Re: I slept on Slick's couch a/k/a Gator Bowel trip report

xyzzy, I've been to one world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and
that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of
earphones.

> Lang met me in Sanford on Sunday and we flew down to Hinesville
> to meet Slick. It was a two and half hour flight, the first two
> hours were severe clear with spectacular views, the last half
> hour was in solid instrument conditions ending with an
> instrument approach to Hinesville.
> It sure is nice to pop out of the overcast and see the runway
> right
> where it's supposed to be.

For my first flight in a Cessna in over 15 years and my first of
more than 20 minutes ever, it was a blast! Watching xyzzy doing
the pilot thing and listening to air traffic control was pretty
dambed cool.
>
>
> Louisville really turned out some fans. We were surprised. At
> first we thought it would be all VT fans because that's all we
> saw outside the stadium, but it turns out the Lousiville fans
> apparently prefer to be in their seats early. We were also
> pleasantly surprised by the VT turnout given some of the
> negative feedback from the VT homerboards.

Louisville had a great crowd. They were fired up for nearly the
whole game. It was a great atmosphere.
>
>
> The guy who sat next to me was wearing an FSU t-shirt. I asked
> if he had bought the tickets before they won the ACC
> championship game and he said no, his FSU dad gave him the tix
> and he thought FSU was going to be in the game up until he
> arrived that morning. Clearly not a superfan. He left by the
> 3rd qrt with his date, who was hawt.

She deserved better than him.
>
> Great seats, three rows back on the 20 yard line right in front
> of the VT cheerleaders.

Best seats I've ever had for a game. Bryan did well.
>
> Some game observations:
>
> 1. The Gator Bowl environment sucks in many ways. They didn't
> give any score updates on any other games. No updates on
> in-game or player stats either. No PA announcement when Jimmy
> Williams was thrown out and we had to guess what happend. Only
> when the VT defense went back on the field and he was not there
> were we sure it was him who was ejected.

Yep, overall game info sucked. Only place to get scores was the
TV's on the concourse.
>
> 2. That ref who threw Jimmy Williams out did VT a favor. Our
> defense played better afterwards. With him in, VT gave up two
> TD's on Louisville's first two drives. They only gave up 10
> points in the 3.5 quarters after Williams was tossed.

Goodbye Jimmy. Ask your agent how much signing money you lost by
acting like an ass most of the year.
>
> 3. Usualy when the Hokies get down double digits I worry about
> their chances but not this time. I knew Louisville had blown a
> late 17 point lead at WVU. Their fans sitting near us didn't
> like to hear me say that. Louisville got their first TD after
> a successful fake punt, which is not sustainable. Their second
> TD came on a drive that was kept alive to two VT 15 yard
> penalties on third down plays. IOW they hadn't really done much
> except taken what VT had given them, and I figured Bud would
> straigten out the defense, which he did.

The Cards came out fired up and the Hokies came out lazy and
cocky. Sounds familiar. I think the overall talent level made a
big difference once the coaches got everybody on track. Micheal
Bush is very good, and Hunter Cantwell is a tough SOB. It just
wasn't enough.
>
>
> 5. We were sitting right over the tunnel where the Louisville
> players entered and exited. After the game Slick hung over the
> tunnel and congratulated the Louisville players on a great game.
> He singled out a couple of them that particuarly impressed him
> and yelled "have fun in the NFL" to them. They seemed to enjoy
> it. Yeah rsfc, he really is a classless ***.

That was fun. Those guys played their asses off, and they
deserved the applause. Of course, after telling them they all
sucked when they went in at halftime, it was the least we could
do.
>
> After the game, rain was starting so we picked up some t-shirts
> from vendors and headed back to Casa del Slick. Watched the
> Sugar Bowl and were impressed with WVU and glad we're not
> playing them next year. Actually, not really since we know our
> OOC sked needs toughening up. Rich Rod is doing a great job
> there. That fake punt at the end rooled like a big slobbering
> dawg, and I don't mean the dawg that was getting embarrassed on
> the field. What the 1995 Sugar Bowl was for VT, the 2005 was
> for WVU. Congrats 'eers.

Y'all tell the truth now. There was one of us actively routing
for the "Eers during that game.
>
> Monday morning Lang and I had to delay our flight home a few
> hours because of high winds at Hinesville and storms in the
> Raleigh area. We took off at about 2:30pm into clear, windy
> skies, flew above a broken cloud layer most of the way home,
> going in-and-out of the few clouds that reached up to our 7000
> foot altitude, then when we got north of Florence all of it
> dropped away for a beautiful last 45 minutes and approach and
> landing at Sanford a tad before 5:00. I was home but Lang still
> had some driving ahead of him.

The flight back was really cool. Clouds look very different when
you're only a couple feet above/between them.
>
> Hopefully Lang will post some of his inflight pics, I didn't
> take any being kinda busy and all.

Done. You'll also find the approach pictures for Liberty County.
>
> It was a great trip and great to meet and spend some time with
> some rfsckers in person. The game was great up until we say the
> Vick stomp on Tivo. Damb Vick.
>

It's always cool to see the faces and personalities behind the
text.

--
mutt

"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"
.