UT Game

The UT game is usually the biggest game of the year for Tech. Since 1976, I have attended all but 2 of these games, and one of those was because Derek had a UNH playoff soccer game the same day.

While I almost never expect to beat the Evil Empire, I expected this to be a down year for them which gave me some hope. Unfortunately, it was not our night. The EE won 24-14.

The best thing about Tech/UT games is that they serve as annual mini-family reunions. My cousin, Matt, is a UT graduate his parents, Bob and Joy, live in Austin and are big UT boosters. They all came up for the game. We also had a nice visit from Paul Guest, who Derek used to play soccer with in Dallas before we moved to PA.

On the Tech side, we had my mom, brother Terry, son Derek, college brothers Gary and Elrod, Mick, and myself. Other than the game itself, we all had a great time.

A gift from Bob and Joy. I can now navigate the RV in style.

Tailgate central.

Good times.

Derek and Elrod in an athletic competition.

Who let these guys in? That's Paul and Matt.

Aunt Joy and Uncle Bob.

Mom with her "sons", me, Elrod, and Gary.

Seeing red. Terry, mom, me, Mick, and Derek.

At the game: Mom and Mick.

Elrod and Terry.

The highlight of the game.

Palo Duro Canyon

We had a week to kill between the SMU game and the New Mexico game in Albuquerque, so we decided to camp in Palo Duro Canyon (PDC), which is just outside Amarillo. I had heard of PDC during my time at Tech, but I had never visited.

It's about a 2 hour drive north from Lubbock to Amarillo and it's so flat and straight that I set the cruise control, slapped a bungee chord on the steering wheel, and took a nap in the back for most of the trip.

The canyon, however, is anything but flat. I guess that's why it's called a canyon. Here's a shot from the top.

I was really surprised at how beautiful it is. It's like going back in time to an old western movie, except not one that's too old because it would be in black and white. We camped somewhere down in the bottom of all that.




We hiked a lot and rode some horses. We saw a surprising amount of wild life, including deer, turkeys, a snake, a horned frog, dung beetles, and a flock of vultures who seemed to be quite friendly. At least I think they were friendly because they followed us around every time we went hiking.

Here are some shots we took while hiking.

At the end of the week we headed out to Albuquerque for the Tech/New Mexico game. On the way we stopped at Cadillac Ranch, just west of Amarillo.

We had a great time at the New Mexico game in Albuquerque. At least, the part of it I remember. Thanks to Gary's brilliant idea to take whiskey shots before the game, I'm a little fuzzy about what all happened. If you are interested, ask Mick. She has a story she will be happy to recite for the 500th time.

SMU Game

I am way behind on the blog, so I am skipping a lot of details in order to get caught up.

We left PA on Tuesday morning and arrived in TX on Wednesday night, driving about 16 hours each day. Mick drove the rental truck and I drove the RV.

Thursday we unloaded the truck into storage. Friday we drove to Lubbock for the Texas Tech/SMU game. This was our first RV tailgate experience.

We met some fellow Tech fans and had a great time. Tech won the game, but we baked in the sun the entire time. Here's the obligatory RV shot in our tailgating spot.