Herders on the Road: Nebraska, Sept. 15th, 2007

My Nebraska Trip
by SC Lisa

My boyfriend Eric (Marshall MBA Class of 2006) and I arrived in Lincoln on Thursday afternoon. We were immediately struck by the flatness of the landscape when we flew in and how spread everything was. Having gone to Arkansas last year for the game, I would even venture to say that this was more remote than Fayetteville. The airport was dead when we arrived and the TSA guys joked about letting us leave the airport, but when we finally did it was off to the hotel, but not before getting lost and passing not one, but two penitentiaries. We then made a late afternoon trip to the Nebraska bookstore to buy “Lil Red” – we buy a mascot for every away game we attend. Apparently Herbie, the other mascot, is “under construction” (his hair is changing from blond to brown and he’s going to be younger), so they didn’t have any stuffed Herbies.

Friday started off with me dropping Eric at the Quarry Oaks Golf Course to participate in the USC Golf Club’s Tournament with the Nebraska Golf Club. Since it was next to a wildlife preserve of some sort, Eric saw wild turkeys on the course and we saw elk on our way in. Later that day I attended the WeAreSC lunch at Brewsky’s and there were probably 60+ Trojans in attendance and Garry P. was very informative and even predicted a breakout performance by Johnson if I remember correctly. Later than afternoon as we were leaving the hotel a reporter stopped us and asked Eric if he wanted to answer a question. He then went on to explain that the Lincoln Journal Star does a weekly segment called the “Question of the Week”. This week’s question was “Where will you be at kickoff Saturday?” So he answered the question and got his picture taken!

We ate at Misty’s steakhouse that night with my dad - SC Gary and GAB, LLPOS (Harry) and his wife Rhonda and another Trojan whom GAB invited along. The highlight of that dinner was when the University of Nebraska cheerleaders came inside the restaurant and got all the NU fans fired up. We did a few spell outs ourselves however. Fun night and great beef! We capped off the night by hitting up a bar called Dillinger’s and had a great time with the NU students there (I won’t mention how the bartender in there remembered my dad and GAB from the night before!)

Saturday morning (after we found Eric in the newspaper!) we caught a cab bright and early to go back to downtown to retrieve our car (yes, it was that kind of night). Lucky for us, our rental car was still in the metered parking spot with no ticket and not even a warning! We had to laugh that a parking ticket there only costs $10.00 (if this was back in L.A. we would have been paying $300+ to get it out of impound!). Heck, to us it was worth getting a ticket and just parking it there all day, but we decided not to be cheap like Brooks and sacked up and moved it into an $11/day lot. (Now I know why the NU fans were shocked at the $25 Coliseum parking!)

All weekend long, walking around Lincoln, fans kept saying good luck to us and thanking us for making the trip. They kept asking us not to beat them too bad, whereas we replied that we just hoped it was a good game and that anything could happen. I had to laugh though when they asked us if we flew or drove to Lincoln. For those of your wondering, of course we flew! (At least they didn’t ask us if we flew there on private jets like they did last year in Arkansas). When 2:00pm rolled around we joined up with a client of Rodeo Ronnie’s for a tailgate. It took place in this exclusive lot where you had to have some sort of VIP card to get in (cars pay $400/year to park in that lot), so the hosts of the tailgate had to come and get us. It was a fantastic tailgate with a roasted pig and too much food and drink. All the NU fans welcomed us with open arms.

The game was fantastic besides it being pretty cold and the crappy bench seating the stadium had. (photo right: Eric got interviewded in a Lincoln paper. He's the 4th one over) I have never seen so much red in my life and I was intimidated at the beginning of the game, but our team took the crowd out of it pretty quick. We all know the outcome, but from someone that was there, it was quite an experience and I wish you could have experienced Lincoln like I did. I won’t forget it anytime soon.

Fight on!

SC Lisa