Away Game Fun

Mission: On Friday afternoon, take the whole family to Ruston, Louisiana, for the Southern Miss v. La Tech football game, and stay at Lincoln Parish Park for the weekend in the Smiley Faced Dragon. Mission: Accomplished, but not without hiccups (memories). The adventure began before reaching our final destination. We were coming up on our exit in East Ruston. As I tapped on the brakes to take the Yukon out of cruise control, the back/passenger tire blew out. Not just a flat: A blow out! I mean, by the time I was able to wrestle the Yukon and camper onto the side of the interstate, it was nothing but chipped up rim. Never fear. I am a professional tire changer. We got the spare on in no time (read: 45 minutes, thirty minutes of which was spent trying to locate the jack). My father lives in Ruston, so it was nice having two heads trying to figure out the tire situation. Brittany and the kids were great troopers, and I'm thankful nobody panicked (which was certainly an option as the Yukon and trailer were swerving all over the interstate).

So . . . we got to the campsite about an hour later than I wanted to. It was pitch black, but we managed. My father took us out to eat and then we passed out late.
The next morning was grand. Our campsite overlooked the lake, so, when I woke up, I unzipped the canvas cover on the window and beheld a beautiful view. Caroline was stirring and she whispered her dreams from last night in my ear. According to Caroline, an angry gang of ducks surrounded our camper and demanded bread. Receiving no satisfaction, the leader proceeded to mount Hayes' bike and ride it around the lake, all the while hurling insulting taunts in our general direction. All is well that ends well, and the ducks left after the bicycle demonstration, their point made, fading into the night.

"Very interesting," I told Caroline, marveling at her imagination. Just as I was saying that, we heard the distinct sound of quacks. Indeed, an angry looking band of ducks was headed directly for us, single file across the water. Caroline and I looked at each other without saying a word. Slowly they approached. Slowly they individually hopped up on land, shook the water from their backs and slowly they marched up the hill to our camper. Quack, quack, quack, they demanded, lining up beneath the window. Oh my goodness, I'm thinking, the neighbors are going to think we're feeding them. Next thing you know, there's going to be a campground war. Luckily, the ducks spied another human in another part of the campground and they moved off. As they waddled off, I checked to see if Hayes' bike was in the same position it was in the previous evening.

After the ducks, my father took me to the local Goodyear shop to have my tires fixed. In less than two hours, I had two new tires on my car and everything was back to normal. Thankfully, the rim was salvageable, which saved me an arm and a leg. With that headache out of the way, I was able to enjoy the rest of the trip without the type of stress incurred as the result of Southern Miss football.

Odom Family Fun thoroughly took over the Park thereafter. The kids circled the lake three times on their bikes. We played soccer by the camper for a while, then headed over to the nice playground. Oddly, the campground and park was little used they weekend. We had the playground to ourselves. After a busy morning of play and a fun picnic, the kids (and Brittany) sacked out. Daddy had a little down time.

At 6 that evening, Odom Family Fun loaded up in the Yukon and headed to the game. Of course, the last thought I had before turning on the ignition was, "should I bring the rain ponchos?" And, of course, the answer at that time was "no." Why would it rain now. I mean, it hasn't rained in weeks.

It wasn't difficult to find a parking spot near the stadium. Hayes' wore his awesome Eagle Man Cape just to let the Bulldogs know the Eagles meant business. (warning: the following contains boring game recap that would only interest certain people) The game was . . . meh (shrug). The Eagles could have, and should have, opened up a can. But we didn't. The coaching staff decided to throw two yard bubble screen passes THE ENTIRE GAME. I could count the number of times we threw the ball down field. Our best receiver was out with an injury which I guess means we can't throw the ball downfield. Our running game seemed to work, especially when our quarterback took off with the ball. Our defense did its job against an anemic La Tech offense.

In the end, Southern won, as it should. The fourth quarter was filled with nothing but pouring rain and time outs (which are awesome in pouring rain). Everyone who stayed was soaked to the bone. Hayes and Caroline huddled together underneath mommy and daddy's leges. I am so proud of Brittany for sticking with me the entire time. I am further proud to report no one got pneumonia or worse.

The rain brought a cold front, which was nice. That night, after we dried off and got some warm food in us, we slept hard without the need for the air conditioner. The next morning we slept in, fed the ducks, and packed up the trailer early. After that, we got on the road and beat tracks towards home. Everyone had a great time, though, if you ask the kids, they could have done without going to the game. It's all about making memories, folks.