The Great, the good and the Really, Really Ugly: Part 3

December 28th:

We had a slow start to the day after the recent late nights. Everyone got to take a shower in the teeny tiny camper shower. Daddy fixed a breakfast of pancakes. We decided that it would be easier to take the camper off the truck so dad did that while we waited somewhat patiently. Jim had called and said that their flight from Colorado Springs to Denver was delayed and they were trying to get on another flight to make their Denver connection. Thankfully it all worked out and their flight landed close to on time in Oakland. In the meantime, we scouted out the Pleasanton/Dublin area and found Jim and Traci's house. We stopped for lunch at a Burger King while we waited for Jim and Traci to call. Finally we met them at their house to drop David off. He was so excited to go play with his cousin William. He went right with Jim with no problems. Jim directed to us to the best place to find a BART station and we were off on our adventure. We left the truck at the Lafeyette BART station and hoped on the train to head into San Francisco. Ironically, at one of the transfer stops (MacArthur?) Matt's coworker Eric boarded our train. We chatted with him all the way to the Embarcadero stop where we got off to catch the MUNI subway to take us to the ball park. In another twist of irony we boarded a subway car and ran into friends the Virtues. How strange to meet up with two groups of people we knew in all those throngs of crowds. It was fun to chat with them as we rode like sardines on the subway. It is amazing how many people can cram into such a small space. The transit officials, in their infinite wisdom, did not run game trains so everyone that was heading in that direction were trying to crowd into the same trains. Then there it was, the stadium was in sight. The train car emptied and we all headed enmass to the entrance gate. We got our tickets out, said goodbye to our friends and headed in the gate. We entered at the second street entrance. AT&T Stadium is where the Giants play baseball in the summer but tonight it was all about football. Oregon State and the University of Maryland Tarapins were set to get it on and the fans were excited. Our seats were in a corner kind of under the big screen. We could not see the end zone on our side after the crowds filtered in but with the big screen right there, we did not miss anything. We enjoyed pregame entertainment from some sort of drum and rhythm group. The excitement of the crowd was palpable. We could feel the energy and could tell that a good game was about to commence. After hearing a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, the teams were introduced. First to enter were the Maryland Tarapins. By the way a Tarapin is a turtle. Who knew? When the Beavers were introduced the stadium got loud. It was a sea of Orange and Black with a few red supports thrown in here and there. Oregon State won the toss, we elected to kick off. The teams lined up, Serna gave a good boot and the game was on. It was a hard fought game. Maryland seemed to have the advantage early scoring on their opening drive and then the offense of the Beavers kind of stumbled. But lucky for the Beavs, a Tarapin ran into Serna on the kick so we got the ball back. That drive resulted in the first of three Beaver scores. The game went back and forth throughout the first half with the Tarapins leading during most of it. The Beavs made a late drive and tied the score at 14-14 going into the half. The second half brought more back and forth play. The teams traded turnovers but eventually late in the third, the Beavers scored the go-ahead touchdown. While the Tarapins made a couple of good drives in the fourth our defense held out and we got the win. At the end of the game officials made no effort to keep fans off the field so down we went. I got a picture of the girls with Jeff Van Orsow. He had to be tired but he was all smiles and very nice with the girls. We got to mingle with some more of the players and watched as the game trophy and MVP awards were presented. After lingering a bit longer to reval with the other OSU fans we headed out to catch a train back to the BART. On the way out we followed the sound and found the OSU band entertaining a small crowd. We stopped and listened while they played a song or two and then the fight song. It was in a small space so it was LOUD. It was great. Then it was time to become a sardine again. The trains were running for free which was nice of officials. And there were more trains running so the wait was not long but the trains were just as crowded. The mood was jubilant as many, many Beaver fans head back into downtown San Francisco to go to hotels, cars or perhaps bars to celebrate. We arrived back at the station where we had left the truck via BART at about 10:15. Then we went back to Pleasonton to pick up David and return to the camper. We made plans with Jim to meet for breakfast in the morning.