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Team Captain [458]
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Film Study, or A Fool and His Money (long and convoluted)
Jan 21, 2019, 1:06 PM
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I pulled off from Pawleys early on the 27th headed for the Cotton Bowl and, with a little Tiger luck, Santa Clara. The CRV odometer showed 000114, mostly from test driving. After a bureaucratic brush-by at the courthouse and DMV in Darlington County, I breezed by the Farm to take a look. The pecan tree flag was hanging by one grommet and as anyone with a shred of patriotism knows, this will not do. A quick fix and Old Glory fluttered freely in my rearview mirror as I headed west.
At the Costco in Augusta, a Dawg saw my paw and offered good luck against the Irish, but cautioned that the Tigers would struggle against the Mighty Tide. “Doesn’t everyone?” I replied. This could have escalated into a scrape, but I had loftier aspirations this day than growling back at dawgs.
I ground travel a LOT, and I mean it. Wherever the Interstate Highways go, there go I since my livelihood is publishing an exit directory. This will explain why I hardly ever go straight to a destination. Instead of following I-20 to Dallas, I bore right at Birmingham and spent the first night near Little Rock, aiming to drive I-30 toward AT&T Stadium, which I did on the second day. Courtesy of two $44 one-way tickets from Vegas, my son and grandson joined me that evening in the hotel.
By Saturday morning, game ticket prices stopped falling and began to rise slightly. Unwilling to accept the reality that the Cotton Bowl was more popular that we anticipated, we headed over to the stadium intending to buy tickets on the street. Imagine our surprise and delight when a nice man not only sold us tickets but pointed out free parking. Imagine our dismay when the beautifully mastered tickets would not scan. A pox on the counterfeiter! A blessing on the nice fellow at Will Call who issued us standing room only tickets to help cover our losses!
Everything considered, we had a splendid view of the game and cheered the Tigers to victory. An Irish student in the men’s room asked me if Clemson had a JV team they could play. $31 worth of Cane’s Chicken Fingers, and we returned to the parking lot to discover the CRV missing, towed to a wrecking yard on the rough side of Fort Worth. Uber took us there, and after negotiating through bullet-proof glass with the tattooed lady, we were off to watch what was left of Alabama vs Oklahoma.
Except for a snow storm between Albuquerque and Flagstaff, the trip to our place on the Utah-Idaho border was unremarkable. By midweek, I had moved the snow, filled the propane tank and made ready to streak across Nevada. It snowed again early on January 6, but another son, his wife and I quickly conquered Interstate 80, this time pushing the button on electronic game tickets near the Humboldt Sink. Everything seemed to be going our way as we wheeled into Reno, the roads were dry, traffic and our moods were light. Then the highway information sign blinked, “I-80 W of Reno closed until further notice”.
You do not come this far only to be thwarted by Donner Pass being shut down by blizzard conditions, so after asking a few questions, we decided on US 50 over Spooner Pass around the south shore of Lake Tahoe. I sat in the all-wheel drive CRV, while my son and his wife figured out the chains. With the wind and snow gusting near 30 mph, our first attempt failed. We regrouped at Chipotle in Carson City, chained up underneath a service-station canopy and climbed up over the pass. Things were looking better by South Tahoe, but then traffic stopped. After moving one mile in three hours we found lodging, watched a documentary about the Donner Party, and spent the night hoping that the roads would be better by morning.
They were, and by afternoon, we had broken out the orange, added my daughter from UC Davis and begun the search for parking in Santa Clara. “$80, said the nice man”, pointing to a spot. “Will we be towed?” I queried. “Of course not,” he reassured. And, he was right.
By the end of the first quarter, I said to my son, “We can play with these guys”. By halftime, I added “we can beat these guys”. And, we did. After In-N-Out, we breezed back to Davis, exhausted but elated.
Next day, I said goodbye to the children and headed down I-5 toward LA, turning east on I-210 so as to avoid the city. The day after that I rode past the Fiesta Bowl, venue of a past Tiger victory, and two days later, whiffed by the Superdome in New Orleans, where hope is centered for next year. By now, Pawleys was a hard day’s drive, but achievable in a slightly used CRV. I wrote the mileage down when I drove in last week, penciling in 008416. Not a bad price, all in all, for a national championship. Go Tigers!
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CU Guru [1040]
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Joined: 8/4/03
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Excellent adventure!!***
Jan 21, 2019, 1:17 PM
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Orange Blooded [2890]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 1685
Joined: 9/8/07
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Re: Film Study, or A Fool and His Money (long and convoluted)
Jan 21, 2019, 1:19 PM
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Former DCer hear too. St. John's class of 74. Counterfeit tickets... (sigh) there is a special place in hell, right between those people who go slow in the left lane and those that don't use their turn signals.
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Legend [16646]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 9354
Joined: 11/1/14
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People who go slow in the left lane...
Jan 21, 2019, 1:31 PM
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Where I'm from, they're called Floridians. Perhaps displaced from elsewhere (more than likely), but the plates say Florida. It almost doesn't matter what state you're traveling through on the East Coast...if there's a car in the left lane for no good reason, dollars to doughnuts it has Florida tags.
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CU Medallion [56747]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Joined: 11/12/04
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we stopped by In-N-Out after the game too.
Jan 21, 2019, 1:20 PM
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any chance you're in this picture? there was a lot of orange.
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Oculus Spirit [90729]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 45485
Joined: 10/18/09
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So, you’re saying 8302 miles for a Natty?
Jan 21, 2019, 2:25 PM
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I’d say you got a bargain & a Lifetime of Family & Clemson Memories too RickyMtnTiger!
Thx for sharing & supporting our TiGER Team!
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All-TigerNet [10853]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Joined: 1/6/04
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Legend [16472]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Joined: 9/1/01
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Nice!***
Jan 21, 2019, 8:28 PM
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Orange Blooded [2531]
TigerPulse: 89%
Posts: 4158
Joined: 10/10/08
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nice story, liked it
Jan 21, 2019, 3:32 PM
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readable, entertaining, adventurous, Twain-ish too, esp. the western chroncile. Wonder if there's not a app on a phone that someone could put out that can scan a ticket for legitimacy? Fight fire with fire so to speak. If the tech is there to make that good a fake, then the tech is there to detect it too.
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MVP [533]
TigerPulse: 84%
Posts: 6210
Joined: 8/30/14
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Re: Film Study, or A Fool and His Money (long and convoluted)
Jan 21, 2019, 8:55 PM
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I pulled off from Pawleys early on the 27th headed for the Cotton Bowl and, with a little Tiger luck, Santa Clara. The CRV odometer showed 000114, mostly from test driving. After a bureaucratic brush-by at the courthouse and DMV in Darlington County, I breezed by the Farm to take a look. The pecan tree flag was hanging by one grommet and as anyone with a shred of patriotism knows, this will not do. A quick fix and Old Glory fluttered freely in my rearview mirror as I headed west.
At the Costco in Augusta, a Dawg saw my paw and offered good luck against the Irish, but cautioned that the Tigers would struggle against the Mighty Tide. “Doesn’t everyone?” I replied. This could have escalated into a scrape, but I had loftier aspirations this day than growling back at dawgs.
I ground travel a LOT, and I mean it. Wherever the Interstate Highways go, there go I since my livelihood is publishing an exit directory. This will explain why I hardly ever go straight to a destination. Instead of following I-20 to Dallas, I bore right at Birmingham and spent the first night near Little Rock, aiming to drive I-30 toward AT&T Stadium, which I did on the second day. Courtesy of two $44 one-way tickets from Vegas, my son and grandson joined me that evening in the hotel.
By Saturday morning, game ticket prices stopped falling and began to rise slightly. Unwilling to accept the reality that the Cotton Bowl was more popular that we anticipated, we headed over to the stadium intending to buy tickets on the street. Imagine our surprise and delight when a nice man not only sold us tickets but pointed out free parking. Imagine our dismay when the beautifully mastered tickets would not scan. A pox on the counterfeiter! A blessing on the nice fellow at Will Call who issued us standing room only tickets to help cover our losses!
Everything considered, we had a splendid view of the game and cheered the Tigers to victory. An Irish student in the men’s room asked me if Clemson had a JV team they could play. $31 worth of Cane’s Chicken Fingers, and we returned to the parking lot to discover the CRV missing, towed to a wrecking yard on the rough side of Fort Worth. Uber took us there, and after negotiating through bullet-proof glass with the tattooed lady, we were off to watch what was left of Alabama vs Oklahoma.
Except for a snow storm between Albuquerque and Flagstaff, the trip to our place on the Utah-Idaho border was unremarkable. By midweek, I had moved the snow, filled the propane tank and made ready to streak across Nevada. It snowed again early on January 6, but another son, his wife and I quickly conquered Interstate 80, this time pushing the button on electronic game tickets near the Humboldt Sink. Everything seemed to be going our way as we wheeled into Reno, the roads were dry, traffic and our moods were light. Then the highway information sign blinked, “I-80 W of Reno closed until further notice”.
You do not come this far only to be thwarted by Donner Pass being shut down by blizzard conditions, so after asking a few questions, we decided on US 50 over Spooner Pass around the south shore of Lake Tahoe. I sat in the all-wheel drive CRV, while my son and his wife figured out the chains. With the wind and snow gusting near 30 mph, our first attempt failed. We regrouped at Chipotle in Carson City, chained up underneath a service-station canopy and climbed up over the pass. Things were looking better by South Tahoe, but then traffic stopped. After moving one mile in three hours we found lodging, watched a documentary about the Donner Party, and spent the night hoping that the roads would be better by morning.
They were, and by afternoon, we had broken out the orange, added my daughter from UC Davis and begun the search for parking in Santa Clara. “$80, said the nice man”, pointing to a spot. “Will we be towed?” I queried. “Of course not,” he reassured. And, he was right.
By the end of the first quarter, I said to my son, “We can play with these guys”. By halftime, I added “we can beat these guys”. And, we did. After In-N-Out, we breezed back to Davis, exhausted but elated.
Next day, I said goodbye to the children and headed down I-5 toward LA, turning east on I-210 so as to avoid the city. The day after that I rode past the Fiesta Bowl, venue of a past Tiger victory, and two days later, whiffed by the Superdome in New Orleans, where hope is centered for next year. By now, Pawleys was a hard day’s drive, but achievable in a slightly used CRV. I wrote the mileage down when I drove in last week, penciling in 008416. Not a bad price, all in all, for a national championship. Go Tigers!
Good stuff, nice read.
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110%er [6095]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 13241
Joined: 11/10/00
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I’m jealous. What a fabulous adventure.***
Jan 21, 2019, 8:58 PM
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Orange Blooded [2232]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 1590
Joined: 11/30/98
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Very enjoyable read
Jan 21, 2019, 9:05 PM
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Reminiscent of the pre-Twitter TigerNet. Well done, sir. RCs and Moonpies to you and yours.
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Replies: 11
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