Saturday, March 31, 2018

Final Four Chronicles - Play Day


PLAY DAY
Day 2

Friday, March 30, 2018

We are well rested and ready to start our first full day in San Antonio.  No drive-bys in the neighborhood to keep us out, and in fact, no real outside noise to bother us at all.  We put Hopps in one of the isolated bedrooms so that his snoring wouldn’t keep us up, and that plan worked to perfection.  As you will see, all of our plans did not work out as well, starting with our failure to purchase coffee at the store.  Oh well, I am sure that we shall find some somewhere, hopefully …

6:04 – Pepster wakes.

6:54 – Sinickal wakes.

7:11 – Hopps wakes.

7:24 – Racecar calls Pepster to talk about their respective days.  Since she knows Pepster is going golfing she reminds him that since Sinickal and Hopps play a lot more than Pepster does,  “don’t bet any large money”.

7:34 – Tony wakes.

8:19 – During a discsussion with Hopps, Tony proclaims, “Oh, that is what hot yoga is”.

8:21 – A precursor, Hopps has 2 degrees from Boston College, but also has a love/hate relationship with his alma mater.  He comes out of his room wearing a Boston College golf shirt and a Boston College pullover.  Sinickal asks, “Did your wife tell you that you had to start liking BC again?”  Hopps just hangs his head.

9:05 – Off to the course by way of breakfast.

9:13 – Run into Café Blanco for coffee.  Parked outside is a 1972 Caprice station wagon!

9:17 – For some reason, Lil’ Wayne’s Mrs. Officer plays throughout Café Blanco.

9:27 – Tony runs over a speed bump at a higher rate of speed than he should have.  The speed bump was the same color as the asphalt of the street.  At least the “speed bump” sign was behind a tree.

9:31 – Arrive at Historic Brackenridge Park Golf Course – former home of the Texas Open and the Texas Golf Museum.  A statue of Harvey Penick welcomes us.

10:04 – At the first tee.  Since Tony isn’t playing, we are given a fourth, and are told that he “has a lot of course knowledge.  Mike joins us, and he can PLAY.

Radio Silence during the round as we play golf, tell jokes and generally just crucify each other.

So, this track is a really nice course.  It appears to be extremely narrow, but is actually pretty forgiving.  We had some birdies, a lot more birdie chances, but the hole placements were obnoxious; several were placed right on criss-crossing spines that dropped off in every direction.  Sinickal won, but didn’t play as well as he liked,  Hopps made a run on the back nine and Pepster stayed close through 12.  Tony enjoyed his time away from us.

14:46 – Off to Riverwalk.

14:56 – Park at the top floor of the parking garage.  We find the sign that tells us to “Take Stairs to Elevator.”  Probably not ADA compliant.



15:01 – In response to our request for a beer to go because we want to go get some food, the Beertender at the Hofbrau Bier Garten tells us that we should stay because “I will feed you beer”.

15:11 – Random guy yelling at the tour boats on the river, screaming some combination of, “You can’t even speak English, you come here and you can’t speak English, and I speak 100 languages.  We try to pass him as quickly as possible.

15:12 – Sinickal – to Hopps – “He [referencing the guy above] is not doing a lot for our race.

15:13 – A city worker apologizes to the group in front of us for having to put with that guy’s behavior.  Worker does not apologize to us.

15:15 – And Kansas takes the early lead.

15:20 – Hopps brings an outside beer. Into Rita’s on the River.

15:39 – County Line BarBQ.

15:40 – County Line’s specialty is 30 oz. margaritas.

15:41 – Hopps, Pepster and Sinickal order the specialty, Tony orders a Dos Equis because he is driving.

15:44 – The margaritas are served in a chilled mixing tin, to keep them extremely cold.  Pepster quotes Stuart Scott and exclaims, “And the Good Lord says you gots to rise up!”  Hopps – who has a Bachelors and a Masters in theology, asks, “Didn’t he go down today?”

15:47 – A little girl walks up to the bar to ask for the wifi.  Bartender tells her that they don’t have wifi.  Hopps tells the bartender, “You know that you just broke her heart.”  Bartender’s response, “I don’t care.”

15:54 – The bartender, not seemingly amused by our witty banter, reminds us that “You started with a dead Jesus joke.”  Sinickal’s retort “He’ll be back on Sunday”.

16:21 – A guy at the end of the bar left his wallet in his hotel room.  He leaves his phone as “collateral”.  He actually returns.  Sinickal noting his return says, “I just assumed it was a burner phone.”

16:22 – Bartender responds to a question posed by Sinickal with a “Yes sir”.  Sinickal, “Please say you called me sir as a sign of sexiness.”  Bartender’s response, “No!  I call my dad sir”.

16:27 – While discussing Southwestern Central’s chances to recruit some of the Montverde and Findlay Prep players from the game on tv, we find out that the bartender’s full time job is working compliance for the NCAA.  She tells us that she has never been to our school.  Hopps responds, “Well, no one has”.

16:37 – We ask the bartender her name.  She tells us “Amber”.  Somehow, Hopps hears “Cinnamon”.

16:38 – 17:00 – We keep calling Amber, “Cinnamon”.

17:01 – Already discussing our next meal and the topic turns to some of our favorite foods.  We naturally assume Hopps’ favorite is Asian fare.  He responds, “No, sometimes I eat Italian.”

17:05 – The bartenders are now calling each other cinnamon and brown sugar.

17:21 – Coyote Ugly.

17:47 – A couple walks into Coyote Ugly holding hands.  Tony asks Hopps if they were holding hands.  Hoppss replies, “Shhhhhh”.

17:48 – Bartender asks where we are all from.  SInickal points at Pepster and says, “Mar-a-Lago”.

18:04 – While trying to egg on the crowd, the bartender implores the crowd to scream.  She looks at Hopps and asks, “Don’t you know how to scream?”.  Sinickal retorts, “He just did!”

18:25 – See a sign that says “Fantexass”.

18:28 – First play of Bruno Mars’s 24K Magic.

18:30 – Bouncer has BMF on the back of his shirt.  There is only one thing that can mean.

18:32 – A Kansas fan jumps on the bar to dance with the bartenders.  Sinickal notes that “Kansas is no longer in the lead”.

18:54 – Sinickal inquires if we are “missing the women’s game”.  All answer, “Yes”.
Side note – as it turns out the women’s semifinals were phenomenal.  Two overtimes, one last second shot, one HUUUUUUUUGE upset.

19:01 – Bartender calls Tony “Mr. Clean”.

19:24 – An epic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors between Pepster and Sinickal for first draft rights, since Pepster and Sinickal always draft “something”.  Pepster emerges victorious after 9 straight ties.

19:36 – Sinickal asks, “When did San Antonio turn into Miami, after a 4th straight Pitbull song.

19:42 – Mr. Clean does a double body shot.

19:42:30 – Trying desperately to ignore Tony’s body shot, Sinickal and Pepster both note that they bar is playing the radio edit version of Kid Rock’s Cowboy.

19:48 – Random girl sidles up next to us and proclaims to everyone that she isn’t a lesbian, but loves to ogle a women’s chest and smack ass.  She wasn’t as polite as this.

20:13 – Matt, after Sinickal took control of the Touch Tunes with Tony Toni Tone’s It Feels Good, “It also feels old”.

20:37 – SiSet continues with Wanna be your Lover by Prince.

20:38 – Fourth pick is 42.

20:47 – Two bouncers approach us and tell us the manager “Called them on their walkie talkie and told them that we needed to go”.  When we ask why, they respond, “I don’t know, our manager just said so.

We are completely flabbergasted.  We have no idea why they told us to leave.  We were current on our tab, minding our own business having some beers, talking with our friends and generally just being ourselves.  We are still trying to figure this out.  And don’t worry Arlene, Hopps didn’t do anything to embarrass the family.

We now cannot say that we have never been tossed out of a bar.  I guess this our is our cross to bear.

20:54 – Rio Rio

21:23 – Hopps just realizes that he has to explain to his wife that we were kicked out of Coyote Ugly.

21:51 – Hopps leads Pepster into Republic of Texas because Too Close by Next is playing.  Lose Sinickal and Tony who were up ahead.  Pepster texts them to let them know where we were.

22:45 – Lots of white people dancing to Camila Cabello’s Havana. 

23:01 – Tony heads home.

23:31 – Marlins defeat the Cubs 2-1 in 17 innings.

23:47 – Bar explodes when Notre Dame beats UConn.

23:51 – Sinickal heads home.  Pepster stays to babysit Hopps.

00:57 – Waiting for Uber, Hopps looks at Pepster and proclaims, “I am so glad you’re smart!”

01:15 – Off to bed.  Tomorrow is game day.

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