Travel Blog: Waco a Delight Even if the Game Was Not

I like day trips and 11 a.m. games. That was my takeaway from Oklahoma State’s game against Baylor on Saturday. I live just north of Dallas so the drive for me from the DFW area to Waco and back is not much more than an extended work day. My wife was up when I left, and my kids were up when I got home. That’s awesome.

Our photographer Jackson Lavarnway was in town visiting his family so we decided to carpool down to the game together. I picked him up at 7:30 a.m. and we hit up Starbucks on the way out (because there are no Hobokens in Dallas).

The drive down was fast, fun and mostly uneventful. Jackson and I had some good talks about his world (he’s still a junior at OSU), his occupational dreams, what this season has been like and myriad other topics. One thing I hate about working remotely — and there aren’t many! — is that I don’t get to see the other people on my team (CBS or PFB) very often. So I’m glad for days like Saturday.

We picked up Jackson’s roommate — who works in the OSU athletic department — at the house he was staying at in Waco and headed to the game. We got there about an hour early so I walked around and checked out the pregame scene around McLane Stadium.

It was tepid — mostly, I suspect, because Baylor isn’t very good — but you can tell that when they’re thriving, that place probably rocks. The atmosphere just off the Brazos River is pretty great, and they have all the amenities you’d expect — live radio and TV shows, huge swaths of tailgating space and plenty of games and fun for kids. The only thing they lacked really was a Justin Gilbert statue on the other side of their Bob Griffin one.

The stadium itself, which I had not been to, was also grand. The last time I went to a Baylor game was when they were duking it out with Lewis Field for worst stadium in Big 12 history at old Floyd Casey. McLane is … an upgrade.

You can tell it’s new, too. The press box is spacious, everything is laid out really well and the entire gameday operational setup seemed fairly flawless. While we’re here: The first person I saw when I walked in the stadium after, uh, not this site’s (or my) best week ever was of course (of course!) Mike Holder. He was gracious and we exchanged pleasantries before the game started.

One note on him: He always has the air of somebody who’s taking everything in so that he might apply it to his own work, to make OSU better. He strikes me as a noticer, somebody full of inputs but cautious and wise with his outputs. Probably something we could all strive for.

The Baylor press box food was not great, and I mostly stuck to the fruit and popcorn. The ancillary stuff in Stillwater is often underrated, and that’s another area where they probably don’t get enough credit.

I talked with The Oklahoman’s Nathan Ruiz for a while about his work, his time as a student in Stillwater and how he got to Stillwater, USA from Reno, Nevada. It’s always fun to get out of the shed and see other folks who do this out on the road. It humanizes everything, and everybody who covers OSU is just … really nice and fun to talk to. I’m glad for that.

After the game Jackson and I were directed to a local BBQ joint called Vitek’s, and I was told to get a thing called the Gutpak. It was awesome (see below). An amalgamation of sausage, chopped brisket, Fritos and a variety of other indigestion-inducing amenities (makes me want to puke!). We watched the TCU-Kansas State and Texas-WVU (!) games before heading home.

Jackson graciously drove while I banged out some more #content, and our only interruption was watching the last few plays of Texas-WVU. An aside: I know it’s 2018 and all, but the fact that you can stream a game on YouTube TV on your computer in a car going 75 MPH on a highway by pulling WiFi off your phone will never cease to astound me.

I got back in time to put the kids down, open a COOP and watch Alabama do unspeakable things to LSU before calling it. All in all the trip was a blast — even if the end of the game wasn’t. Jackson was a great travel partner, we got to tick off one of the stadiums we hadn’t been to and I even left a PFB sticker underneath the desk I sat at in the Baylor press box. Until next time.