Day 8: Boots, BBQ, and Boomer Sooner

Greetings from the VINT coffee shop in Louisville, KY, which is crawling with students who are now back to school at U of L.  Suckers!

The past two days have been full of non-stop driving from Albuquerque to Louisville, which hasn't allowed much time for writing.  So despite what Dan Bock says, I am fully committed to blogging and will be giving you two blogs for the price of one today.  First, the trip from ABQ to Norman, OK.

Day 8 started at the Comfort Suites in Albuquerque. I'll probably give it 3.5 stars on Yelp.  The butter for the waffles was still frozen and didn't spread easily.  

We had a long day of driving to Norman, OK ahead of us in order to make it to the Oklahoma vs. Louisiana Tech game that evening.  There hadn't been this much excitement for an OU-La Tech game since 1985 when Karl Malone and his mullet faced off against Wayman Tisdale in the Midwest Regional Semifinal of the NCAA tournament.  Despite leaving ABQ later than planned, I was still tired from a short night of sleep.

Matt handled the early driving shift, which took us through eastern New Mexico, home of the best license plate in America, and past a number of mesas and desert landscapes we had grown accustomed to.

He also talked with his friend, Vince, a number of times throughout the drive.  I didn't even know dudes still talked to each other on the phone.

We eventually made our way into the panhandle of Texas, a state known for its friendly ways.

Aside from a short stop at a Subway in Amarillo, we quickly made our way through Texas before we had a chance to be subjected to one of W's weird ass self portraits.

We eventually arrived in Norman, which is just south of Oklahoma City off I-35.  We got to town shortly after kickoff and quickly found the tailgating and game day atmosphere to be much more impressive than what we saw in Tempe.  The side streets were loaded with parked cars, with many piled onto the front lawns of residents charging $20 per vehicle.  We found a free spot south of the stadium and made the short walk over, stopping by the bookstore to pick up a few souvenirs.

Upon entering the stadium, we quickly realized we were one of the very few not wearing crimson and cream.  We also realized we were one of the few not wearing cowboy boots and sundresses, which seemed to be the uniform for all the OU undergrad girls.

The concourse area underneath the stadium was nearly as full as the stands themselves.  There were thousands of people milling around, seemingly satisfied to simply be part of the scene rather than a spectator of the game.

We spotted OU's very lame horse mascot, then came across Adrian Peterson, who seems to have put on some weight.

But not as much as the Boz.

We then made our greatest discovery of the day, Billy Sims BBQ.  I got the BBQ tacos while Matt got the pulled pork sandwich, both of which were quite good.  The sauce was sweet and had a little kick, while the meat, much like the offensive line Sims ran behind during his playing days in Detroit, was soft, tender, and easily shredded.

We finally found our seats in the upper deck of the east stands with the sun directly in our eyes.  The temperature was well into the 90's throughout the first half.  Some even resorted to the reverse Ivan Lendl by draping a napkin over the bill of their hat.

Meanwhile, Matt talked on his cell more than a 14-year-old girl.

The game itself wasn't very competitive, but the atmosphere was great.  As Matt pointed out, unlike at Arizona State, this game seemed to be *the* thing to do in town.  The fans, though a little quiet at times, remained loyal, with many staying late into the 4th quarter despite the lopsided score.

At some point during a commercial timeout, Barry Switzer came rushing out of a smoke-filled tunnel to loud applause.

He's even got a statue and a building on campus named after him.

Seems a little strange given that he was forced to resign as head coach in 1989 amid a scandal that landed the OU program on three years probation.

After the game ended, we snapped a few more pictures and eventually walked back to the car, by which time most of the post-game traffic had cleared.  

Given the long drive to Knoxville we had ahead of us the next day, we decided to drive three hours after the game to Fort Smith, Arkansas, which is where the day ended.  After another short night of sleep, it was on to Rocky Top for the Utah State vs. Tennessee game.