We seem to have a knack for stumbling upon places during big events. Some planned, most not. Like Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival, or Rome right after the death of Pope Francis, or New York City during the pride parade or Sturgis, South Dakota during the annual bike rally or being in Assisi Italy on Easter Weekend. Well. It happened again.
As we drove into Lubbock Texas from the airport I marveled at the line of Texas Tech flags along the roadway. Now this may not be an unusual occurrence during football season but I couldn’t say.
I did notice, however, that when I put the Aloft Hotel into Google Maps at the airport the hotel rate was showing at $441 per night. Yikes! For an Aloft?! In Lubbock?! I was happy we had booked using points many many months ago, probably before the football schedule was released.
But the mystery was soon revealed to us that we’d arrived during homecoming and parent’s weekend and as the match up between Tech and ASU was raging fiercely across town.
We had planned to begin our fall southern and West Texas tour in Lubbock in order to see a former colleague and dear friend. Unfortunately, the Texas Windmill museum was closed until Tuesday and we didn’t even try to check out any childhood homes of Buddy Holly, Delbert McClinton or Natalie Maines. Our trip was to be just social.
After a strange leg stretching exercise around the shopping mall and adjacent “vineyard”, we made a beeline for the Double Nickel Steakhouse where a martini and our dinner awaited.
I think we were the only ones not wearing Red Raiders red in the joint and, fortunately for the mood within, Tech absolutely blew out ASU. Not having skin in that particular game, we just enjoyed our dinners and our company.
Leave a Reply