I mentioned last week that some members of my family were getting into the travel part of life.
There was a surprise meeting in Tampa, the result of some crazy timing.
Last week there was no surprise meeting, but timing and circumstances put a couple family members into a position that I have been in many times over the years, so they get another mention this week.
Before we start though, a moment to brag for all our family, and our South Dakota State family.
The football Jackrabbits won their second National Championship last Sunday.
It is back-to-back for the Jacks, who went undefeated on the season and were top-ranked from the first day to the last.
They beat Montana 23-3 in the championship game, which was played in Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
There the stories flow from.
Because the game was on Sunday, I could not go because of my NFL duties.
I was blessed with a couple of great tech guys. Ben and Dave spend part of their setup time on Saturday running video cable to an extra TV monitor that they put next to my work area. They fed the video signal to that monitor, so I could watch the game before we went on the air. We had the late game in DC, so the game was well in hand before we got busy. I had the radio crew on an app, so I got to listen to parts of the broadcast, and had the stats feed on my laptop.
As close as I could get to being there.
My niece and nephew were actually there. Emma is a second-year law student and her brother Gabe is an engineering freshman at South Dakota State.
They didn’t get tickets through a lottery or a couple other means, including asking Uncle Jeff, who tried some of his contacts.
That didn’t stop their faith, however, and they booked a motel room in Oklahoma City for Friday night of last week. If they could get tickets, they were going to drive the10 hours or so to OKC, stay overnight there, then drive the four hours to the game, drive four hours back after the game and then 10 more hours home on Sunday.
Well, good fortune found them and they got two standing room tickets literally the day they were going to cancel the room and the trip.
A trip to the big game was back in place!
Then Mother Nature chimed in.
I know everyone heard about the big storm that was and is rolling through the Midwest.
While the weather was good in Texas, things were not looking so good for a lot of miles heading back to South Dakota. Lots of snow and lots of wind.
In the throng of Jackrabbit fans they found many others who were facing the same driving concerns. The problem was that the longer folks waited, the worse things were going to get.
So, a few thousand SDSU fans simply called an audible there at the stadium, and a very long line of very happy fans all set out to drive all the way back from Texas to South Dakota and beat some of the bad weather that was rolling in from the west.
“It was quite the convoy,” Emma said. “There were some McDonalds along the turnpike that got a lot bigger turnout of people than they probably counted on. We stopped together, so some gas stations along the Kansas turnpike were all blue and yellow (school colors). It was fun to think that about 1 percent of the entire population of the state was at the game, and it seemed like they were all in the convoy driving home. The fun part was that we won, though, and everyone was certainly happy.”
Gabe and Emma spent the night in the traffic doing what all families like to do when driving a long while – they counted license plates.
“Every car had a South Dakota plate,” Emma said, “so started looking for a plate from all 52 counties. The toughest part was trying to remember which numbers went with which counties.”
They have a numbering system like ours in Indiana. They are alphabetically arranged, so Adams County if first, and up the alphabet they go.
And, like any long overnight trip, there are two fuels gas and coffee.
“We were also asking everyone if they were still going to try and make it all the way back,” Emma said. “Nobody wanted to get stuck in Sioux City!”
They didn’t get stuck anywhere, and were back home to a very relieved Mom and Dad at 7 a.m. Monday morning.
My try to DC wasn’t nearly as adventurous as that. All I got was five hours of sleep in my car at the Indy airport Saturday morning (I was not sure about the roads and I was already in town after the Pacers game). When there were a couple inches of snow on my car at 5 a.m. I was very happy to have stayed.
I got to DC and they missed out on all the snow that hit the East Coast. The snow was about 50 miles west and north. I’m sure you saw the snow in Boston for the Patriots game.
It rained, and by Sunday afternoon, it really wasn’t too bad out.
So, the kids get the gold star this week.
I’m headed to Dallas this weekend for an NFL playoff game. Another Cowboys game, I know, but it’s the Packers and it’s a playoff game. Can’t go wrong.
Now, however, I have to watch the forecast for our area. Thins don’t sound so nice for Friday and maybe Saturday around the area. On top of that, I have three road trips for some high school basketball. We shall see how things are in Covington, Riverton Parke and Williamsport before heading to Texas.
I hope the New Year is off to a great start for everyone.
Be warned, if you see me, I just might brag about my Jackrabbits a bit.
Safe travels.
Jeff Nelson is a frequent contributor to the Journal Review and works professionally for Fox Sports assisting with NFL broadcasts and the Indiana Pacers.
