The Super Bowl is always an event at my household among my friends. Ordinarily, we gather ’round my 60-inch flat screen TV, drink cheap beer, and eat heaping plates of nachos from our favorite local Mexican restaurant. Not this year, though: we’re headed down to Texas for Super Bowl XLV.
Dallas Cowboys Stadium: the site of Super Bowl XLV.
Right now, I have no idea who the competing teams are going to be. But the Super Bowl betting odds courtesy of BetUS told me the odds. I prefer not to pick favorites until the post-season begins, but I have an emotional affinity for the Green Bay Packers. No, I’m not from Wyoming – there’s just something about those cheese-heads that inspires me to howl like a madman while watching their games.
I’m excited to watch the game in person down in Texas. The last time I saw a Super Bowl live was back in 1994, when I was 11 years old, watching the Dallas Cowboys triumph over the Buffalo Bills. This year, of course, the Cowboys didn’t even qualify – not that it bothers me. When I had down to Texas later this year with my friends, we plan to load up on pulled pork and baby back ribs for our tailgate party before the game. Those of us who have wives are leaving them behind so that we can enjoy some uninterrupted man-time during the festivities.
Personally, I have some money on my native New York Jets, which, considering their mediocre record during the regular season, seemed like an unlikely pick. But that changed with their exhilarating, nail-biting, clutch victory over the Indianapolis Colts, which they followed with their recent seven point victory over the formerly top-seeded New England Patriots. Now that the Pats are out of the running, I have a chance to make ridiculous amounts of money on what originally seemed like a stupid bet.
Pretty cool, huh?
The odds seamed bleak.
Beyond the meat-and-beer fueled partying that we plan to enjoy, there’s a lot more to love about northern Texas. We’ve researched travel information online, and plan to hike off some of the calories we’ll accumulate in the nearby state parks. Thanks to the warm weather there, we plan to fish at Lake Whitney, a state park just south of Dallas. The day after, we’re headed to Cedar Hill to go camping further up north for a few days to decompress after the big game. After all, after the Super Bowl, we’ll need to focus on something else for months until the new season starts.
We’re bringing our mountain bikes to take advantage of the trails around the area. Even though the Dallas-Fort Worth area is urban, there are still hundreds of miles of trails criss-crossing all the national parks and other nature areas. The White Rock Creek trail in particular runs through the entire region, allowing us to tour White Rock Lake as far down south as Crawford. I’ve always kind of wanted to see the ranch that former President Bush would always be disappearing to during his administration.
The weather in North Texas won’t exactly be balmy when the Super Bowl comes around, but it’ll be warm enough. The temperature tends to stay within the bounds between 40 to 60 degrees during the day time during the part of the year when we’ll be camping there. I’m bringing my sports fleece and a light sleeping bag, plus my 20 degree-rated pup tent.
When I’m not camping, I plan to do a lot of eating near Dallas. Sampling the various barbecue sauces from different shacks around Texas will probably keep us busy. All the biking that we’ll be doing will hopefully keep me from putting on 20 pounds from all the eating. I love pulled pork. I could eat nothing but baby back ribs for the rest of my life. There’s good eating to be had in Texas, even if the food isn’t exactly subtle.
Whatever. I love meat.
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I hope you enjoy your time here in DFW (that’s where I live now). I’ll personally be staying as far away from Arlington as possible – I am so not looking forward to the traffic and out-of-towners. Funny, since my goal is to be an out-of-towner everywhere else.