It happens all the time.
You miss something by just a nick of time. You find out something in just the nick of time.
“I just missed you.”
I had one last weekend that was an incredible piece of timing, with some crazy karma thrown in.
Due to goofy travel situations last weekend in Detroit, I left my rental car at the airport on the way into town. There was no other way for me to get back to my car to drive home after the football game Sunday night.
So, I did just that.
Parked in one of the lots close to the terminal (where I was going to end up Sunday). A bit pricey, but that’s what expense accounts are for.
I then had to Uber to our hotel.
Again, a zero issue. I Uber a couple times every weekend.
It took me several extra minutes to find the Uber pickup spot, but again, there was not any time issues.
As I was crossing over one lane to get to the waiting area, I noticed a tall young many standing in the same waiting area.
As I walked up to him, we made eye contact, and he asked the first question.
“Is that a Jackrabbits shirt?”
I was wearing a South Dakota State golf shirt. Gotta brandish the logo.
“Why yes,” I answered, ready to start the six questions of how we Jackrabbit types happen to meet in a Detroit airport parking garage.
He beat me to the punch.
“I’m from South Dakota! I am an SDSU grad!”
Well, hello.
It was then that I noticed his jacket, adorned with not an SDSU logo, but a Daktronics patch.
I won’t get into a lot of detail here, but Daktronics is one of the biggest scoreboard manufacturers in the world. Their products are everywhere. Gainbridge and Lucas Oil both have Daktronics equipment.
Well, that company was founded and is still headquartered in — Brookings, the home of South Dakota State.
It was old home week — two Jackrabbits finding each other.
But it gets better. Ashton was on his way home from China. Daktronics has a huge manufacturing plant over there, and he is a production engineer for the company.
He had an eight-hour layover in Detroit waiting for his flight back to South Dakota, and he was grabbing an Uber to go visit the Henry Ford Museum.
I told him that is was a fantastic place and that he would really enjoy it.
I also reminded him that it was only a couple hours until the kickoff of the big rivalry game between SDSU and the evil University of South Dakota Coyotes.
He said with all his travel and other distractions that he had forgotten it was going on and was saddened that he couldn’t find a TV to watch.
I mentioned that I happened to have an app that would not get him video, but would hook him right up to the radio network.
Then our two Ubers arrived and off we went. If either of us had been five minutes earlier or later, we probably would have missed each other. I know my day and weekend was better after running into him.
Talk about timing.
And speaking of that SDSU Radio Network, I’m going to be filling in for the crew remotely the next couple weekends. Their regular stats guy is going in for some heart work, so Brad, thoughts and prayers for you.
I’ll be working from my hotel in Boston. We have the Packers and Patriots this weekend, as we take a certain announcer from our crew back to the place he happened to win six Super Bowls. The security guys have had more meetings that before a playoff game.
I’m in Boston, doing a game for a South Dakota football team, playing in Iowa. Talk about the technology.
Here is to working computers and good timing.
Safe travels.
Jeff Nelson is a frequent contributor to the Journal Review and works professionally for Fox Sports working with the Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis Colts and many more professional teams.
