Last stops before Port A

We pulled into Ray Roberts Lake State Park on Thursday to spend a long weekend with our friends Fred and Vickie Porter.  Mentioned them a couple of times in our blog, but haven't given the full "how we met" story.

We started full timing at the end of December, 2010.  We spent our first winter in Tucson.  In December of 2011, we decided to stay in the Coastal Bend of Texas at Sea Breeze RV Park in Portland, TX.  They advertised in the flyers they had a Happy Hour on the porch of the Clubhouse at 4p.  Connie and I went up there early with a cooler full of beer.  Nobody there.  Decided to go inside.  Nobody.  Waited till 4:15p and made the call to leave.  Here comes this couple with a cooler and a bottle of wine.  This should be interesting.  We went inside and talked, drank and laughed until 8:30p or 9 that night.  We've been hanging out together ever since.  We've met in different places around the country.  We've met their family.  They've met ours.   We've always kept in touch, and hope we do for a long time.  Really treasure their friendship.

They're currently park hosts at this State Park north of Fort Worth along I-35.

We never have to have "something to do".  Just our company and conversation is plenty. 

Our dogs get along great with their dog ("Izzy").





We turned them on to College Football a few years ago when we took them to Ole Miss and the Grove to tailgate.  Put out a spread for Saturday's RV Tailgate that included BBQ Ranch Dip (using some of the BBQ sauce from Kansas City), Salsa dip (using some of our Salsa from Sioux Falls), Crockpot Tailgate Sandwiches, Bugles Mix, and cocktail wienies.  Snacked all day, it was great.

Pulled out around 9:30a from the State Park and drove down to New Braunfels (Hill Country Cottages and RV Park).  Monday, should have about 200 miles to get to our winter home of Pioneer RV Park in Port Aransas.

What a Saturday in Big D!

First, the bad news -- Buckeyes lose to Purdue by having an extra point blocked.  <sigh>.

Plenty of good news, though.  Dropped Sloopy off in the morning at the Richter Animal Hospital to be boarded for the weekend.  Carmen was there a day earlier to be spayed and they'll spend the rest of the weekend there.  When people talk about how pets "tie them down", we don't get it.  If you have somewhere to go, there are plenty of great boarding places wherever you are.  We once boarded Sloopy for 14 days in Tucson while we cruised to Hawai'i.

We travelled to the other side of Dallas to the Texas State Fairgrounds.  Saw the Cotton Bowl, and my she's showing her age.  Still want to do the Texas State Fair someday.

Our purpose for our visit, though, was to see the Zac Brown Band perform at the GEXA Pavillion.  We arrived around 3:30p local time and after our walk to the Cotton Bowl, back to the truck to tailgate, only we were pretty lonely.  We walked to the other side and saw that the partying had started on the other side, but our parking location was going to be so good, we decided not to leave -- a good decision.

Been awhile since we'd traditional tailgated, including charcoal.  Had bought a little portable guy at WalMart for $5 and it included a package of charcoal, which was terrible and wouldn't light.  So we through the bag of Match Light on there, and we suddenly had enough charcoal to cook a turkey.  Plenty for our couple of hamburgers.

The GEXA Pavillion is a nice venue, with a large lawn seating -- our preference.  Can't estimate the crowd, but it was pretty full and Zac Brown said it was the largest sale they had had on this tour, so let's just say 'big'.

Concert itself was a great value -- two opening acts took us to an hour and a half, and ZBB played another two and a half with a special appearance by Randy Travis.
Traffic getting out was as you would expect from an older venue, lots of one lanes, lots of cutting into traffic.

Today, we're on the road to Galveston (about 5 hours from the Dallas Arlington KOA) for the inaugural event of the Carnival Magic.  Will have plenty about it for the ride back!

A Couple of Buckeyes Visit Vandyville

As a couple of veterans of Big 10 College Football, we wanted to check out the scene at Vanderbilt University, here in Nashville, as they hosted the Black Knights of Army.  Vanderbilt is a member of the SEC, but their pregame scene is a little closer to the MAC.
We Parked at a garage about 1/2 mile from the stadium.  Knew from the Vanderbilt Athletics website it was free and a beautiful walk.  The campus has a ton of space that is pedestrian only.  There was a bar with a band across the street so we figured that was a good place to come back to.

Didn’t see anybody in game mode until a block north from the stadium where they had tents and tables set up to welcome alumni (it was homecoming).  



Across from the stadium was the "Star Walk" where the players make their entrance  one hour and fifteen minutes before gamtime from the practice facility/locker room to the stadium.  Had a few people lined up there, and there was 45 minutes left before they showed.

‘Vandyville’ is basically the place to tailgate.  They take a street on the West side of the stadium and block it off.  They have a stage for a live band at the far end that wasn’t playing two hours prior, and we were there for an hour, so not sure when they actually play.  

The University sells tent space for $600 for the season (which gets you two parking permits to the lot across the street from the stadium and that’s pretty much where things happen.  (We have a friend at Ohio State who pays about $3k for his tent space at an apartment complex about 1/2 mile from the Stadium). 

At the end close to the stadium, they have a video board showing the game ‘o the day, Chic Fila had a set up for the pedestrians.  Didn't see a lot of corporates taking advantage of the tents, and thought it would be a good money maker for them.  They were mostly groups of individuals who just went in together to have a tailgate.

Hell, even the cheerleaders had their own tailgate where they were just sitting around chewing the fat.

Lots of ties on the guys of all ages, boots and skirts on the girls.  Alumni and parents pretty much ruled the day.  We did see a few Army fans and current Army military scattered about.

There was a little NASCAR feel with the equipment trucks, both prominently displayed outside the stadium.  Never see this at a Big 10 game, as they're always in a pretty secure place less some chucklehead would hop in and take off.

 

The East end of the stadium were the Greeks and they were going at it hard.  Each one had a sound system blaring, hundreds of kids partying, Natty Light cans strewn everywhere.  Pictures really don't do it justice without the sound cranking.  A solid two blocks of kids destined to be puking later.

Big Boy Was There!

On the South end of the stadium is a parking lot for players families to tailgate.  We asked an alum who was walking with us where the bars were and there was just this dumbfounded look.  Nothing.  A place inside the Holiday Inn, he said.  No strip, no naughta.  “Never thought of it, to be honest,” he said.

It was a “real” game, because there were scalpers who 'needed' tickets and scalpers who needed to know if you needed tickets.  “sh*t man, ain’t nobody makin' no money here.”  Box office at the stadium had $30pp seats.  Please.  Wasn't going to drop 60 bucks for this one.

Decided to roll back to the bar at the parking garage — band had stopped playing and they were closing soon.  Damn.

Didn't really get a true SEC Football tailgate feel, and we're looking forward to doing one in the "real" SEC some day.  But, it was nice to see how the others live.

Tailgating

We love tailgating.  Next best thing to tailgating in the lot is tailgating at your RV site.  As Life Members of the Ohio State Alumni Club, there are times that we will seek out the local club viewing party and go there.  

But for the most part, we enjoy decorating our rig, getting out the Ohio State University Marching Band tunes and having our own party at our site.  Not something most of the people at Two Rivers Campground were used to experiencing yesterday.

Honey.....the NASCAR folks are here!

We're proud alumni of THE Ohio State University and big Jimmy Buffett fans.  Tailgating is nothing new to us.

This is, however, our first time being in a city where the NASCAR guys come to town.  And with them, of course, their fans.  We had some of the workers in early who detailed the cars, but now we're getting the true fans of the race coming in and decorating their rigs.

Flags are flying,

the DirecTV Blimp is flying overhead, 

there's a Jeff Gordon chair in a tree (his cardboard cut out used to be up there, but they burned it one time),

and the party is seeming to begin here at the Indianapolis KOA.