Wednesday, October 6, 2010

College Football Road Trip


Rich had been working long hours for the entire month of September while he completed 4 weeks (out of 12) of his neurointerventional radiology service.  The alarm clock would sound just after 5 AM and many nights a week, he wouldn't get home until after Zach was asleep in his crib.  Rich was tired and stressed out from the demanding schedule and difficult cases.  He needed a break. 

We had wanted to take the boys to their FIRST (can you believe that?!) college football game this fall and had talked about going to the Cincinnati Bearcats vs Oklahoma on Saturday, September 25 held at the Bengals Stadium downtown.  That was the day after Rich's long month wrapped up.  It sounded like great timing.

Then one night Rich told me that Stanford was coming to South Bend, Indiana to play Notre Dame. We then realized that the Stanford game was on the same day as the UC game.  Why not go to a game we actually cared about and make it a big event?  Rich called the alumni association the next day and we bought six tickets (maximum amount they would sell us) and we started looking at hotel options.  We needed two more tickets as well.

The next day Rich told me that it just happened that his dad was going to a medical conference in Chicago that weekend.  He thought it would be so fun if we could meet them at the game.  Rich brought up the idea with his mom and by the next day she had booked two flights to Chicago instead of one, purchased 4 football tickets online, reserved hotel rooms for the group and rented a car to drive to South Bend to meet us. 

We were thrilled!!  The kids' first college football game.  Every one's first trip to South Bend.  The Cardinal and their #9 ranking.  And a weekend getaway with Rich's parents.  It was perfect!

The countdown to Notre Dame had begun....




We got up early on Saturday morning and drove for 5 1/2 hours to South Bend.  The drive to Indianapolis was fast on the freeway, but slowed down a bit once we hit US 31-North.  It was 121 miles on a divided highway with stop lights through every small town.  We were SO excited to see the South Bend signs and not another tiny town to slog through.










1 comment:

Marcie said...

I need more details about the game itself. Jim's been to Notre Dame a few times. And we both went with Madsens once when Stanford played Notre Dame. It is such a fun campus.......and such a crazy stadium.

I'm anxious to hear how it went. We were shocked when the babies (Keenan and Hayden) needed their own tickets, how tiny, crazy the 2 x 4 plank seats were and how much alcohol was hiddden in everyone's coat pockets. Definitely a game to remember :)

But such a fun experience. The tailgating before the game was great. So glad you were able to go and that Rich got a much deserved get away. That his parent's joined you was certainly icing on the cake.