There is no place like Nebraska
Grossly overdue, considering that I’m watching Mizzou pound them as we speak, but some thoughts seem necessary from what was absolutely my best road game trip ever.
- New one on me: my first flight leg getting reassigned from a Saab prop plane to Air Windstar. CHO-IAD was slower via taxi, but only marginally less comfortable; since I was going standby on an earlier “flight” than my original, I even made my IAD-DEN connection OK.
- Final count of crossings of the Nebraska-Iowa border: 12. Credit staying across the river from Omaha in Council Bluffs and a geographic oddity that puts a short stretch of Iowa between downtown Omaha and the airport.
- The one-hour stretch of I-80 between Omaha and Lincoln is not quite as flat as I expected — more gently rolling hills that proved no obstacle whatsoever to the rental RAV4 to which Hertz helpfully upgraded my midsize reservation.
- Roadtripping Hokie fans: well done. We were all over Lincoln all afternoon Saturday, celebrating UVa’s humiliation at the hands of Duke and having a good time with the locals. Speaking of them…
- Nebraska fans: easily the friendliest fans I’ve ever met. I can only pray we’re as welcoming next year on their return visit.
- Nebraska highway department postgame: not as helpful. Missing the onramp to I-180 was my fault, but closing the ramp from US 6 back onto I-80 was unnecessarily cruel.
- Memorial Stadium doesn’t seem as big as Lane Stadium, but the complete enclosure of both end zones makes a difference, and the visiting player entrance is fairly intimidating — a walk uphill through a crowded, dark concrete jungle full of fans until the gap in the stands opens into the Sea of Red.
- My only criticism of the game experience: the NU sound staff plays loud artificial noise, even sometimes plain white noise, on NU defensive series until the last legal second when the offensive team sets the line. You have 85,000 fans and a reasonably competent band. You don’t need that crap — leave that to low-class places like West Virginia.
- A non-Hokie friend traveling on business confirmed my impression: VT fans owned O’Hare Airport on Sunday afternoon. It was like coming home from a bowl trip — except that we actually won the game this time.