Road Trip to Vegas

Caution: This is an extremely long post. You've been warned.

“If you ever want to get to know people just go on a road trip with them.”

Quote by Scott Darrington

A few months ago it became apparent that this was going to be a special season in BYU Basketball. Jimmer Fredette was rapidly becoming a once-in-a-generation type player as well as a national name. The team was ranked in the top 10 and it had all the makings of an epic season. The conference season was going to end in Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference (MWC) Championship Tournament. And this was not the year to miss it.

I started prepping/lobbying my wife in November and December for the tournament. I was working on a plan that her and I would go together. Becky wanted to go, but was hesitant because of the pain of finding someone to watch the kids for four days. I then got it in my head that maybe it would be fun to make this a guys trip. So I laid it out to Becky that she was priority #1 and that if she wanted to go then we’d go together, but if she chose to back out then I was going to start recruiting others to go with me. Becky ultimately decided not to go (I promise I didn’t manipulate the process) and so the stage was set to find out who else wanted to go.

My first phone call was to JJ Allen. JJ and his wife came to the Utah State-BYU football game with Becky and I last October. A game in which Jimmer was sitting just a few rows in front of us. I mean, how cool is it that the star basketball player is attending a road football game. That’s part of the reason Jimmer is awesome. I wonder if someday we could be friends. I think we’d get along great. If you are new to this blog, you probably didn’t recognize that the last two sentences are tongue-in-cheek. Be prepared for more.

JJ became the first commitment for the guys trip to Vegas. Now it was time to find some other takers.

When it was all said and done, here was our line-up complete with bios:

JJ Allen- JJ is the city administrator of Pleasant View, Utah. He’s a loyal BYU fan. He’s the go-to guy when it comes to talking nuts and bolts of BYU sports. After all, he was the first phone call when the idea came to fruition. He’s high up there in my book.

Mark Christensen- Mark is the city manager of Saratoga Springs, Utah. He’s a Utah fan and doesn’t really care much for basketball. However he needed to get away from work and was totally in just to hang out with the guys. It’s fair to say that Mark wasn’t as enthused about the Jimmerific time the road trip was going to be. In fact he wavered right up until the last minute, but I’m sure he’s glad he came. The guy got to see Jimmer live, what can be better than that.

Spencer Kyle- Spencer is the assistant city manager of Saratoga Springs, Utah and was pumped to have his boss along on the trip. Actually Spencer and Mark get along great so it was fun to have them both along, but if I ever see Spencer wearing crimson then I’ll know that Mark is officially holding his job hostage. I learned that he’s a music guy. He’s got like 10,000 songs or something like that. I have about 12 on my IPhone so I’ve got some catching up to do. He’s also from Canada and he thought we were going to a hockey tournament. Just kidding. He knows his hoops as well.

Gary Hill- Gary is the city manager of West Point, Utah. He’s also a Ute fan (wait, I thought this trip was about BYU), but to his credit, he’s a Jimmer fan. He appreciates basketball and can talk hoops with the best of them. He’s been to a few MWC tourney’s in the past so he knows what he’s getting into. I used to think that Gary was one of the most upstanding people I had ever met. Then I went on a road trip with him and started to listen to some of his stories. Look for the Eddie Van Halen story later in the blog. Afterwards, I had to reassess my character judgment of him.

Scott Trainor- Scott is the city manager of Fountain, Colorado which is a suburb of Colorado Springs. Scott and I were classmates at BYU for our MPA degrees. He was my pick for “smartest guy in the class” while in school and obviously must still have some smarts because he chose to fly to Vegas for the MWC Tourney. Intelligence does you no good if you can’t make the easy decisions. Scott brought a couple of buddies, Tim and Steve, with him. Two guys that ended up fitting in just great. That’s the great thing about being a guy. Give us some food, sports, and a road trip and it doesn’t matter who comes. We’re going to have a great time.

Earl Cahill- Earl works for the Church doing computer and managerial stuff that he’s explained to me a bunch of times and I still don’t understand it. Earl is a former BYU roommate and lives in Pleasant Grove. He’s a BYU fan, but not as hardcore as some of us (me). Earl was looking to get away as well and even though he didn’t have local government credentials, he made the cut. Unfortunately for him he had to listen to city manager stories the whole trip. After listening to us for hours on end he could probably run a city by this point.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

So the plan was to get out of town in the early afternoon on Wednesday. Scott and his buddies were flying from Colorado and meeting us in Vegas. The arrangements were all made to meet at my house and we’d pile into the Toyota Sienna (mini-van) for the trip. Because nothing screams “sexy” like 6 married, Mormon guys in a mini-van on the Vegas Strip. We all brought snacks and left our diets in Utah so we were ready to roll. Except Earl was late. I’ve known Earl for a long time and this wasn’t very surprising to me. The rest of the guys didn’t know Earl, but because (I can’t stress this enough) we’re guys, we patiently waited and then loaded up and hit the road.

Because I have some nerd-like tendencies I made a little activity for us on the trip down. Road trips for some are time to put the headphones on and tune everyone out. Not on my watch. I want to socialize and I want to get to know people better. So, I made little note cards that had a conversation starter so we could all find out the finer points of our lives. Things like: “Your favorite pizza place” “Your favorite U.S. city” “Your favorite fast food restaurant” “Most famous person you have personally met” “Which of your kids is truly your favorite” etc. etc.

Its activities like these that you learn the deep, dark secrets about people. For example, we all found out that JJ’s favorite fast food place was Arctic Circle. Yes, the same Arctic Circle that has some of the crappiest hamburgers known to man. On the flip side we heard a really cool story about Gary Hill getting to meet Eddie Van Halen during Sundance while he was working at Park City. It led to Gary being able to play one of Eddie’s guitars at Eddie’s Park City condo. I didn’t even know that Gary played the guitar. If you ever get a chance to ask Gary about the story, trust me, it’s worth your time.

A big component on a trip like this is food. We want to make sure that we eat plenty and then eat some more. We need to plan for breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, linner, dinner, supper, and a midnight snack. Fortunately for us, Vegas is open 24/7 and food isn’t too hard to find. As we travel down we all decide that the Cheesecake Factory needs to be our first stop. Except for JJ, he chooses Arctic Circle.

We get checked in at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino. Cheap rooms are cheap rooms. Until we hop into the elevator and can’t find the floor our rooms are on. We later find out we’re in the “annex” and not part of the main hotel. But, you know, we’re guys (are you sensing a theme?) so it doesn’t really matter to us. The rooms have a bed and a TV so we’re good to go.

It’s off to the Cheesecake Factory for some Bang-Bang Chicken and Shrimp. Although it has one of the largest menus in the Western Hemisphere, I know what I want. Top it off with some strawberry cheesecake and we’re off to a great eating start to the trip. By the time we’re done eating, I’m exhausted. Not from eating, just in general. I’ve been to Vegas numerous times and it seems sleep is always at a premium. Mix in the fact that Earl and I stay up talking to about 2:00 a.m. and I’m not off to a great start. This leads to me trying to figure out what foods I can eat that have caffeine in them. Were we coming to Vegas to eat or for a basketball tournament? It’s all a little fuzzy to me at this point.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

I actually brought some work-out clothes so I can burn off 500 of the 8000 calories I’m consuming each day. I got in a pretty decent work-out that morning and feel like I’m ready to take on the day. First stop: The Palace Station Breakfast Buffet. I’ll have to admit that breakfast buffets are probably my favorite buffets. Sushi buffets are a very close second. Leaving a buffet slightly sick means you got your money’s worth. I got my money’s worth.

So the guys learn soon enough that I get just slightly anal when it comes to BYU sports. This reason alone is why I drove. I don’t have to rely on anyone else to get me where and when I need to go. The BYU-TCU game is the opening game on Thursday. The game starts at 12:00 p.m., but I make sure we’re in the parking lot by 11:15 a.m. Just in case we get a flat tire on the way or I twist an ankle walking to the arena.

BYU is the #1 seed for the tourney. TCU finished last in the regular season and had to beat Wyoming in the play-in game just to make it to this point. BYU is favored by a lot and it has all the makings of a blowout. This was supposed to be the game that we would sit back and enjoy as Jimmer tore them apart. However it really didn’t turn out that way. TCU led by one at halftime, but it wasn’t panic time. TCU continues to stick around in the second half to a point where I start thinking to myself, “Did I just spend $185 on tickets for a tournament in which BYU is going to lose the very first game?” To the next thought which was “I wonder what buffets are open at midnight”. BYU plays their starters the whole second half (generally not a good idea for a 3 games in 3 days tournament) and Jimmer comes alive to eventually put the Horned Frogs away.

Game 1 is in the books with a BYU victory. If BYU loses in the semifinals the next night, I tell myself that I can live with that. Now that BYU has won the pressure is off for the day and it’s time to sit back and relax and enjoy some hoops.

The next game is Colorado State vs. New Mexico. This game is of interest because the winner will play BYU on Friday night. Personally I’m rooting for Colorado St. just because BYU has beat them twice already this season while losing to New Mexico both times they played. But, if New Mexico pulls it out then I wouldn’t mind the Cougars putting the Lobos in their place. Colorado St. was a much improved team from last year, but they can’t beat New Mexico. The game is fairly close throughout, but the Lobos get ahead in the second half and never give up the lead. The Friday matchup is now set. It’s time for revenge.

The Thursday games of the MWC Tourney are a bit of a grind. Its four games in a 12 hour period. Its Hoops Heaven or Nirvana or the Celestial Kingdom or whatever you consider to be the end-all of human existence. In between games two and three they kick you out for an hour or so because it is technically another session. This is our chance to grab a bite to eat before we settle into the evening games.

The problem is, is that 12,000 other people have the same idea we have. Which is to eat at In N Out next to the UNLV campus. We walk from the arena over to the In N Out. Mark bails early to eat at McDonalds because he’s wise enough to know that In N Out is going to be a long line and it isn’t on the marathon training meal plan. Not that McDonalds is much better but at least it has salads. In N Out’s version of a salad is putting an extra piece of lettuce on your Double-Double.

In N Out has a huge line and even though they have a reputation for being quick it wasn’t a viable alternative. Some anal guy in our group (me) wanted to make sure to be back on time for the next game. We look at Smashburger, but it’s got similar issues to In N Out. Jimmy John’s becomes a possibility, but we eventually settle on some literal hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. The Baja Bar and Grill. Muy autentico. The food’s pretty good and the price was right. I’m stilling feeling the effects from the breakfast buffet, but I don’t let that stop me. My philosophy is that if I’m still a little queasy from a meal then put some more food in there to replace the food that’s making me queasy. Sound medical principles at play here.

We get back just in time for the start of the Utah-San Diego St. game. There aren’t many exceptions in which I root for the Utes, but this is one of them. It was also nice to see Mark wake up (literally, he was sleeping during some of the early games) and cheer on his Utes. Regardless of how terrible they are. Utah gets off to a horrible start and they have 15 points at halftime to San Diego St.’s 30 points. The discussion turns to when Jim Boylen gets fired. Do they take care of it after the game? Do they wait until the next day? Or do they wait for the second the airplane hits the tarmac in Salt Lake to lower the boom? The word leaks out Sunday that Boylen is gone with the official word being passed on Monday. Well, at least the Utes have a bunch of momentum heading into PAC-12 play next season. Or not.

The last game of the day is Air Force and UNLV. This is an easy one to pick. America over The Thugs. Unfortunately Air Force just isn’t very good and UNLV has this slight, little edge called HOME FREAKIN’ COURT ADVANTAGE. The Zoomies are overmatched and UNLV makes it to the semi-final which sets up a nice Friday of hoops. BYU vs. New Mexico followed by San Diego St. vs. UNLV.

Since the basketball is over and we’re all exhausted there is only one thing to do. Eat. Well at least for Earl and I. The others are quite more sensible and they head to bed when we get back to the hotel. For me it’s time to put the late night Palace Station Café special to test. A 16 ounce prime rib for $9.99. Now for most human beings a 16 ounce prime rib at midnight isn’t a good idea. Check that, for all human beings it’s not a good idea. So with that gut bomb on board it was time to call it a night.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Friday morning rolls around (literally) and it’s time to skip the workout. The workout plan lasts all of one day. JJ and Gary head to the Las Vegas Temple (who knew Vegas had a temple) for some early morning religion. Anyone who pulls this off on a trip like this automatically jumps on my respect meter. But we’re not waiting for them to get back for breakfast. We skip the buffet and hit the Palace Station Café for breakfast. The same café that I had frequented just a few hours before. Breakfast is tasty and free due to some coupons they gave us when we checked in. The first game isn’t until 6:00 p.m. so we’ve got time to waste. And we’re in Vegas. That’s not a good combination.

So what do a group of guys do when there is nice weather outside and plenty of entertainment options? We head to the movie theater. It was determined that since we are all sans spouses that we needed to take advantage. It’s time to hit a movie that our wives would otherwise not want to see. The movie of choice becomes True Grit. Some in the group had already seen it, but they choose to see it again with the exception of Mark who opts for Battle: Los Angeles. I’m a Coen Brothers fan and the movie was good. The dialogue was fantastic and my favorite scene is when Mattie is crossing the river to catch up with Rooster Cogburn and LaBoeuf. The looks on their faces as she catches up with them is priceless. Pure Coen Brothers.

We then get the idea to go see the pawn shop that is featured in the TV show Pawn Stars. If you haven’t seen Pawn Stars I have a challenge for you. Try not finishing an episode. It’s impossible. If you’re surfing channels and you come across Pawn Stars, keep flipping. Because if you stop for a second you’re hooked for the rest of the episode. It turns out, we’re not the only ones with this idea. There is a line in front of the shop, but we don’t let that deter us. As we park the car we see Corey (one of the main characters on the show) getting in his truck to take off. It’s about a 10 minute wait, but we get into the pawn shop only to be underwhelmed. It’s much smaller than I thought and doesn’t have all the cool stuff that they show on the TV show. Everyone wanted to see Chumlee, but he wasn’t around so we don’t hang around too long. Plus we’re getting close to basketball time.

But before we get to hoops we need to eat again. This time we have time for In N Out. The dilemma over dinner was getting Earl a ticket for the night’s games. Since Earl was a late addition to the road trip he didn’t have tickets. Which usually isn’t a problem but this happens to be the year of The Jimmer. The semifinal games were sold out and what was normally a forty dollar ticket was going for $120. Fortunately for Earl, Mark was willing to walk away from his ticket. For a price. The price was negotiated at $100 and what neither Mark nor Earl realized at the time was that Earl got a bargain.

The reason Earl got a bargain is because we were about to witness the most EPIC individual performance in BYU Basketball history. This was a revenge game for the Cougars. It was time to overcome two tough losses during the regular season to the Lobos. And, obviously, revenge was on the mind of Jimmer Fredette. Jimmer was on from the start. The points kept on coming and he had 33 points at halftime. As I looked around at Cougar fans sitting around us, it was smiles all around mixed with amazement even though we should have learned by now that anything, and I mean anything, is possible with Jimmer. Because the game was close it meant that (a) Jimmer would likely play the whole second half and (b) BYU could still lose the game.

That all changed about a minute into the second half when New Mexico’s leader, Dairese Gary, tears his ACL, MCL, PCL, PGA, MBA, and NRA ligaments. He’s done for the game. It’s clear that BYU will most likely win the game and now the only question is if Jimmer is going to get the single game scoring record for BYU. The answer turns out to be “yes”. Jimmer had a chance to score 50 earlier in the year against Utah, but he had to leave with 47 points and 4 minutes left in the game because BYU was pummeling the Utes and their patheticism (I just made that word up, but it does fit) by 28 points. But not tonight. Jimmer finishes with 52 to essentially wrap up National Player of the Year and further cement his legacy as the greatest BYU Basketball player ever. For more insight on the Legacy of Jimmer Fredette tune into this blog at a later date.

BYU advances to the championship game versus the winner of San Diego St. and UNLV. I’m totally torn on who to root for. It’s one of those moments when you would hope that sports could suspend the rules and make it allowable for both teams to lose. It’s just hard rooting for teams that you’ve detested all season long. But I’m more worried about who is the better match-up for BYU. I start the game rooting for UNLV. As the game wears on I’ve convinced myself that BYU doesn’t want to deal with UNLV’s quickness nor their home court advantage. But really, who in their right mind could ever root for Tre’Von Willis. I start rooting for the Aztecs thinking that they would be better for BYU. It turns out to be a fantastic game and San Diego St. wins it in the final two seconds on a short runner by DJ Gay. I’m thinking it has all fallen into place for the Cougars.

But before we turn in for the night we have to gorge ourselves again late into the night. It’s moments like these that single-handedly keep Prilosec in business. We go to an old stand-by. Terrible’s Hotel and Casino Café. I ate there years ago with my brother in another late night affair in which he threw up during the night and quickly renamed the place Horribles. But I keep that little story to myself not wanting to discourage the company that is willingly participating. Terrible’s has some sweet deals. Lots of food for little money. I go for the steak and eggs, a personal late night favorite. We’re chowing down while Mark is back at the hotel getting his rest in preparation for a 12 mile run the next morning. You’ve got to hand it to a guy that keeps his eating in check and his marathon training schedule while in Vegas. Which begs the question, if Mark wasn’t down here to eat and he doesn’t care much for college basketball, why did he make the trip? Because Mark understands one of the fundamental principles of this trip. It’s not about food, it’s not about hoops, it’s not even about Jimmer. It’s to hang with the guys. Everything else is merely icing on the cake.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

We finally make it to the last day. It’s Championship Saturday and BYU is in the finals. This trip couldn’t be any better so far and it would be deemed “perfect” if BYU can win this evening. Of course the day has to start out right so we have breakfast. I’ve been told numerous times that a proper diet starts with breakfast and who am I to doubt medical science. So breakfast it is and it’s at the Palace Station Café yet again. It’s at this point that I see a couple things I’ve never seen before. It starts out with our server. I don’t know if he was given too many tables or what the deal was, but it took forever to take our order, even longer to get our food and then the bill came. We had 8 of us or so at the table and we ask for separate checks. He hands out the checks and he has half of them wrong. Some had been charged too much and others not enough. The server then does something I’ve never witnessed. Instead of taking the bills back and correcting them he tells us just to swap money amongst ourselves to make sure everyone comes out whole. We actually try to do that and it just makes us all confused so we ask him to go back and correct the bills.

At this point Scott Trainor is about to snap. I’ve hung around Scott at times and he’s always come across as the low-key, happy-go-lucky type. I guess unless you mess with his breakfast bill. Scott, sternly yet not obnoxiously, tells the server to “just fix the problem” to which everyone at the table nodded in agreement and under our breaths said “Yeah, what he said!”. The server returns with the bills so we can get out of there. Our perfect weekend is starting to fracture. We go to pay our bills and they still have Tim’s messed up pretty good. They have the bill wrong and then charge him twice. In order to make it up to him the manager comps my meal. Tim is two seconds away from leveling somebody. I give him $10 since my bill was right from the get-go and we defuse World War III.

So we have some extra time before the afternoon game and we hadn’t been to the Strip so it becomes our destination of choice. Now, it is daytime but maybe that’s better for us anyway. Rumor has it that the Strip gets a little dicey after sundown. The decision is made to head to my favorite Vegas attraction. The fountains at Bellagio. I’ve never seen them during the day, but that’s OK, I’ve always thought they were cool. And even though it was daytime they didn’t disappoint. We watched two shows the second of which I had to find out what music was being played during the show so I could download it. With a little help from Gary (the movie/music guru) I was able to get it figured out and download it. The song was Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Soundtrack. I’ve now got 13 songs on my IPhone. Look out Spencer, here I come.

But we did witness a couple of disturbing things while on the Strip. The first was a clown that was sitting on his motorized cart thingy. The problem was that not only was he spooky looking, he wasn’t doing anything. No balloons, no jokes, no smiles for the kids. Just a guy sitting there freaking people out. The second thing was a group of girls that were part of some bachelorette party. Because this is a family blog I won’t mention what their shirts said, but they were looking for some male company to join them. A couple of them made some comments along the lines of, “Come party with us.” To which the guy standing next to me (decked out in BYU gear) replies, “You’re barking up the wrong tree, ladies.” Indeed they were.

We leave the Strip with our virtue in tact (which is always a bonus) and decide we need to have some ice cream before the big game. JJ has been the navigator for the trip and gives us excellent directions to the nearest Cold Stone. Jonesing for some ice cream we walk up to the front door only to see that it’s out of business. But JJ isn’t beaten and quickly gets us to the nearest Baskin Robbins. We down our ice cream and it’s game time. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Can BYU overcome the loss of Brandon Davies and rally a third time to beat the Aztecs? Or will San Diego St. exact revenge on the Cougars for their only two losses on the season?

Unfortunately the game doesn’t turn out well. BYU looks tired and Jimmer just can’t do it by himself. The Cougars fall behind big and never recover. We have to listen to The Show (San Diego St.’s student section) yuck it up for a third straight night. By the time the night was over I was ready to punch this kid in The Show wearing sunglasses with a sports jacket over his T-shirt. If you were there you know exactly who I’m talking about. The perfect trip ends with one small imperfection, but it dawns on us that it’s time to get back to reality. Believe it or not, we’re anxious to get home (I put this in just in case any spouses happen across this blog). We leave the game right away and stop in St. George for a quick bite. We get to Pleasant Grove around 1:00 a.m. which is fine for me, but not so great for others that still have another hour to get home.

Just a little shout out to Seth Perrins. Seth is the assistant city manager in Spanish Fork, Utah. He wasn't on the trip with us, but was the one who got us tickets to the event. During that process, Seth got to see a side of me that people rarely get to see. It's not pretty, but he survived.

The road trip is a huge success (at least I think so) and it’s time to thank my wife for letting this be possible. But, now that we’ve had a taste of fun, we’ll have to plan our next one. BCS National Championship Game anyone?