Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

Happy New Year!!

Today was my first day back to work this week after a long trip to Memphis over the weekend to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.  Even though the Cyclones lost the game, I still had a fun time going down with Erick Ude, Jamie Hughs, and my brother-in-law Brian Gleason.  After going to Jenny Manser & Francisco's wedding in Des Moines Saturday night I left for St. Louis with Erick and Jamie Sunday morning.  We decided to make it a weekend for BBQ, so after getting down to O'Fallon we went out to Ethyl's Smokehouse & saloon for some ribs. Might as well compare them to Memphis style ribs right? 

Monday morning was an early one as we were on the road just after 5 AM from O'Fallon.  We arrived in Memphis around 10ish I think and were ready for a morning of tailgating.  We had a parking pass that put us right next to the stadium in Silver lot 5.  After carrying our cooler back to where some of Jamie's in-laws were tailgating we began our fun.  Flippy cup galore.  It was also worth noting that there seemed to be at least 5 times as many Cyclone fans around as there were Tulsa fans.  The difference was obvious once we got into the stadium. 

Brian Gleason outside of Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium

Here I am during with pregame ceremonies in the background.

The ISU side was quite full...

...while the Tulsa side was much more sparse.

The game itself started out very promising for Iowa State.  We got out to a 10-0 lead following a Jeremy Reeves interception return for a touchdown.  After Tulsa came back to score their first touchdown, ISU was able to quickly answer with a 69-yard touchdown pass from Sam Richardson to our tight end, Ernst Brun, Jr.  At that point the Cyclone fans were going crazy, and our 17-7 lead looked promising.  Oh well.  It wasn't like there was just one thing that went wrong after that point.  Tulsa scored the next 24 points to win the game easily.  It was so frustrating.  I think that we will be in for another quarterback controversy at ISU come next fall.

After the game we made a quick stop back to the room (where Jamie took a momentary nap we'll call it), and the rest of us went out for dinner.  This time we stopped at Charles Vergo's Rendezvous, as seen on one of my favorite food related TV shows, Man v. Food.  There I ordered a full slab of ribs, Erick enjoyed a half-order, and Brian tried a brisket and rib combo platter.  It was all very good, but I think that I still prefer a messy, saucy style of ribs to the Memphis-style dry rub. 

My full slab of ribs complete with baked beans and slaw.

The next stop on our journey through Memphis was to Beale Street where we enjoyed some live music, a few "soda pops", and we stayed out until midnight to ring in the new year.  We had thought about going to BB King's namesake bar, but due to the $35 cover charge we decided otherwise.  We ended up at a place called Wet Willie's that had no cover charge, and it still had very good live music.  At this point it was imprtant to be inside somewhere since it was around 40 degrees and was lightly raining.  In rained during most of the game as well which had us shivering and very tired of the rain.  Jamie ended up meeting back up with us at the bar, where we stayed for most of the night. At midnight we pushed our way onto the crowded street to watch the guitar drop over the next-door Hard Rock Cafe.  

A view down Beale Street

...more Beale Street.

Erick and myself inside of Wet Willie's

The lady who is singing was large and in charge.  She really belted out the songs.

Lit-up guitar above the Hard Rock: high position.

Medium position...

... and bottom position... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We all threw our hands up in the sky... HASA DIGA EEBOWAI!