his last home game.

We then hung out in the parking garage for an hour waiting for traffic to clear, and left about 11 pm. With my pain-in-the-neck, I was up for just staying home and catching some TV.

After some sunday morning lounging, Bob and I went to the Little Longhorn Saloon to see Dale Watson, drink $1.50 Lone Stars, and play Chicken Shit Bingo. The small shotgun bar was packed with a great variety of people and felt like a road house on Burnet in the middle of Austin.

Chicken Shit Bingo: buy a numbered ticket, throw a chicken in a cage with a numbered grid on it, cheer for the chicken to shit on your square. There’s some sunday evening fun!

Drove back this morning, n the rain, which I enjoy. Though, by the time I got to Houston there was some major rain coming down and too many idiots without their lights on. Took some drugs for my back, took a nap, slept with rain on the roof.

-b