Friday – Travel/Work
Fort Myers > Lexington
We are treated on this final week of regular season – we are allowed to stay home on Thanksgiving and celebrate the holiday with our families. So awesome! However, it makes for a crazy long day on Friday.
Most of us have to make a connection to get to our destination. That means getting up around 3am to make a 530a flight!
But connecting is always fun – all of the crews are doing the same exact thing. So be it Atlanta or Charlotte – as you pass thru the airport, you see so many people you know. We ALL are taking the early flights this week. Whereas normally we can travel at any point on Thursdays – so we sometimes see people we know in the connection cities, but not always.
In order to get to Lexington today, I had to fly on US Air – ugh.
But sometimes you ‘have to take one for the team’.
So we have this tradition… each week we write the “Quote of the Week” on a Styrofoam cooler. It has a special spot in the follow van where it resides during the week.
As a part of our end of season crew dinner, each quote is read and the back story of how it became the quote of the week is recapped.
Well… that caused a touch of controversy because there was at least one quote made by an announcer who didn’t like the fact that they were being mocked by the crew. Believe me, it deserved mocking.
Speaking of which, we have this dinner on the last Friday of the regular season – which was tonight.
One of our camera guys edited a totally awesome video recapping our season and it was shared after dinner. And again this year, there were speeches made that left most of us in tears. Andre, our analyst made one of those speeches. Which only proves what an amazing man he is. A lot of announcers don’t know our names, let alone attend a dinner with their crew. But to stand up and thank us and point out all the little things we do for him – so awesome!
Such an amazing group of people - It makes me sad that I only get 14 weeks a year with them.
Saturday – Game Day
Tennessee vs Kentucky
This is it – the final game of our season. We do have post season games in December – but we won’t all be together. Some of us are there for the post season – some are not. The reason being our post season (ie: Bowl Games) schedule is not released until next week – which means a lot of us have already been booked on other shows.
As tradition dictates, after breakfast today, the boys held a “race”
So warm ups started as soon as we were finished eating – we eat in a field house at Kentucky – hence the reason a race is always held here.
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Who wins, doesn’t really matter – there is always cheating and technicalities involved. It’s the fact that it’s become a tradition that really matters.
It’s followed by the final camera meeting…
On the way back to the truck, we saw tailgaters with this GIANT chair….
Of course this prompted our resident giant, to sit in the chair. (Thomas)
Believe me, he is tall! So the fact that he appears small in this chair – only reaffirms the enormity of this chair.
After the game I hung out with some of the guys… watching football and then dinner at a local pizza joint.
Can’t believe the season is over. I love these guys so much. Who knows what will happen 9 months from now…. Will we all be together again? It’s a huge gamble and odds are usually not in our favor.
I thank each and every one of my “followers” for joining me on this journey. It’s boring at times, I know. But I hope at times you have enjoyed the posts.
Am hoping you will all continue to join me on this journey – cuz doing it alone is not any fun!
Plus, the only way you will find out if I am back “with my boys” for SEC 2012 is if you continue to check back!
