Big Win!

It's a lot easier to spend over $1500 on a weekend trip, including putting up with airports and flights, when your team wins!

If you believe in omens, my trip didn't start auspiciously.  Before I even got to the airport, my flight had already been delayed a half an hour.  At least good movies were available on the flight.

I've long been a fan of Wonder Woman, in both the Lynda Carter and Gal Gadot incarnations, so I watched Wonder Woman 1984.  What a terrible movie.  It was so bad, in fact,  that I stopped watching it after the first hour and a half.  I couldn't put up with another hour of that turd.  It was bad, very bad.  Better to read my Economist magazine.

And after we landed in Dallas, we sat on the ramp for over 15 minutes waiting for our gate to be available.  Plenty of empty gates, but there we sat, after 11pm.

I Ubered to my hotel/resort, got in after midnight, and still made my bus at 8 am.  Didn't really have time for breakfast; fortunately, a student of mine heard I liked hot fudge sundae Pop-tarts and gave me a package a couple days before I left.  That, and an apple another student gave me, served as breakfast.

I'm told the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the size of Connecticut, and I believe it.  No, I didn't check the map scale, but it seemed such a short distance from the hotel to the stadium, but it was well over 20 minutes!  When we arrived, within sight of Six Flags, we found not one but three stadiums!  They like their stadiums in Texas.  We headed into Globe Life Field.

I met up with a friend of mine from the Air Force Academy before the game.  We texted a bit during the game.  It was good to see him.  Also met up with a couple friends from my West Point company, and texted others.  It was an exciting game despite the 0-0 halftime score.  The scoreboard lit up in the 2nd half, with Army going up 14-3 at one point--but the game could have turned on any single play, so you could not ignore it for even a moment.  With about 25 seconds left in the game, Air Force tied it up and we went into overtime. 

Army moved the ball in the OT period, and the quarterback fumbled the ball while crossing the goal line.  Fortunately an Army player recovered, the play was confirmed by replay, and Army went up 21-14.  Then it was Air Force's turn.  They moved the ball until it was "4th and game", and an Army defender broke up the pass.  Game over, Army won!  It was such a thrilling game that my heart was racing for hours afterward.  Since Air Force had already beaten Navy, even if we lose to Navy this year (which would be a difficult loss, given Navy's performance this year) we would still keep the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy since we won it last year and each team would have one win.  Heck with that, Beat Navy!

By the time I got to the airport this morning my flight had already been delayed by half an hour, and we ended up taking off about an hour late.  I watched Marvel's Black Widow on the flight, which wasn't great but was good enough that I watched the entire movie.  I finally got home a little before 5pm PST.

My classmates who took it upon themselves to plan and execute an impromptu mini-reunion did a fantastic job--kudos to them.  Next year will be our 35th reunion, and the second of three consecutive years in which the Army-Air Force Game (aka The Commander's Classic, if you're to believe sponsor Lockheed Martin) will be in Arlington.  Will our reunion be at West Point or in Texas, or maybe both?  I'll let you know next year 😊