I spent this weekend traveling with the football team. It’s not what you would think. Maybe I have watched too many sports movies, read to many fictional books, but I was expecting a lot more felonies.
Our trip started early. Too early. We had to be at the football stadium at 10 a.m., which means I had to wake up at eight to go pick up my photographer and head to the stadium. Luckily we were early because after about ten minutes I realized I had forgotten some vital elements for the trip and made a mad dash back to my dorm.
When I returned, we got our lunch saddled up for a nice long seven-hour trip to Tulsa. I can’t explain what a seven hour bus ride through Oklahoma is like but imagine a whole lot of nothing and seeing it on a repetitive loop.
When we arrived in Tulsa and got to our hotel, I found love and it was my bed. Just for reference Marriott’s have the greatest beds in the world.
We had dinner with the team and the Marriott provided some of the most amazing chicken fried steak in the world. I know I had two of them.
After dinner Joe and I went to Oral Roberts University, which I have to admit I did not know was in Tulsa. The irony of it is that Oral Roberts is across the street from a casino, where they are not allowed to gamble.
The next morning we went to Piccadilly’s for breakfast. While the eggs weren’t anything to write home about, I ate a healthy serving of biscuits and gravy.
After that we went back to the hotel. The team had meetings and watched video while Joe and I went back to sleep. Waking up at eight in the morning twice in a row had to be compensated for.
After a nice nap we elected not to eat with the team. We got a warning from the athletic department that the teams’ lunch was less than talkative. I believe Paul Ridings compared it to a funeral.
We headed to Taco Bell, ah yes, the place of fine cuisine but the old Bowling for soup song was right again. Mexican food outside of Texas is crap. We headed to the fire station afterwards. Joe is a fireman and apparently they use t-shirts for currency.
We headed back to the hotel, packed the bags and jumped on the bus for our police escorted trip to the University of Tulsa.
Let me be the first to say, that I have been to a lot of campuses including places like Notre Dame. I have no problem saying that Tulsa has the most gorgeous campus I have ever seen. Their tennis complex – that’s right tennis – is the size of Lowman student center.
We walked around campus enjoyed the tailgating and eventually headed to the game. It didn’t go well, but the trip home was full of catching up on sleep.
While we didn’t do anything crazy, no hookers or strippers, pure business, I enjoyed the trip and look forward to more of them.