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Published: December 12th 2011
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I had a 50-50 call whilst the sun was beginning to set - Try and get to a viewpoint in Scottsbluff or give up and head to Alliance for the night... I went for Scottsbluff.
It’s the back roads of West Nebraska and my final westerly point before heading back to the east coast (momentarily.) With the likelihood I was going to miss the viewpoint at the National Park through darkness I probably should have called it off and gone to Alliance instead. But I sped along toward the setting sun and by the time I arrived it was too late.
As I approached town on top of a hill with the city lit up I started channel changing on the radio. I have been so close to just buying a cable to connect my ipod to the car stereo. But I deliberately didn’t so I could hear about local issues. But what I heard 2miles from Scottsbluff was something that made me head to Alliance instead.
In the USA in fall (Autumn) they have a football schedule to give every level coverage. Sunday and Monday is NFL (professional), Saturday College football
and Friday night High School. And they don’t muck around with the high school coverage either. As I was about to call it a night I looked on my GPS and saw its 45 minutes to Alliance. The radio said the Scottsbluff @ Alliance game is a divisional final match, the winner is divisional champions and head to state.
I reached central Scottsbluff and the commentators were giving it a pre-game talk equivalent of the Super bowl. I’m saying to myself, “Well I have to see this!” And off I go along hwy 26 whilst listening to the two coaches thoughts on the nights game. The overall feeling of the season and seasons to come. One goes on about how he thinks the next season he’s going to have to get more kids into the gym blablabla. Talking about tactics, it was as if it was professional.
The first half was already complete when I arrived and checked into my crummy hotel for $37.50 but I got there in the first minute of the 3
rd ¼. And there were two stands either sideline for both sets of fans. Scottsbluff on the small stand to
my left in red and the Bulldogs of Alliance in blue on the right. And there was some noise. The radio was in full commentary whilst the ground announcer gave the necessary details. Like “2 yard rush by Bulldogs 2 and 8.”
I spent the game getting different vantage points and despite my plain attire I was spotted as not a local in this small part of the woods on the Nebraskan plains. There was an occasional bit of fan fair towards me. A few times I got some cheers. On the Scottsbluff side people looked at me as a possible Alliance person because I was wearing blue and didn’t get excited when the turning point of the match happened at 4
th down and going for it. Alliance broke giving Scottsbluff a 1
st down.
The parents were very vocal and all up the crowd would have been about 500 people. Probably would have been more but for the radio coverage (…) When I got back to the Alliance side for the 4
th Quarter some young girls start yelling out “Oooohhh my God that guy looks like Cyrus! Ah! …Oh my god! …Hey! Do you
know that you look like Cyrus! …Don’t you think he looks like Cyrus” I ignored and thought “Oh shit no! Don’t you dare compare me to some Twilight character.” I don’t know if there is a Twilight character named Cyrus or not but it seems like a name that could be?
At another point soon after I was asked to high five a girl so I obliged and she went “Ahhh! Oh my God!” The game ended with a close fought game to blow out slightly in the last 3 minutes to 21-9 according to the electric scoreboard. The radio guys described it as a scrappy game and that the Scottsbluff coach will be proud of the way the team showed passion and fought for the win. “But once the happy drive home will happen the coach will gather his players and go through the video.”
I mean is this too serious? Then they described to fill in time the devastation of the players being consoled by their parents etc. “It’s gotta be tough, we’ve all been there before or known of someone who has.” “It’s tough it’s not easy and it’s a long
walk back to the dressing sheds here… It’s like a block and a half!” I’ll leave my coverage of High School football on that classic line. So maybe the Scottsbluff Bearcats are my High School football team. On a hiding to nothing on that one too once they reach state apparently.
I was hoping that I would be able to start chatting up some older sister of one of the players who would show me a good time at one of the bars of country town Nebraska but it didn’t happen so instead I called it an early night and headed to Lincoln the capital which was a full days drive.
Just north of Alliance is Carhenge, which took inspiration from Stonehenge and is in car form. It’s okay but its something. The train line goes along this route and what seemed iron ore was being transported east whilst empty loads were heading back west. Scenery wise it died off the further east I travelled.
It was Saturday night by now and the World Series game 3 was on. I am exhausted but there was a possibility I was going to
get to game 6 or 7 in St Louis, if needed. This was the game that went forever and by the time it finished it was 11pm. Still I got my sorry arse off the comfortable bed and headed out. The main street of Lincoln has a series of bars just full of college students hammered. I wanted to be a part of it but just couldn’t get my body over the line of inebriation and entered Jimmy John’s sandwich shop instead and grabbed a bite to eat.
From there I looked on in envy and headed back for some much needed sleep. By the time I reached Kansas City I’d clocked up around 50 hours driving in 5 days plus one night sleeping in an icing up car in South Dakota. Despite its beauty and intrigue America was starting to hurt… a pleasurable pain.
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Fast Food –
Wendy’s average had it twice now and it has created a bit of a problem soon after. Does have massive drinks.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
WELL PLAYED & YOU'RE OFF TO STATE
You arrive in Scottsburg...and they WIN...well played...love Carhenge...but its not "real" football if they wear pads...is it.?!