So on Friday Kaylee and I headed up to the Salt Lake airport and got on our flight to Memphis then on to Tupelo, Mississippi. The airport always has it's own little adventures but luck for us nothing too exciting happened. We landed in Tupelo around 8:30. Now I thought the airport in Tallahassee was small, but the Tupelo airport was much much smaller. It was a building with one door for departures and one door for arrivals, a baggage claim, and a car rental desk. Yep it was a hopping place. We were met at the airport by my aunt and uncle and a couple of other BYU folks who were at the fireside with the team. We were of course in time to eat the team snack and head off to bed.
In the morning I got my first good look at Tupelo. Tupelo and the surrounding areas fits the basic look that I think of when I think of small town southern USA. It was oh-so-very green and humid. As it turns out, Tupelo is most famous for being the birthplace of one Elvis Presley....one of the city councilmen gave Coach Mendenhall a guitar pin to commemorate this historic event during the Friday evening fireside. We got a good look at the land and culture as we took a 30 minute drive to Taylor a tiny town outside of Oxford where the game was to be played. We went to Taylor because there was a Cougar Club luncheon. The restaurant we went to looked like it hadn't been in business for years...and yet it came highly recommended by people in the area. Turns out the building had been there for years....since the town was established and the people had just kept it going from a store to a restaurant.
As you can see it's a little rough around the edges but the food was pretty good. I had my first catfish eating experience which was pretty decent tasting as it turned out....partially because you couldn't taste anything but the friedness of it all. So our menu options for the lunch were fried catfish (which this place was famous for), grilled catfish, fried chicken, fried okra, hushpuppies, coleslaw, and potato salad....basically fried or mixed with a lot of mayonnaise. I wasn't really sure what I was eating at first but it was one of those eat this and hope it turns out okay. Obviously I survived. The luncheon part of it all was very interesting; there were people from all over the south ready to cheer on the cougars. There was a brief state of the team address from Chad Lewis (perfect pep talk if you ask me) and then President Samuelson gave a quick thought. Once that was over we were off to the game.So we set out from Taylor and headed out to Oxford where....two hours before the game....people were up and tailgating away....because my aunt and uncle and the Samuelsons have to do lots of meet and greets and such, Kaylee and I were left to our own devices so off we went to discover the gems of the Ole Miss campus. As I was preparing for this trip, I heard a lot about this place call "The Grove"....turns out it is a 10-acre plot in the middle of campus where people do their tailgating. It was packed with people. Tent after tent after tent. Through our searching we finally found it....we actually didn't have to work that hard to find it....we just followed the people and there we were.....
So many people.....such a great football tradition. Before each home game the team will walk through the grove under an archway called "The Walk of Champions". The team works its way through the people who stand aside and give them high fives along the way....if only we could institute something like that in Provo.
After all of that sight-seeing we headed into the stadium with an impressive amount of BYU fans to start the game....it was a bit of a stressful game....eventually BYU won 14-13 thanks to a great fumble recovery and touchdown by linebacker Kyle Van Noy.See Link: http://youtu.be/LwP8kdA-bkw
After the game, we caught the team buses back to the Tupelo airport where we waited until the team could take off. I took a little bit because the plane was running late so we just hung out in the airport and watched football with the team which was sort of funny. It was funny to hear the comments that football players had when watching other football players play. They brought up things that I had never seen in plays before...very educational. Because my aunt and uncle flew with the team, Kaylee and I were left in the charge of what I call the BYU advance crew. It's two guys who makes sure everything goes smoothly during these football trips. They had to wait to go back to the hotel until the plane went wheels up. So Kaylee and I waiting in the airport until everyone was gone....basically they left and locked the doors behind them....we could still get out so we just waiting alone in the airport until the guys knocked on the door to let us know they were ready to go....it was pretty funny...
We had a hard time going to bed that night...after a whole day of eating fried foods our stomachs were angry at us.....so we stayed up for a while sort of in denial that our flight left Tupelo at 6:40 in the morning.
So early up we were and we headed to the airport. Like I said before Tupelo is a very small airport so when we got there we were welcomed by the same security guards that were there the night before. They all laughed at us because we had stayed there later than they had and there we were bright and early in the morning....it was pretty funny...we just make friends wherever we go!!
The rest of the trip was uneventful....we flew from Tupelo to Memphis...Memphis to Minneapolis...and Minneapolis to Salt Lake (because that's the logical route to Salt Lake of course).....
That wrapped up the trip....I realize a lot has happened in BYU football since then but it was an excellent way to start the season....
