We made it to the airport in record time.
The rental car place was prepared for Longhorns, with a big orange and white balloon arch over the return
area and one guy even had a bevo sticker on the back of his clipboard. We quickly got on the shuttle
and went to the Delta terminal. Check-in was so simple... I don't know what people complain about flying
into LAX for... it was very easy for us.
As a result, we had almost two hours to kill in the airport. We made our way to a little ice cream/coffee
shop next to our gate and conversed with some Longhorn fans also taking the same flight. One pair
of women were especially entertaining as we conversed about the various great moments of the game.
It was really great to sit and chat... reliving the moments that occured less than 24 hours prior.
On the flight from LA into Salt Lake City, former UT linebacker, radio personality, and current
broadcaster on Fox Sports Southwest, Brian Jones. It was pretty cool to see a UT celebrity so up close.
Once in Salt Lake, we had a brief layover... and while waiting for the plane, I ran into my future
sister-in-law's cousin Mariah. She had also attended the game with an old high school friend and we
just randomly booked the same flight back. It was funny because I didn't recognize her at first
until she called me out by name. A little embarassing but still funny.
On the flight back we had a really entertaining stewardess who kept cracking jokes with us as well
as a whole crew of Texas fans. One guy behind us also had his laptop and we were showing each other
the photos we had taken. He had some really great shots with his super-fancy camera.
We landed in San Antonio around 10:30 and walked down to the baggage claim. I was looking in vain
to find a newspaper from San Antonio to get the story headline. All of the stores were closed so I walked
up to the car rental counter by the baggage return. As I was walking up, the woman behind the counter
called me out, looking at my shirt. I was wearing one of our "Prick" shirts and she wanted to read it.
So I struck up a conversation with her. Come to find out, her son is a UT cheerleader! Not only that,
but Jonn and my favorite cheerleader, Taylor Leslie.
We always seek him out at every event. Such an
amazing coincidence! She was very nice... even going into their back room to see if anyone had left
a newspaper behind... and they had! So not only did we have a really great moment, but she was also
able to get me the newspaper headline I wanted.
At the same time, Jonn was talking with Mark Madsen, #35 on the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves. He was in
town to play the Spurs in San Antonio. Originally from California, he's a USC fan but
still was a very nice guy, talking with Jonn about the game and if Vince would stay or not.
We gathered our luggage and drove back to Austin. As we approached downtown, we could see the tower
lit in orange with a big 1... in honor of the championship. We drove down to campus to take some pictures,
finding about 20 other UT fans already there. It was so beautiful. We took a handful of shots and
jumped in the car and headed home. We stopped at Jonn's mother's house to pick up his dog and
spent a while watching some of the newscasts that his mother had recorded. My voice was the voiceover
as KVUE talked about the Kickoff Luncheon and then they briefly showed my face really up close... then
jumping to a shot of us being interviewd by HDNet... getting a great moment of Jonn laughing.
It was after 2am by this point, so the night finally came to a close. Jonn dropped me off at home and
headed home himself. After staying up for a while reading stories on the Internet, I went to bed...
ending our epic Rose Bowl adventure.
|
Two ladies in the Los Angeles airport |
Jimmy with cheerleader Taylor Leslie's Mother in San Antonio |
Jimmy and Jonn in front of the Tower |
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