Our cool adventure through Texas continues, and day three is now in the books, this time, switching to college football here in downtown Austin.

We started the day for a great lunch at a hangout called The Tavern, and Seamus Gallivan met up with us to enjoy some food and catch the early college games on the gazillion screens in the joint. Seamus hooked us up with some friends of his who invited us to their pregame tailgate, so it was off to the Magierskis for the next leg of our day.

Brian Magierski is a Cheektowaga native who now lives in Austin with his wife Marlene and their two daughters. I met Brian a couple years ago through his mom Alice Magierski who is a Cheektowaga Council Member, my boss and a very dear friend. Brian runs a very successful internet venture capital enterprise, and even though he lives down here now, he is a Buffalo guy through and through. After touring his beautiful home and hanging out for a bit, the three of us headed to the stadium for the tailgate.

Rick and Susan, organizers of “The Garcia Tailgate”, a staple in the southeast lot adjacent to the stadium, had an amazing spread and a nice group of people at their party. He is the Budweiser beer distributor here in Austin, but readily groused that “some mongrel beers probably found their way in those coolers” as he gestured to help ourselves to food and drink. They had a really nice southwest spread - Salt Lick beef brisket, which is the local specialty, frankfurters with Texas chili, and Mexican tamales with cheese and salsa, among the items on the buffet. We were so stuffed from lunch, but managed to enjoy the delicacies and the good company.

By now it was an hour to game time, and we still had to find game tickets, so time to look for the scalpers. We hit the street and eventually found the big Moroccan ticket bazaar, but the scalper crowd was tough! Getting three together was a challenge, and bargains were hard to find, but we got three upper deck seats for face value ($60 per), and Brian sprung for the tickets which was tremendously generous.

We walked the whole perimeter of the stadium, took some pictures… the north end of the venue is undergoing a reconstruction and it was tall cranes and empty concrete, but with temporary bleachers in place in the south end, the place was full and 85,000 strong. With the building totally colored burnt orange, the hometown Longhorns stumbled through this game, everyone mindful of the stunning Applachian State upset over Michigan earlier in the day, but Texas eventually took a 21-3 lead. The visiting Arkansas State Indians missed 2 field goals, had a touchdown taken away on a referee review, otherwise it could have been ugly for the home team. Nonetheless, the Indians got a late touchdown, then apparently successfully executed the onside kick with 50 seconds to go, but the refs called an odd penalty for not enough players lined up to the left of the kicker. The second try was unsuccessful, and the Longhorns, favored by 39 1/2 points, escaped with a 21-13 win.

So after a long day of sightseeing, lots of food and drink and good times with old friends and new friends, we now set our sights to Corpus Christi, and the 100th ballpark of the Ultimate Sports Road Trip. Man, this sports travel is so much fun!

Above photo - Brian Magierski and Peter outside Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium.

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