On Traveling to Austin for the Texas-Oklahoma State Game

I know this is Berry Tramel’s territory so I’ll tread lightly, but I thought it would be fun to recap our two-day journey from Dallas to Austin and back for Texas-OSU. Let’s jump right in.

• I took the whole family — all five of us — and we headed down on Friday night to stay in Round Rock. We stopped at Salt Lick in RR — I understand that Salt Lick is lower-middle class man’s BBQ compared to what other Austin-area establishments have to offer. But it was good enough for us, and there was an outdoor playground plus live music. Was actually a pretty fantastic experience.

• The brisket was solid, the sausage was fantastic and the beer (Austin Amber) was one of the better ones I’ve had in a while (besides COOP of course). Our oldest, Hannah, enjoyed it.

• Our hotel in Round Rock stunk more than Texas’ offense. The hotel room across from ours looked like it had been blown down by a high-powered assault rifle. Not good! Not appealing with three kids under age 5, either.

• We watched some Planet Earth on Friday evening and went to sleep early since I had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. to start working on my hair for my appearance on Channel 5 with Carson. Kidding … sort of.

• On Saturday morning we woke up early and drove into Austin. We stopped at a food truck called Veracruz Tacos, which was fantastic. Then we got the kids donuts at Voodoo Donuts on 6th Street. Not fantastic! Might as well just inject yourself with diabetes instead. They were too much even for our 3- and 4-year-olds. You know your product might contain too much sugar when kids that age are like, “nah, I’m good” halfway through.

• I went to get my credential at Disch-Falk before the rest of the family dropped me off at the stadium. They headed off to the Austin Nature & Science Center. What they saw was likely more intriguing than what I saw.

• My spot on Channel 5 with Carson was a blast. They were having technical difficulties with their satellite (know how that feels!) so we just hung out and talked for a while. We taped one version of our spot just in case then we did it live (we’ll do it live!) Loved it.

• I headed up to the Texas press box for the game. The food and quarters up there were good not great. Enchiladas and fajitas for lunch and less room than a middle seat on an airplane at our desks.

• The most shocking part of the day for me was coming back up to the press box after the game to a completely empty stadium. From 92,000 (or 125,000 if Gundy is to be believed) to 000,000 in an hour. I did a triple take when I got back up. I knew in my head it would be completely empty but the reality of it is so stunning. It was a great reminder of how fleeting all of this is.

• Jen and the kids picked me up after I filed my story for CBS Sports, and we drove to Waco for dinner. We were going to stay with friends in Waco but Hannah got sick so we decided to go all the way back to Dallas. We stopped at Health Camp for dinner in Waco. Oreo milkshake there is Rudolph to Washington on the RPO — flawless and beautiful.

• Jen drove most of the rest of the way as I wrote up the 10 Thoughts and a few other things. It wasn’t the greatest trip we’ve ever had — I left out the 60 percent that was tears, anger and miscommunication — but it was a fun adventure for us to get out of Dallas and for the kids to see some new things.

Thankfully they didn’t have to watch whatever it was that unfolded at DKR on Saturday afternoon — their eyes aren’t ready for TV-MA quite yet.