Fiesta Bowl - Pre-Gameday

As things started to come together, I found out that a lot of my friends were coming to the game. Matt Turner was going to fly to Phoenix on Sunday, staying pretty close to our hotel in Scottsdale. Tim Savage was going to drive in a rented van with a few friends, and they were also going to arrive on Sunday. And, of course, Ashley and his parents were doing the same package we were doing.

I found out, however, that Ashley and his parents were on a different chartered plane than me. He was going to leave at 7:30am on Saturday, and I was leaving at 8:30am. Because of that, they were just going to head to the airport themselves, and I would come shortly after.

So I went to bed early (much to the annoyance of Tucker and Keely, who were throwing a party at their house), and woke up very early to head out to Phoenix. I can't remember the last time I left out of Love Field, but it was all prearranged by Anthony Travel - we had our own check-in place, and it was all set up very well. It was also really cool to look around and see waves of purple. When we got on board, there was a bagged breakfast and a couple gifts from the travel company, and we were off.

According to Ashley, his charter was a bit more like a pep rally. They tried to get the fight song going and sang the school song. Ashley said that it all went over kinda poorly (probably because it was 7am), and they might've relayed that to our plane...because they didn't really try anything.

Anyway, we landed in Phoenix and exited right onto the tarmac onto buses...and headed to the hotel. And I gotta say...the hotel was awesome. I'm going to post some pictures on facebook in case anyone wants to see how they looked, but it was pretty amazing.

Of course, they didn't have my room ready when I went to check in...so I went to hang out with Ashley and his parents. The Cotton Bowl was about to start, and I watched the first quarter before I finally got in my room. I took a quick nap before Ashley and I finally made the call on the Suns game.

You see, we were staying in Scottsdale, which is a 20-30 minute drive from the Suns' arena. We didn't have any transportation, and anyone we knew wouldn't be arriving until the next day. Since this was our free night (and the only night the Suns were in town), it was our only chance to go. So we only had three options.

1. Rent a car for the night. There was an Enterprise set up in the hotel, but according to Matt, the taxes were more than the car.
2. Get a cab for a nice $40-$50 charge.
3. Use the hotel's towncar service. It'd be slightly more expensive (ended up being $54), but it would be easier to get there and back.

We decided that we needed to go, despite the cost, since it would be something unique and fun for the night. We got in the towncar, and we headed to the arena. We were skipping the "Welcome Bash" but outside of the free food, Ashley's parents (who went) said we didn't miss much.

Anyway, we arrived at the arena and bought some tickets (scalping is legal in Arizona, apparently, and they're not afraid to be really open about it). We bought some $25 seats, saving $5 from ones at the box office) and arrived at the game. The Suns were playing Memphis, and we were expecting a nice victory for the home team.

We were wrong, though. The Suns were horrible all night. They couldn't rebound, play defense, or score. I was sitting by an old Suns' season ticket holder, and he was pretty upset all night. But the Grizzlies are a very solid and very young team (they only have four guys older than Ashley on their roster)...when they're on, they can beat a lot of teams. They did the same thing to the Mavericks about a month ago, and they're gonna become more and more competitive as they grow together.

It was a lot of fun, though, to see an NBA game in a different venue. It'd obviously be more fun to see the Mavs play, but it reminded me of my old baseball trip...where the game itself was more important than either of the teams. Side note, though: both Ashley and I wore our TCU stuff...and we expected to see more Fiesta Bowl people. But outside of a couple Boise shirts, I didn't see much.

So we drove back in another towncar (and another $54, plus tip). This time, however, our driver was a bit more talkative. He mentioned driving a couple of Green Bay Packers the night before, and that was pretty cool. He gave us some information on Phoenix, and we arrived back at the hotel to watch some more football before heading to bed.

Waking up the next day, I wandered around the hotel a bit...taking in the luxury resort...before Matt called us. He'd arrived, and he wanted to hang out for a bit. I figured it'd make just as much sense for him to come hang out for a bit, get something to eat, watch some of the early NFL game, and then try to find someplace to watch the Cowboy game.

You see, the Cowboys and Eagles were going to play at 2:15 Arizona time, and since the game was for the NFC East title, I really wanted to watch it. Unfortunately, the Cardinals were playing at the exact time...so we had to find a sports bar with a football package to watch the game.

I spoke to the very cute (but very engaged) manager at the bar, and she told me about a sports bar called Zipps that would certainly have the game. It was supposedly just "two blocks down on the left." Since it was so close, I figured we could just walk there...so we started there at halftime of the Giants/Vikings game.

We walked a couple of blocks and saw a little strip mall. No Zipps. We walked another block before we came across a jogger. He saw our TCU stuff and talked to us for a bit about TCU (and his alma mater, Clemson). When we'd walked a couple of blocks, he turned off, and I asked about Zipps. He said it was down the street about a mile on the left. We couldn't miss it.

And so we kept walking. And walking. And walking. It seemed like we were walking forever, and we started to wonder if Zipps was the official joke of Scottsdale. You tell out-of-towners that they can watch TV at a sports bar called Zipps. It's down the street and to the left...you can't miss it. The dumb Texans will walk for miles and miles until some poor soul finally lets them in on the joke.

However, we eventually found it. It was on the left, but it certainly wasn't close. And since the sign for Zipps was about two feet wide, I'm pretty sure we could've missed it if we weren't watching for it like hawks.

But the weather was perfect, and it was nice to get around. It seems like we weren't the only TCU folk that were looking for the Cowboy game because we invaded Zipps' outdoor patio to watch the game.

Fun note - our waitress was named Tasia - short for Anastasia. She was cute and fun and very Greek, and when I asked about her name, she told us all about herself.

Well, as most of you know, the Cowboys took care of business in that game, and even though we left at halftime to get to the TCU pep rally, we saw most of the parts of the game that mattered. When the game ended about an hour later, I was able to smile because I figured I was in for a really cool weekend.

So we made the long journey back to the hotel, and Matt drove us to the area where the pep rally was going to take place. Apparently TCU had taken control of a big upscale shopping center, and they set up a little area for us to have our pep rally in front of a Barnes & Noble. Ashley, Matt, and I set up right behind the stage, and we started a little "GO!" "FROGS!" chant between the people behind the stage and in front of it.

The pep rally was cool...if only for the fact that we were in the middle of a shopping center in Arizona surrounded by purple. There was the occasional Boise blue, but it was mostly people from the area...ready to cheer the Frogs to victory.

The rally itself was cool. It was mostly MCed by a guy from ESPN Radio in Dallas, who spoke for a bit. Gary Patterson spoke for a very little bit, his voice a little raspy (like it always is this time of year). The band played a few songs, and that was it. The whole thing lasted about 20-30 minutes, and then there was a bit of mingling amongst the Frog faithful.

Side note - we were almost smacked in the head by the tuba players...who were wildly shaking their instruments back and forth.

Anyway, we finished the night at Cheesecake Factory to celebrate the night before the game (and the night before Ashley's birthday). We went to bed...ready to face the next day.

Both of us confident in what was going to happen the next day.