The Adventure Continued

Do you ever fly Frontier? That airline is much like dining in an ala carte restaurant. They ding you for everything you order. When you look at the menu, it looks like such a bargain - a steak for $16.99! By the time you add a side salad and baked potato, you are closing in on $30. My east/west coast readers are like WHAT? So cheap! I'm talking Iowa prices. #heartofbeefcountry Our flight from Denver to the ISU bowl game in San Antonio was on Frontier, where there is a $38 fee for bags - carry on or checked. Seats, drinks, snacks? Cha-ching $$.

We landed in San Antonio, Texas just before Jud and Kara and shared an Uber into town from the airport. One of our New Year resolutions is to use this service more when we go out at night. Now we both have the app on our phones. Yep - it's only taken years. #olddogsnewtrick J&K went off to find their hotel when we arrived at ours.

Mandy, Barb and Mike Archer

The weather in Texas was a big change from Colorado (plus 50 degrees). Our tailgating pals, Ehreckes, and McKims (note - I don't need to add apostrophes to make their names plural - my pet peeve) were already in town - at a pep rally for our fave team, the Cyclones. Paul and I walked around the Alamo and then found a table at a Riverwalk bar Durty Nellie's to hang out at - complete with dirty limerick piano guy. We enjoyed people watching and snagged another table when our friends arrived. Niece Barb and fam sited us! Many others stopped by to say "hi". Cyclones fans were everywhere - in boats, walking by, in restaurants. Ames Far South.

Eventually, we decided to rustle up some food. Always good to get a base for your beer. If you've ever been to San Antonio you know that you walk upstairs to get the street level from the Riverwalk. We ended up at the Number 1 (and only) Sports Bar in town - right across from our hotel.

Busch guy - next to Donnie

If you aren't from Iowa you may not know our people are known for drinking (hangs head) Busch Light beer. (Black Velvet is the number 1 liquor - so it figures. We like cheap). We drank Memphis out of that beer at last year's bowl game. Budweiser, who distributes Busch, sniffed out a marketing opportunity and sent us the Busch Light Guy and plenty of Beer! So guess who stopped by our table and gave us a beer and stickers. He's very handsome in a beer guy way...

We ate corn dog appetizers and pizza. And were back at our hotel by 10 PM. Yay old people!

Photo courtesy of Kari

The next day was game day.  The weather was a bit chillier. We'd decided to do the Riverwalk boat tour early - to beat the crowd. We bundled up and hopped on a boat to get the historical water tour of the area. Very interesting. Then we walked through the packed Alamo - doing a self-tour. It is very important in the history of the State of Texas.

Don's college roomie Jim and wife Rita arrived in town that morning. We met them for lunch, which was delish but was completed on southern time. The hospitality we experienced in SA was slow. Perhaps they were overwhelmed by the cardinal and gold. Staff at many places just don't see to move in an efficient manner. No wonder Iowans are popular hires wherever they go.

College pals reunited! 

We decided to settle somewhere on the Riverwalk for the afternoon since the game wasn't until 8 PM. We walked out of the restaurant and heard cheering from the other side of the river. What? Jud, Kara and their college buddies were perched riverside at Rita's on the River, cheering when boats went by filled with Cyclone fans. We decided that was our place too! We ran into several friends while hanging out - including our former neighbors Todd and Suzie Stofferahn.

The group decided we needed a brief rest before walking to the Alamo Dome - just under a mile from our hotel. When we got to the stadium it was exciting - music, food, tailgaters. We had to walk down around under train tracks. Don's niece was tailgating near a group of former ISU greats including Coach Dan McCarney and Sage Rosenfels.

Gumbo booth - very good! 

Kevin, Kari, Paul and I decided to walk around and soak in the atmosphere - boy-howdy there was a lot. Huge motorhomes, families with kids on scooters and a band. There were flags from many teams proudly waving in the parking lot - OSU, Nebraska, TTU and more. Then we ran into a guy in an LSU shirt. He offered us gumbo - so sure! Kevin ate 2 cups! It was good and hit the spot. We listened to his spiel about a Wisconsin game he went to - a good 'ol boy with quite an accent.

At the stadium - it looks like a riverboat at night

Finally, it was time to go into the Dome! We drank Fireball shots for luck. Guess I should have finished mine. GRRR. I wish our team would have performed better - even so, we were still in the game until the end. Congrats to WSU for playing a game with very few errors - that was enough to win. Their quarterback was elusive and they had good team speed. Leach is a good coach. On to next year! ISU returns many players. Our clan did a group hug at the hotel. We have a great time win or lose - but winning is more fun.

A 6 a.m. flight made for a short night - but it was nice getting home early. What a week we had. I'm an anxious traveler. I don't like packing, am a nervous flyer - not the flying part but the checking in and airport part. I know - it will all work out in the end, but I don't like things blowing up plans. This trip came out better than any expectations I had. All week before we left I coached myself to just live in the moment. I wasn't perfect - a work in progress. 2019 - live it! Happy New Year!