Travel should be planned surreptitiously and never very far in advance. Travel plans that are made far in advance lack the passion that makes a last minute trip so exciting.
Take last Friday night for example. I was leaving my gym in Manhattan a little after 9 pm when my best friend called to tell me that my alma mater, Ohio University, was giving Pitt all it could handle and then some on national TV. He told me it was 10-7 in the middle of the third quarter. I picked up my pace in order to witness the event myself on "the deuce." As the 4th quarter unfolded and Pitt rallied to force an overtime period my best friend and I were offering our own commentary via telephone.
To frame this a bit for the three of you reading this, OU isn't very good at football. In fact, out of about 117 D1 schools, they're somwhere in the bottom 10%. By comparison, Pitt is probably in the top 20% and were favored to win a share of the Big East Conference; indeed a very solid football program. The game was being played in Athens, Ohio at storied (not) Peden Stadium where a record crowd of 24,535 watched on, Thunder Sticks banging away. Pitt was 7-0 all time versus OU and won 24-3 just last year. Why this game was even on national TV I have no idea, maybe the Great Outdoor Games ended early.
In any event, as OU won the coin flip for OT my best friend and I were agreeing that it was the right move to have Pitt take the first offensive possession, you always want to know what you need to do in order to win and OU now had that chance. After a running play that went nowhere, Pitt QB, Tyler Palko dropped back and snapped a pass out to the right flat that was snatched out of the air by OU cornerback, Dion Byrum who scampered 85 yards for the game ending TD. I was screaming and running around my apartment like a little school girl. My best friend was yelling and laughing on the other end of the line as the students mobbed the field and congratulated the OU players and coaches. It was utter mayhem.
I have but one note of disappointment in the face of this great triumph, however. OU is traditionally ranked as either the number one or two party school in the ENTIRE country, we've worked hard for this distinction. OU wins one the biggest games in school history and these kids don't even think about going after the goalposts?! I may sound critical, but come on kids, let's keep our street cred here. You've got to bring those mother fuckers down next time!
So now it's about 11:30 and my friend and I turn our conversation towards the main event the next night, Ohio State versus Texas. This is the kind of inter-conference game that NEVER happens anymore. You usually see Nebraska taking on Southeast Louisiana Tech A&M this time of year, not a top10 team typically. Put it this way, when Notre Dame -Michigan is the undercard, you know you're talking about a once a decade phenomenon. So my best friend has bid on and secured the opportunity to join former OSU QB and current sideline reporter, Jim Karsatos on the field for the big game. Needless to say, he's a little jacked up at this point. We were discussing what he was going to wear. Now this is a guy that has about eight game-worn OSU jerseys, he wears one to every game and I'm pretty sure #56 has become his night shirt at this point. Now this guy is telling me he's not going to wear the jersey cause, "a 38 year old guy wearing a team jersey next to the bench would look gay." That's all I needed to hear, I went off on a 20 minute rant on every reason why he should wear that #56 Saturday night at The Shoe. After my rant he told me that's exactly what he needed to hear and it was why he broached the subject with me. He needed that kick in the ass to convince him to don the scarlet. That matter settled I had to address the fact that I was now a bit jacked myself.
I called my mom, also an OU alum, and related the events that had just unfolded; how OU stunned Pitt and how I convinced my best friend to "dress accordingly" on the sidelines the following evening. She told me she had heard that tickets for this game were now going for upwards of $1,000. I told her we'd find out exactly what they were going for as I accessed Craig's List Columbus. Imagine my surprise as the second most recent post was offering one ticket for $300. Uh-oh, yep, that was the dull glow of a 20 watt illuminating over my head. It's now 12:30 am.
"Hey mom, I gotta go, I've got to call Dean."
"Ok, well call me ba..."
"Dean, I just found a ticket on Craig's List for $300!"
Several frantic phone calls and e-mails later I have a tacit agreement to purchase said ticket from Mr. Craig's List, a $96 round trip ticket to Cleveland and a packed carry on all with not one drop of alcohol in me. Impressive.
My flight left at 6:30 it was now 2:30; I'd have to leave by 4:45 to make the train to Newark and I hadn't slept. Hmm. Bing, bang, boom, I sleep for one hour, shower, make the train to Newark and get on the plane feeling a bit delerious but 100% ready for anything to happen. That frosty state of alert was quickly tested as The Black Eyed Peas and entourage boarded my plane. For the record, yes, they are fucking dorks, yes, Fergie is hot, yes, she's short and yes, her man is good looking. Oh yeah, that weird looking long haired dude actually had a carry on with an image of the band screened onto it, how fucking tragic is that? Anyway, I digress.
I make it into Cleveland and over to my best friend's house with a dozen doughnuts for the trek. We do a little jig and hop in his truck to go pick up the three other guys that are making the trip.
The ride down was priceless, five guys who are all reasonably intelligent and are all HUGE sports fans. It was like a rolling sports talk show, everyone had an opinion and everyone respected each other. Just a great start to the day. We drop Robby and Sean off in Dublin and Jeff, Dean and I rolled into the Hilton in Easton, Dean's preferred hotel for OSU games. As we were grabbing lunch my call came in from Mr. Craig's List. The news wasn't good. The guys he was supposed to buy the tickets from sold them to someone else, I was now on the outside looking in at the biggest football game in Columbus in years.
"Dude, don't even worry, it's not a problem."
As always, Dean provided the voice of reason. He was right when he told me it would be easier finding one ticket as opposed to two or more. After his pep talk I felt much better. As we were getting our shit together to head towards campus I asked him to put the word out to the folks we alrady knew that were tailgating. He made about six calls. Then, from the other room, I heard Dean's side of a conversation with Walid who had just called back.
"Hey man, what's up?"
"Nothing, huh?"
A pause followed by, "Are you sure?"
"Walid, seriously are you positive?"
"I'm gonna ask you again, you're sure?"
"Dude, Jason is going to be psyched, you the man, later."
As I walk back in the room Dean asked me, "Do you want the good news or the bad news?"
I like to get hit with the negative shit first so I asked for the bad. Dean told me that of all the people he called no one could find a ticket. The good news was that Walid was offering his ticket to me. Free. Three rows behind the OSU bench on the 35. Walid just changed my life.
Jeff, Dean and I headed towards campus and met up with Walid, Brian and Jimmy (as depicted in the photo above) where I hugged Walid and informed him he was Godzilla huge for what he had done. We managed to stay out of the sun, have a few beers and run into just about everybody we needed to before heading over to the Horseshoe.
After witnessing the Fiesta Bowl against Miami two years earlier I thought little else could compare to that atmosphere. I was wrong, the Shoe was electric, it was amazing. By now we all know that OSU gave the game away in the last three minutes. A win would have been amazing, but it doesn't detract from the experience of taking an early morning flight, making the drive down with four other die hard sports fans and soaking up the atmosphere that is college football. It started with OU beating Pitt the night before and ended with an early Monday morning flight back to NYC. What happened in between is what makes travel, whether by plane or by car, so damn fun. It's the people you meet, it's the situations you find yourself in. You can't plan for any of that and that's the way it should be.
