Thoughts from the Oklahoma State Trip...

I realize that this is a little late. What can I say?


We flew into Dallas, which is about three and a half hours south of Stillwater. It was around $180 per person round trip to fly to Dallas. We actually could have, technically, flown into Wichita (about half the distance to Stillwater) for $160 a person, but in order to get that fare, we would have had to fly out at 5:50a Sunday morning, which we weren't too keen on doing. My brother has never been to Texas before either and kind of wanted to see it. There were a couple of Georgia fans on the plane to Dallas and it was neat talking to them about the game and roster and what not. I take a lot of pride in putting on a nice UGA shirt for a trip like that. I very well remember walking around Pike's Place Market in Seattle one September Friday afternoon in 2007. That was the weekend Ohio State was in town to play Washington. I was very impressed with how much Ohio State stuff I saw at Pike's that day and it really underscored to me the importance of being identifable when you go on a trip like that.

My brother looked up a few "authentic" Texas type places where we could eat Friday and Sunday lunch. I mean, we can eat McDonalds or Arby's here. The real gems are the local places, and we certainly found on Friday.

"Big Fatty's Spankin Shack" is located in the town square of Valley View Texas, a town of less than 800 people on I-35 about 45 miles north of Dallas. The place sits in what looks like a large metal outbuilding and is only marked by a large canvas sign tied to a trellis in front of the building. It was around 2:30p local time when we walked in. There were probably 8 tables in the entire restaurant. only one of which, a table for five, was occupied. As we walked in, everyone at that table turned and looked at us, with steel, unwelcoming eyes. I want to say that one bearded mesh back hat individual stopped his fork halfway between his plate and his mouth and at our entrance, but that may be a bit of an embellishment. Their faces, to a person, said silently "What is this f***ing s**t?!"

The waiter, who looked to be one of two people working there, was an older black man with hair halfway down his back said to us "sit anywhere you like fellas". He looked like an aged hippy and very far out of place given the other ambiance, which included a "Shut your f***ing mouth" candle, a wooden sign that said "shut up and eat", wooden tables, floors and walls, and a dry erase board with a magic marker made list of the day's side dishes. We sat down at a table near the dry erase board and not too close to the other table. The menus were already on the table. As we were looking the menus over, the other table got up to leave. After paying their bill and leaving my brother said "Man, did you see how those guys looked at us? That was awesome. If it's this much of a local place, you know it's going to be good."

I ordered the chopped brisket plate, which came with Texas toast and two sides (french fries and potato salad for me). About five minutes later, I was presented with a massive plate of food that probably included 3/4 lbs of chopped brisket. I was really hungry after not having had anything to eat that day. The brisket was quite simply the best I've ever had in my life. It was better without the sauce, really. The perfect amount of smoke flavor, not dried out, very little gristle or fat. The potato salad was very creamy, almost the same texture as creamed corn. Just a hell of a good lunch.

We stopped off at a gas station before re-entering the I-35. Our rental car, a black Chevy Impala, had a big oval G magnet on the passenger door and a black Georgia car flag on the driver's side. As I sat in the car, I noticed some Univ of Oklahoma fans at one of the gas pumps. An older guy with an OU shirt on looked at me and pumped his fists a few times. I said "We'll clean 'em up for you.." Flying into Dallas I hadn't really thought about the game being played there, but I noticed a good number of BYU fans in DFW and had noticed a lot of OU stuff going down the other side of the interstate, including the OU football team on four charter busses with two police cruisers in front and two in back. Seeing the Brigham Young University stuff around DFW, I thought "man, it's kind of sad that they've come all this way and they're going to see their team take a whipping..."

If I was a tornado, I'd really like Oklahoma. I had to make a Red Bull stop on I 35 because I got so drowsy driving mile after mile over flat land. We rolled into Guthrie, about 20 miles south of Stillwater, around 4:30p. That was the closest hotel we could find, though Stillwater isn't exactly Las Vegas when it comes to room space.

After a scouting trip to Stillwater and dinner in Guthrie, we hit the rack early Friday night.

6:15a came quickly, but some mornings you just don't need any coffee to get going. The early morning greated us with a foggy drive up to Stillwater and horn honks and fist pumps for the other Georgia fans on I-35 that morning.

I have to say that the Oklahoma State people were the classiest fans I've ever met in my life. Walking around Stillwater that morning, people were rolling down their windows yelling "Welcome to Stillwater" and "Thanks for coming guys!" Eating breakfast at a local donut shop, locals in Oklahoma State gear would come up to us and say "We appreciate you coming out here fellas" and things of that nature, like we'd done them a favor. It was really something. I figure at most SEC schools we would've heard some VERY colorful langage by that time, to say the least. Not here though. It was really something.

We hit this place called Willy's Saloon for pregame drinks. Willy's proudly displayed a sign along the back wall that said "Garth Brooks First Public Performances: 1985-1987." Willy's is the kind of place where the men's bathroom has a trough urinal and no mirror on the wood panel walls. We stayed there until just before kickoff and had some great talks with the OSU people.

Then the game happened.

Walking outside of the stadium, I got really upset at what had just happened. This was different that Florida or tech, it just felt different. I could almost feel some tears welling up in my eyes. It was just a feeling more of great saddness than anger.

One of my softball games a few weeks ago didn't go very well. I hit leadoff that night and went 0-3 and actually made the first and last outs of the game. I was flipping through this BoDeans CD that I had in the car on the way back to Atlanta and was really in a blue funk over the way I'd played and some other stuff as well. I found this song pretty much by accident and felt that it summarized how I was feeling to a "T".

That's the song that I felt summed up the Oklahoma State game pretty well too. It sure was a sad, long walk out of the stadium. No taunts from the Oklahoma State people though, as I'd come to expect.

We headed back to Dallas Sunday afternoon and stopped at a place in Sanger Texas called "Babe's Chicken Dinner House". After a 20 minute wait, we were seated in the middle of this large resturant that featured waitresses taking turns singing karoke. They don't even bother with menu's at Babe's. You pick a meat (Chicken Fried Steak, Fried Chicken, and a few other similar choices) and it comes with family style sides of biscuits, green beans, mashed potatos and gravy, and creamed corn. We both got the chicken fried steak.

While waiting for our food, we noticed that a line of waitresses were standing in the middle of the restaurant line dancing to the song another waitress was singing, in this case "The hokie pokie". I said to my brother, in a semi loud voice "Oh, so it's like a Joe's Crab Shack...." with "serious sarcasm" as usual. We both chukled, and then he leaned across the table and said "when you said that, that old woman sitting to your right gave you the meanest 'eat s**t' look you can imagine for about five seconds." Welcome back to Texas. I really respect a place that doesn't need me for anything.

The flight home was quiet and we got back into Atlanta around 8:30p, less than 60 hours after we'd left. It's always kind of sad to see a trip end that you anticipate for so long. You think of the things that have to be juggled and worked out just for the trip to happen. Then it does, you don't win, and it's over before you know it. And now, South Carolina is only a couple of days away. Now the focus will shift to planning the Florida game.

Another trip is in the books though. Three times now in the past year I've been able to get on a plane to watch Georgia play football or baseball and for that I'm incredibly grateful. For the frustration of having to pay $150/ each for tickets or all those hidden costs of a rental car, or the hassle of finding a hotel room and choosing which airport to fly into, you can't really assign a value to the experience of eating at a place like Big Fatty's or drinking beers on a Saturday morning in Willy's saloon. I don't really have any urge to travel internationally. I just have too much fun seeing this country.