Scott's Thoughts

Road Trippin' with the Old Man

One of my more fond memories of college was when I worked at the school newspaper (called "The Muleskinner" of all things) at ol' Call Me Stupid U. And my Dad and I would occasionally drive to some of the MIAA venues where I would "cover" the game and write a story about it (didn't exactly have a real strict deadline ... the games were on Saturdays and we didn't publish again until Wednesday). Anyway, it was fun to go to the road games and it was a lot of fun to spend time with the Old Man. I was just a young punk in my early 20s and it was cool to get some of his wisdom (even though I'd never admit it at the time). And it was just fun hanging out with him. Dad's a great guy. You're never going to meet a nicer, more genuine man (more on that in a bit).

Anyway, back to the point of my post. As you may or may not know, although I didn't actually graduate from there, I'm kind of a Mizzou fan. And by "kind of" I mean rabid. Like Cujo rabid. So rabid I scare people. LeAnn knows after a Mizzou victory is the best time to shop. Don't try it after a Mizzou loss.

Mizzou football had its ups and downs this year. We pee-pee'd away a couple of games (Arizona State, K-State and Baylor come to mind). But it was our seventh consecutive year of being good enough to go to a bowl game. Unfortunately, for the third time since 2003, we were selected to go to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Some bowl games send you to San Diego or Orlando or New Orleans or even New York. But the Indy Bowl sends you to Shreveport. I don't mind Shreveport. The family went in 2003 and I had a great time. I spent basically two nights (literally, the whole night ... went with Mom and Dad and they picked me up from the casino on their way out of town the last morning) and a couple hundred dollars in Shreveport's casinos. But anyway, I digress. Shreveport is a small city of about 150,000 or so and it houses a large Air Force Base. Not exactly on par with the Tournament of Roses Parade festivities in Pasadena or anything.

But, the Independence Bowl did afford me the opportunity to surprise Dad with a road trip. The game was the 26th of December at 4 p.m. So I bought some tickets. Mom used her AARP or AAA or whatever old folks use to get us a cheap hotel room and we decided we wouldn't tell Dad about the trip until he opened up the tickets on Christmas morning. He was surprised. I'm not sure he was all that enthused, however, when I told him we'd have to leave about 4 a.m. the next morning to make it to the game on time.

Dad opening the Indy Bowl tickets. See how excited he looks? :)

4 a.m. December 26th and off we go on our 10-hour or so trip to Shreveport. It's mostly Interstate, but there are some parts in Arkansas where the roads seem pre-Eisenhower. But since Dad wouldn't let me drive, I didn't mind the roads. Seriously, he drove the whole time, down and back. I offered (although I admit I slept for about the first two hours of the journey while it was still dark out). But Dad is one of those people who is a lot more comfortable behind the wheel than in the passenger seat. I'm the same way, but usually only when it's LeAnn or Linda driving. Anybody else, and I can relax. Not those two. No way.

Again, I digress. It was a lot of fun just getting to spend those 36 hours or so with Dad. We bitched talked about our wives. Just checking to see if you're reading this Mom and LeAnn. :) We solved all the world's problems. We talked about politics, religion, kids, Mizzou, Chiefs, Royals, music and most importantly, the Blue Collar Comedy channel. Thank goodness for Sirius XM so we could hear the wit and wisdom of Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White. I kid, I kid.

Did I mention that my Dad is a friendly guy? We stopped at approximately six McDonald's on our way to and from Shreveport. Dad had an extended conversation with approximately sixty people in those six McD's. Not really, but it was close. Dad has never met a stranger. All kidding aside, it was a lot of fun and the drive (or the ride) didn't seem nearly as long as it probably was. Heck I don't know, maybe Dad was bored as hell. But I hope not.

When we finally got to the game, we were in for a kind of rude surprise, it was cold and rainy (again, we were going to Northwestern Louisiana, not exactly South Beach). But, hey, if it wasn't for dumb decisions like driving 10 hours to sit through the rain to watch two 7-5 football teams, then we wouldn't be men, right? Walking into the stadium was hell. The wind was blowing the rain right into our faces. I know Dad would have rather just said screw it and gone to Applebee's by our hotel and watched the game there. But he was a trooper (besides, I paid good money for those tickets ... we were going to the game).

Here's our view. We did seat hop, but the place, as evidenced by the opposite stands, wasn't exactly full.

 Below is a picture of some of the other Tiger fans in attendance (courtesy of the Columbia Daily Tribune ... notice how they were smart enough to bring Tiger ponchos with them). Dad and I are below that. I had to go to the Wal-Mart next to our hotel and buy the 99-cent ponchos. It was either that or the $50 rain suits. Trust me, walking into the stadium, I turned to Dad and said, "We should have bucked up for the rain suits."

The weather did clear and, after a bit of a rocky start, Mizzou kicked some serious tail. We ended up winning 41-24 (which made it not quite as cold). Hopefully that will kickstart our recruiting and preparation for next year's venture into the SEC. And LeAnn doesn't know this quite yet, but I think that'll probably mean a few more Father-Son roadies in the not-so-distant future. I'm thinking a trip to see the Volunteer Navy in Knoxville or The Grove in Oxford or Death Valley in Baton Rouge (or heck, even calling the Hogs in Fayetteville) will be a lot of fun. And hopefully we'll be able to make it three generations of Cruce boys when Landon and Kellen get a little bit older.

MIZ-SEC and thanks Dad for the great trip! Already looking forward to the next one(s)!