I had a blast in Laramie. It went something like this: Thursday- Fly to Omaha. Rent car. Look at map. Figure I-80 will suck. Drive Hwy 92 to Highway 2 all the way across central Nebraska. Much to my surprise, the scenery is MUCH better than expected. 175 miles of solid corn, but much more rolling hills than I thought there would be. Flip a switch. Corn stops. Ranching starts. Then come the sand hills, which are just what they sound like. Millions of small hill of sand covered in grass as far as the eye can see. Ate a Runza. Drove though Hyanis, NE where the high school mascot is the Longhorns. Stopped to experience Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska. Awesome tourist trap: Stonehenge recreated with cars instead of rocks. Nice. Drove past Scottsbluff just as the sun was setting. More nice scenery. Finally picked up I-80 just before the Wyo border. It was dark by then. Motel 6. 11 hour drive. Nap while waiting for friend to arrive from CT via Denver. 11:45 PM. Finally hit town. Roll to 3rd and Grand (Main and Main). 30 seconds out of the car, two drunk chicks walk by and ask were we're going. Our reply: "We don't know. We just got here." They screamed "Cowboy Bar" and off we went. Cowboy Bar (not to be confused with Cowboy Saloon a block away) is a dive. 18 and up. Fewer than 20 folks in the whole place. Start drinking. Make a few friends. Mild trash talking. CHEAP drinks. Gotta love a college town. They close at 2:00 AM and someone there says Shari's is the place to go for a late night meal. Hit Shari's. Walk in. Six college kids come in behind us. Hostess finally arrives and I say "Table for eight", so we all sit together. Typical late night discussion among strangers. Some other trash talk from a few tables over. Wyo mensa moons us on the way to his car. Wyo kid at our table runs outside to confront him. The rest of us join the fray. Instigator is talking **** to our Wyo bud, but soon realizes his crew is VASTLY outnumbered and his friends aren't sticking up for him. He tucks tail and runs. Great time. I treat everyone for breakfast (always my policy to treat when hanging with students). Friday - Wake up late. Perfect weather. Self guided campus tour. Nice campus. Small. Fairly dense. Hit the Student Union. Bar doesn't open till 3:00 PM. Wander around a little more. Damn. I wish I was still in college. Head back to 3rd and Grand. Buckhorn Bar. Cold beer starts flowing. Meet Buck, bartender for 20 years. Buck claims he was conceived IN the bar. He's about 55. Meet a guy from NJ and his wife. He played for UW in 1969-1970. Comes to a few games each year. Learned the story of the Black 14, which happened while he was on the team. No food at Buckhorn, so we roll to Lovejoys around the corner. The Wolfinburger is NICE. Lots of meat. Small bun. Bacon and egg on burger. Smoking hot waitress. Can't join us later for beer cuz she's 20. Start chatting with bartenders and some other Horns. Greg is pouring free Gregger Bombs (double plus sized Jager bomb). Owner put them on the menu because Greg always made regular bombs too big without charging extra. Now they are free. I think the owners plan backfired. Sweet. Outside the window we see a ped bridge over about 10 tracks. We're told it goes to Bud's Bar. We start walking. Tiny joint. Crowed for early afternoon. All locals. Everyone knows everyone. We're VIP's the second we walk in the door. Bud's kicks ***. Beer flows. Friends made. One lady invites me back any time for back country snowmobiling with her husband. I want a Bud's t-shirt, which they don't make anymore, so another lady goes home and gets a Bud's polo shirt out of her husband's dresser and gives it to me. A guy there tells us to park free at his business across the street from the stadium. We're invited back in the morning for one lady's famous elk jerkey and super hot salsa and a free breakfast buffet. We head back to the other side of the tracks to meet some of our Horn friends that are out and about. Ealier in the day a stranger named Chuck invites stops me on the street and invites me to a party at his office. He's a Horn in Laramie. His office is on the second floor of an old building right in the middle of the action. Free beer and food for all Horn fans. Sweet retro office. Lots of Shiner Bock longnecks. I invite a bunch of my Horn friends. He welcomes them all. Beer flows. Another trip to Buckhorn, now packed. More beer. Then back to Lovejoys. Our friends want a bite to eat. We just drink. LONG line for a table, but the manager remembers me. I give him a 20 and we're seated immediately. Our friends are lame and want to go home. We run into a couple of the co-eds from the Cowboy Bar and hang with them for a while. Go to 3rd Street Bar and grill. Packed. Loud. Too bright lights. One beer. Leave. Drive back to Bud's for a night cap. NJ football player is there. Small town. We keep seeing the same people. I'm beat. Back to Tom Bodett's. Keys don't work. Get new keys. They don't work. Shout at staff. Dude has to hook up a machine to our door to get it open. I'm pissed. I let them know. Someone comes out of their room and tells me to shut up. Oh well, **** happens. Door open. Sleep. Saturday - Back at Bud's by 9:00 AM. Cold beer flows. Homemade salsa was SUPER hot. My tongue hurts. Elk jerkey is good. Join the bar's weekly football pot. Place is getting crowed. Overflowing outside. We have a bar table. Dude puts me on the phone with his friend with tickets. Pretty good seats. OK price. Done deal. She delivers them to us at the bar. Buffet arrives at 11:00 AM in the hands of some 75 year old's. Good spread. Beef. Chicken. Rice. Beans. Several sauces. Cheese. Onions. Japs. Tortillas. All good. All free. Head to stadium about noon. Do a couple laps around the parking lot. Run into some of our new friends. People keep handing me beers. Go to game. First 29 minutes suck. At half time a very cute girl comes and sits right down beside me. She was at Bud's that morning with her dad. She saw us from a section over where she was sitting. We chat for the half. The 60 year old Wyo fan sitting next to me had invited us out to their tailgate at half time. I declined and told her I had to meet some friends. Truth is, I was pretty tired and totally beer-ed out by than point. She returned for the second half and hands me a cold beer she smuggled in for me. Even beer-ed out, it's damn good. She has one for herself too. She lives in Steamboat. She gives me her number and says I can come stay at her house in Steamboat anytime I want. Her son's are grown and she has lots of room. On of her friend looks over and says it a "really" nice house. Sweet. After game. Motel 6. Beat. Chill for 20 minutes watching OSU-USC pregame. Drive 550 miles back to Omaha. I have a 6:00 flight back to Houston and I don't want to miss any tailgating. Long drive. Fog. Rain. Should be sleeping. Arrive airport 3:00 AM. In Houston at 8:15 AM. At Reliant Park at 9:15 AM. Beer in hand at 9:16 AM. Bernard
Needs a "...and then this chick...and her___were enormous...and then." moment, but in all sounds like my kinda weekend.
Outstanding! This is the quality of post that should be emulated for every road trip that is partaken by the patrons of this board. I feel like I was there too. All that's missing is Neon Moon! Well I guess you did get one kind of moon.
Thanks - that was cool reading. But you didn't mention anything about the church services you attended?
There was a slight error in your post. Your friends aren't lame...they were just having a great time at The Buckhorn and didn't want to leave!
LonghornCatholic: 8:30 at the Newman Center. Welcome day so we got to meet the entire staff. All complained about losing their voices from hollering the first half. Told em WE lost our voices hollering the WHOLE GAME. Maybe they should take notes. Cruised up Hwy 130 to Medicine Bow Pass EARLY Sunday morning, took pictures of gold aspens and got back in time for church before pointing the Explorer east to Omaha. Nobody's mentioned how nice it was for OB & LHG to host another remote, roadie tailgate. Thanks, yet again. Fun trip. Beat the HELL outta Tech! m/
Awesome post. I ended up at 3rd street bar and mulligans friday ynight before I forgot where i was and ended back at our hotel. We also stayed at motel 6. Was yours off the Highway?
Thanks for the great road report and double thanks for representing the fans of The University of Texas so admirably and honorably. Sounds like you made us a few new fans.
