Blame Kevin

I know, I know... I have been delinquent. I totally blame Kevin. See it's a chronological thing. And he was holding me up. At least that's my story and I am sticking to it!

A few weeks ago Kevin was invited to join his boss Scott on a whirlwind road trip - first to the University of Alabama for the Alabama/LSU college football game then on to Texas Motor Speedway for a Nascar race. Sounds like it was a quite a trip. But don't take my word for it, here's Kevin's account of of the trip - lewd bar behavior and all.

This was a big weekend. First, I did some scouting on one of the possible University of Texas’ opponents in the National Championship. Scott, Justin (one of his sons), and I drove to Tuscaloosa on Friday to watch the LSU versus Alabama game. We ate dinner with one of Scott’s old friends from college the night before the game. After dinner, we hung out on “strip.” There were a bunch of bars. We went to one called the Houndstooth. There was a good mix of Alabama and LSU fans. One Alabama girl had a tiger stuffed animal on a leash and had people kick it as they walked by. Another slightly inebriated Alabama girl was high fiving everyone saying “Roll Tide.” Some LSU fans wouldn’t do it and she would act sad. We saw lots of interesting people. At any rate, it was an fun evening.

Gameday was awesome. We started the day early and spent a lot of time walking around campus. I even bought a Roll Tide shirt for the game. We did some tailgating before the game and watched the players go into the stadium and watched the cheerleaders, dancers, and band perform outside of some library. They definitely have tailgating down. The campus was really nice. It was more like A&M’s campus. It was very spread out. The game itself was good too. The adventure started with the ticket staff telling us we couldn’t go into the game. Scott bought the tickets off Stubhub and it turns out the person who sold them to him had ripped off part of the ticket. We finally talked to one of the main guys, and he let us in primarily because Scott had his Stubhub receipt with him. Close call! When we got to the seats, we were a little concerned because we had seats in the very top row and there was some sign thing behind our seats. It turns out that while we could hit our head against it if we leaned back, it wasn’t really a problem. Our seats were in the end-zone section. Probably not considered primo seats, but the view of the field was excellent. Also, we were sitting next to some cool girl and her husband who work for the University. Neither team has a high powered offense, and it showed during the first half. No points in the first quarter and the first half ended Alabama trailing 7 to 3. The second half had more offense. The final score was Alabama 24, LSU 15. That is the outcome I wanted because 1) I hate LSU and 2) Scott and I are hoping to go to the game if Texas plays Alabama in the National Championship. After the game, we did more tailgating and ate burgers and hotdogs. At about 8:30 pm, we started towards Dallas. We had to drive a long way because we had to get close enough to Dallas such that we could drop Scott’s son off at the Dallas airport by a certain time in the morning.

Early Sunday morning, we headed to Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR race. Our favorite driver is Jeff Gordon. He was second in points heading into the race, but Jimmy Johnson had a huge lead with only a few races left. The flyover was a military bomber. However, even cooler was the massive military helicopter that came into the stadium, landed, dropped off the pace car, and then flew away! Before the race, we talked about how we needed Jimmy Johnson to get knocked out of the race. The race started awesome! Jeff Gordon had the pole position. Jimmy Johnson had a huge wreck and destroyed his car just a few laps in. Jeff Gordon lead the race in the early laps. If Gordon wins the race, the standings for the Cup would be extremely close with most of Johnson’s lead gone. Sadly, Gordon didn’t have a good race. He ended up spending most of his time in the 15th to 17th place and finished the race in 13th. Disappointing given he had finally won at Texas Motor Speedway in the Spring. The end of the race was entertaining as the leader ran out of gas in the final couple of laps. The traffic was HORRIBLE leaving the stadium. Scott and I tried to get to the car quickly to beat the crowd. There was already a massive line of cars. In the next hour and a half to two hours, Scott moved about 5 car lengths. I spent most of that time talking to Scott’s friends who we always meet at the race and having a burger they cooked.

Overall, it was a great weekend. The NASCAR race is always fun, and the Alabama/LSU game was incredibly fun. You can’t beat the college football environment.

Kevin still hasn't produced the photographic proof of their adventures, but I am sure if I pester him enough he will eventually get around to coughing them up. :)

Warning: Completely inappropriate humor

We took the boys for a walk around the neighborhood in their cars on Sunday morning. Lots of folks in our neighborhood have been busy putting up Halloween decorations over the last few weeks so we were enjoying checking out all the decorations. Kevin of course, zeroed in a skeleton lying on the ground under a tree.

Kevin: "Look at the skeleton!"

Me: "Aww... Looks like it fell out of the tree."

Kevin: "It looks way cooler like that."

Kevin: "Hey - isn't that the house where the guy died?"

Me: "Oh, yeah. It is."

Me: "That's kinda morbid."

Kevin: "That's cool."

5 Days of Granola, Protein Bars, and Dehydrated Food

Kevin and the guys just got back from their annual Hiking trip. This year they went to Georgia. Here's his mini novel on the trip. :)

Jason, Bill, Eric and I went hiking in Georgia on the Bartram Trail last week. This is the fourth multi-day hike I've been on. The others were in Colorado and New Mexico. This time the altitude was alot less. The elevation ranged from about 1600 feet to 4700 feet above sea level.

It was a 14 hour drive from Houston to the trail (near Clayton, GA). We left Houston at the crazy hour of 4:30 am. We arrived at the trail head at about 9 pm. The last 5 miles or so to the trailhead was memorable. Jason's Tom Tom GPS decided to take us down something less than a road. It was little more than a trail. Barely wide enough for the truck. It was two ruts with weeds in the middle. I would have never turned down that "road" no matter what the GPS said. However, I think Jason was looking forward to using his truck offroad. Although this clearly wasn't the proper route to the trailhead, we did eventually make it.

It started raining just after we arrived at the trailhead. Eric and I slept in the cars. Jason and Bill pitched their tents just in time to avoid hard rain. The next morning, we parked at car at each end of the 37 mile trail and headed out on our adventure.

Day 1 - 7 miles

The weather wasn't great for Day 1. It never rained hard, but it misted much of the day. There were also low clouds/fog all day long. The first day was one of large elevation changes. We started at 3200 feet, hiked to the top of Rabun Bald mountain (at 4700 feet), and then hiked back down. Rabun Bald is the second highest point in Georgia. The view should have been amazing. Unfortunately, the view was nothing but white. White as in clouds. We should have been able to see for miles from the observation deck built on the top of mountain (it has been there since 1933). However, the clouds were so think that we couldn't see more than 50 feet. While this day had alot of elevation change, I felt pretty good when we arrived at the campsite. The campsite wasn't great. Everything was pretty wet, but at least it was level. It of course rained overnight to ensure our tent rainflys were nice and wet in the morning.

Day 2 - 9 miles

The weather was better for Day 2. It wasn't exactly nice, but it wasn't raining. Day 2 was almost all downhill. However, that doesn't make it easy. I hate downhill. It isn't as tiring, but it is alot tougher on your feet and your knees. I also had an equipment malfunction on Day 2. About 12 miles into the hike, the sole of my boot came off. It actually didn't completely come off. The front was still attached. However, more than half came loose. There is no way I could continue the hike like that, and I would have never made it in the sandals I wear in camp. Luckily, Jason had gators which he didn't really need. Gators are things that keep stuff like snow out of your boots. The good part is they have a strap that goes under your boot. I used that strap to keep the sole of my boot on. It wasn't perfect, but it kept the sole on for the rest of the hike. By the time we made it into camp my feet were on fire from the downhill. Luckily I didn't get blisters and I felt pretty good after getting out of my boots. The campsite was nicer the second day. Of course, it rained overnight.

Day 3 - 7 miles

The weather was great for Day 3. It was nice and sunny. It was a little hot, but otherwise great. Day 3 was almost all uphill. It was a much tougher day than we expected. However, we all made it and I felt good when we came into camp. The camp was really nice (probably the nicest of the trip). It was at the top of Rainy Mountain. The camp grounds most distinguishing feature was tons of vines. Some of them were huge (thick). The campground even had some vines perfect for swinging on. Bill and I took turns swinging on the vines. Jason even tried it. My tent was surrounded by huge vines growing along the ground. They were perfect for draping my stuff on. Given we were camping on Rainy Mountain, it of course did NOT rain on us overnight. This was actually the only night of the trip in which it didn't rain. For once, we woke up and could pack a completely dry tent.

Day 4 - 6 miles

Day 4 had the most beautiful views. The weather was very nice. The highlight of the day was a little detour off the Bartram Trail. We dropped out packs and headed on a short hike down Dick's Creek towards the Chattooga River. There is a waterfall where Dick's Creek flows into the Chattooga River. The Chattooga forms the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina. It was beautiful. The water was crystal clear. The rapids and the trees made for incredible views. The trail also paralleled the Chattooga River for awhile. This made for great views. We ended up camping by the river. The campsite was small, but it was nice being near the river. We actually came into camp early and finished hiking at about 2 pm. We used the time to rest and hang out at the river. I actually went into the river. I planned to go swimming, but the water was super cold and the current was stronger than I expected. I did end up wading well past my waist in the river. It was tough but I actually made it all the way across the river at one point. That was alot of fun and allowed me to get some nice pictures. Bill waded into his knees, but no one else decided to really go into the river. The only bad part of the day was for Bill. He started pitching his tent over what was apparently a yellow jacket nest. He got stung three times and the yellow jackets swarmed along the ground for hours. Bill ended up pitching his tent somewhere else and the swelling didn't last long. As we were no longer on Rainy Mountain, it of course did rain (though not too bad) overnight.

Day 5 - 8 miles

Day 5 was the last day of hiking. At this point, we were all ready to get off the trail. Jason's feet were blistered badly. We were all craving Mexican food after days of granola, protein bars, and dehydrated food (and 3 lbs of almonds in Eric's case). The last day of hiking was a little harder at first than expected. It was pretty uphill for alot longer than we thought. However, the second half of the day's hike was pretty level. It was so level that we went quite a bit faster than the other days. Despite the relatively easy hike, I was pretty tired when we reached the trailhead where the car was parked. The hike wasn't as nice as the other days. The last couple of miles was pretty much just through the weeds. There were a few nice views of the river at the very end of the hike.

After the hike, we headed to a Mexican food restaurant in Clayton. After days of hiking food, it was awesome. Overall, it was a good hike. Other than Jason's feet, Bill's yellow jacket stings, and my boot malfunction, everything went well.

Jeff Gordon and hotdogs?

Talk about short term memory. I had forgotten all about the Nascar race Kevin went to until I was downloading his pics and stumbled across them.

Here is what he had to say about the race:

April 5 was the big race at Texas Motor Speedway. We actually made it in time for a tailgate lunch of hotdogs and chips. Surprising given we were stuck at a gas station for an hour on the way to the race because Scott’s SUV decided to lock its doors on its own when we were getting gas. Unfortunately, Scott’s keys were in the vehicle when it decided to lock itself. Good thing Scott had AAA or I don’t know how we would have gotten back into the car on a Sunday morning. This turned out to be a great race. It was windy and a little cold, but the sun was shining. #24 Jeff Gordon, my favorite driver, won the race. Gordon has had a great season but hadn’t won a race in something like 47 races. This was also Gordon’s first win in Texas (surprising given he has won more races than any active driver and had won everywhere except Texas and one other track). Hopefully Gordon will still be in first place in points when NASCAR comes back to Texas Motor Speedway in the Fall.