Don't Mess with Texas

 The amount of vacation time that I can take at any given moment depends on what time of year it is. Now is the time of year when I can take one day from time to time. My friend, Tim, informed me that on a Tuesday in the middle of January, he was going to be in San Antonio for a conference. He also pointed out that the USA were playing against Canada in a neighboring Texas town that very night and that I should buy a ticket and go see the game.

The "neighboring Texas town"?  Houston.  I ultimately agreed and Tim and I were set to attend our 8th US game together.  I would buy a plane ticket, Tim would rent a car and we'd drive to Houston that night to watch the game. After the game, we'd drive back to San Antonio, sleep in the airport and catch our flights home.

Tuesday morning I woke up at 6 AM and drove to the airport for my morning flight, which went off without a hitch.  After arriving in San Antonio, I was to sit and wait to hear from Tim once he got the rental car.  He ultimately called me and the conversation went as follows.

T-"So, they wouldn't give me the car."
S-"Why not?"
T-"Apparently, I didn't bring a CREDIT card, and they won't take my debit card.  So if we want to go to Houston, you'll have to rent one."
S- (Long Silence) "I'll get on it."

What other choice did I have?  Fortunately I brought a credit card and before long I was in a Ford Focus, heading to pick Tim up by the Alamo.  We stopped and had a quick look at the Alamo, which was much smaller than I anticipated.  Before long, we were on the 3 hour journey to Houston.

The drive there was filled with fun smalltalk and banter.  Before we knew it, we pulled up to BBVA compass stadium in Houston, home of the Houston Dynamo.  The Dynamo's colors are orange and, well, more orange as you can see by pictures of the stadium.

 

 

We went inside, got in the front row of the General Admission section, which was right behind a goal, and waited for the game to start.  Little did we know, that this would be the high point of the night, because the game was awful.  Canada didn't want to attack, and the US weren't good enough to attack effectively.  The game ended 0-0 and rain started to pour down.  We sprinted back to the rental car, trying to avoid getting our devices wet.

One interesting thing about this game was how the supporters were treated by stadium staff.  The people I watch games with when I go are die hards, they like to stand up, they even like to take American flag bandanas and tie them over their mouths to live up to their moniker, The American Outlaws.  The stadium had three stewards whose jobs were to just look into our little section from the ground.  I had seen security occasionally pass by our sections in other games I attended, but this was the first time I felt like we were being policed.  They were constantly telling people to take off bandanas, coming into the crowd and making themselves known.  There was nothing going on needing such a response.  I later remembered that the Houston Dynamo (the team that owns the stadium) fans had a history of misbehavior (throwing smoke bombs, other unruly stuff) and maybe that was why the stadium operators felt that we would engage in the same behaviors.  Of course, we didn't, and honestly it made me reluctant to go back to that stadium again, if that's how the fans are treated there.

After a quick detour to Denny's, we left to go back to San Antonio to catch our flights the next morning.  We arrived at the car rental place at about 330 and, to our surprise, they were closed!! Our understanding was they were open 24 hours.  We couldn't return the car or get back to the airport until 430.  So we slept in the car for an hour or so until they opened.

 

I hopped on my flight at 6 AM and headed home.  My car, which I left at the airport had a clean pair of work clothes that I changed into and I headed to work for about the most unproductive work day ever.