Liberty Bowl

You knew I was going to go . . . and I did. Memphis, Tennessee home of Elvis and world famous Ribs. By the way, I can not believe how many people are completely INSANE about Elvis. Seriously. Check out the craziness here. The Pirates of East Carolina University, my alma-mater, was playing Kentucky in the 50th Anniversary of the Liberty Bowl. The tickets and plans had been made back in December. It was Kim and me along with my folks and the infamous Bob. Bob is my Dad's good friend and he has been traveling to bowl games with us since as long as I can remember. So, we all hopped on a plane in Raleigh and headed off to Memphis. Upon landing we pomptly headed over to Beale Street, THE place in Memphis to hang out. The Liberty Bowl Parade was in full swing when we arrived.

You gotta see the other King in Memphis, B.B. King and his club.

During the Parade all I heard was "This is a Boweevel".

I would assume it feels strange walking in a parade without a costume, cool car, float, or even candy. No, none of that, just waving your pom-poms and expecting people to be excited about it. Well, the Kentucky cheerleaders thought it was pretty incredible. So, I guess I'm alone in that thought. I just pointed to my ECU hat I was wearing as they walked by. I think they tried not to look at me. (I realize the ECU cheerleaders probably also did this, but I am going to pretend they didn't).

This is my good friend Denny. He writes about the Pirates for a local website called Bonesville. I really enjoy reading what he has to say. Check out his article on the game HERE. He was taking in the festivities and stopped for a picture. It's always great to reunite with friends at a Bowl Game.

Ok, here's the story. We wanted to eat at a certain famous Beale Street Restaurant and enjoy some world famous ribs. But, of course it was packed so we opted to try a different restaurant, one we had heard of from friends called Corky's. We were asking a local guy for directions when he just said, "I'll take you in my Limousine." Now, I'm not accustomed to riding in limo's. In fact, I think I've ridden in a limo twice in my life. Both for funerals. About the only thing I know about a limo is that they are fairly expensive to ride in. So, sensing a scam we asked how much. "Thirty dollars", he replied. We all looked at each other and thought to ourselves, "thats a pretty good deal." (In retrospect I now know not to agree to a price before you actually see the vehicle you will be riding in.) He led us over to his limousine. Once the limo came within sight I thought it looked more like a hearse than a limo. A really old hearse. I would have sworn I saw some bullet holes in the side of it. So, before we stepped into our semi-white chariot, we had to take a photo like true tourists. I think my mom is laughing at the smell that's coming out of the hearse . . . I mean limousine. As we rode down the highway the exaust fumes began to trickle into the limo. Seriously, it felt like we had left the car on and parked in a closed garage. Of course the automatic windows didn't work. You should have seen the faces of the crowd waiting outside Corky's as we pulled up. I seriously thought the engine was going to blow like a scene out of "Uncle Buck". We all had quite a laugh from the ride.

Game Day. Pirate fans are always a fun bunch.

I 'll let you create your own caption for this one.

I thought this was a "cute" shot of my folks.

Pee-Dee!

Planes flew over the stadium all night.

You gotta love Pirate Fans!

Game Time!

Bald and Beautiful.

After the first half, Pirates lead 16-3.

Night Game.

At the very onset of the second half I began watching my team self-destruct. (But, Kim's still having a good time). This was only the beginning of the slow roller-coaster ride that was to be my life for the next 24 hours. Here's the play-by play: The morning after the game I awoke at 8 A.M. Once at the Airport at 9:30 A.M. we learned of the four hour delay for our 11 A.M. flight out of Memphis. After spending $20 on lunch in the Memphis airport we were cleared to fly to Atlanta which was completely shut-in with fog. As we cruised into Atlanta, I looked out the plane window and I seriously didn't see the ground until we were 25 yards from touching down on the runway. Felt a little scary. From there, a 'brisk' walk through Atlanta International Airport to make our connecting flight where we literally walked to the gate and directly onto the flight to Raleigh. Once comfortably crammed in the seat directly behind the exit row, we waited another hour and a half on the tarmac where we were # 31 to take-off. Upon landing in Raleigh we actually waited for our luggage, hoping for the slightest miracle of seeing it . . . which of course didn't make the flight. Exhausted, we piled onto a crowded bus to take us to our car. Lets just say we finally made it home about midnight. Ohh, and at 1 A.M. the airline called to tell us that if we wanted our luggage (which was to be delivered in the hour) that we needed to put a note on the door. So, as you can probably tell, a Pirate win would have REALLY gone a long way.

Ok, so that is the longest post I've ever done. So, if you read the entire thing you're a champ. Leave me a comment. Also, if you want to see other photos I've taken this year of the Pirates including Chris Johnson, ECU baseball and football stadium pictures you can click HERE to visit my 'everything else' site.

Seriously, I have not seen my team give away a game like that in a while. It was painful to watch. But the ribs in Memphis . . . the ribs are totally worth it.
Some of you are now concerned if I can be a good sport about the loss. Well, here goes. Congratulations to Kentucky on their win. The Kentucky fans I met were great fun and handled their win with class . . . Go Louisville!