It was a trip to Dallas last weekend, which comes as no shock to any of you who read these notes regularly.
My NFL crew gets the call to Big D on a regular basis. I think we were there eight or nine times two seasons ago, but managed only half that last season. Still more than any other place.
There were delays everywhere, but there were other happenings that at least negated the worst parts.
I took an early flight last Saturday morning, because there are always weather issues in that part of the country in September. In case there were cancellations, there were other flights later in the day, or if need be, time to route in from another direction.
So, we were about an hour late leaving Indy, but that didn’t matter because I knew I would not have a hotel room until mid-afternoon anyway.
The good part is that we have a meeting room at the hotel, so when I arrived, I just went there. I had work to do, and the coffee service was there.
I had hoped to get into my room before the 5:30 production meeting, but that didn’t happen. The same thing happened once last year, and it was the same way. Sometimes even the Ritz Carlton has too much to do.
I ended up not getting my room until after the meeting, and dinner, so it was about 8:30, but at least I wasn’t sitting in the lobby all day.
Since we had the double-header game on Sunday afternoon, we had later Sunday morning schedules.
But the hotel, while slow on the go getting my room ready, was right on the clock when it came time to taking the breakfast service away exactly on the minute.
The problem there is that some of the crew was still at the hotel and when they came down for a later breakfast, it was all gone, except for a couple muffins and the coffee. So that meant those folks had to order from the room service menu, and had a tight time schedule because we did have to head to the stadium a little earlier than normal.
That was because there was a Texas Rangers baseball game starting two hours before the football game.
These two stadiums share parking lots, and an already crowded football day got a few thousand baseball fans added. The Rangers are also in first place, or at least in the playoff hunt, so they had a good crowd. It was crowded and the traffic was busy.
But we got there, the game was played and then it was time to head back to the airport for a Sunday night flight back.
There is one last flight out of Dallas back to Indy that I could catch, but there was not a lot of extra time. It was get in the cars and get going.
Which did happen, but as we just got started, I got a text from American that my flight was delayed three hours.
I was no longer in a hurry.
That delay turned into another hour, but it was offset by the luck of having a bar right next to our gate that had the Colts game on! The delays meant a lot of Colts fans were hanging together suffering through the loss. The OT ended literally as the gate agents were finally calling us to get on board.
I was about seventh on the upgrade list, but did get into business class, so that helped a little.
I was all secure in 14C and chatting with the guys sitting around about the game, and then a flight attendant came up.
“Mr. Nelson, due to the long delays, there have been some cancellations and there is now a seat in first class if you would like it.”
“Why, yes I would.”
Now the Colts chatter turned into some good-natured ribbing about living right and getting a last-second promotion to the front.
I gathered my two bags and headed for 2F.
Where we all sat for another hour because there was no ground crew at one of the busiest airports in the nation to load the bags on the plane!
It was literally an hour before we finally backed away from the gate, and then it took so long to get out to the runway, I asked the guy sitting next to me if we were driving the plane all the way to Indiana.
It was just short of 3:30 Monday morning when we landed, and it was crazy to see all the folks just getting in the security lines, ready to leave town.
It was right at 5 when I got back to Crawfordsville. I’ve flown the redeye back from the west coast plenty of times, so getting home at 5 in the morning is not new.
But it is never easy. First priority is the nap.
But hey, that’s what travel in the NFL is all about.
It’s east this weekend. I get to do a game at the new Buffalo Bills stadium. Some of the Prime guys who worked there last Thursday said it is quite the fancy place.
I’m just glad it isn’t December, although the storms out east are threatening to disrupt travel out there. I have another Sunday night flight back, but it is through Charlotte, and their forecast is pretty good (for now).
Welcome to all the Wabash alums that are in town for Homecoming, and a congratulations to the new members of the Southmont Hall of Fame, who get inducted Saturday. A personal congrats to Brenda (Remley) Hawksworth, a member of this year’s inductees.
She earned 12 letters at South, won a hoops sectional and had a very good collegiate basketball career. She and husband Jim (a Wabash alum) have a son who is playing baseball at Wabash.
Long overdue, Brenda — welcome to the Hall.
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.
