Go POKES!

LOL

I don't know when we'll see the OSU window flags flying down the highway, but I'm sure they'll be migrating down south for a football game soon.

You know, after those college teams play at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, the standard college stadiums probably won't seem quite as impressive.

We get a kick out of watching the teams and their fans roll down the interstate. It really does make you feel like autumn has arrived, even though it really hasn't yet.

The first time we saw the whole official caravan coming down the interstate after we moved here, we were shocked! The team and band had an OHP escort and all kinds of fans in every kind of vehicle you can imagine, with every kind of flag, decal, window sticker, etc. It is quite a sight.

I have a daughter and son-in-law in that southern movement but I don't think they have left home yet. Do you live close enough to the highway to see the traffic, or were you somewhere else?

We were coming back from Gainesville about 10 a.m. and saw them just after we had crossed the Red River bridge back into Oklahoma.

We're about a mile and a half away (as the crow flies) from I-35 so we can't see them from the house, but it never fails that we'll be out running errands or at a fire or even just walking a dog, and we'll see them. Being a mile-and-a-half off I-35 as the crow flies sounds pretty good, but to actually get onto the interstate, we either have to go all the way north to Marietta or all the way south to Thackerville. Those fans are hard to miss on the interstate with all the flags, decals, etc.

I had just opened my mouth to say to Tim "Do you think we'll see the usual OU parade?" and I was on the word "we'll" when the first, second and third vehicles with OU flags and big magnetic door decals zoomed past us. After that, it was a steady parade.

I was a little surprised that we saw fans at the Red River at 10 a.m. on the day before the game, but I probably shouldn't be. I know the fans always have a good time down in the metroplex....there's so many places to go and so many things to do. If I was driving down for the game, I'd probably go a day early and enjoy the restaurants and shopping too.

My son-in-law has Grandparents there so they don't even have to get a motel. He worked all day yesterday, all night last night, and all day today. Hope he gets a nap while she drives down.

How nice that they get to see the Granddparents AND the game...and no motel bill! I do hope she drives and he sleeps.

You tell fall by the football caravans. Here we tell winter and spring by the migration of the "snowbirds are we call them migrating south and southwest and back in their RV's and towing a vehicle. You get behind several of them on a windy day on 2 lane US 54 and you can travel 20 miles or farther before you can get around them. Jay

Jay,

You sure can tell the fall by the football caravans. Our little towns (Thackerville and Marietta) completely empty out when there is an "away" game, and I guess the same is true everywhere else.

We usually see the snowbirds here along I-35 mostly in October headed south, and then headed back north in March or April. If you talk to the snowbirds in Texas, though, you'll learn they do not call themselves 'snowbirds'. They call themselves 'winter Texas' and most do not like being called snowbirds. We found this out when Tim referred to some as 'snowbirds' and they rather frostily replied "We are not snowbirds. Snowbirds go to Arizona. We are 'winter Texans'." LOL I guess they told us!

Dawn

Just coincidence, Dawn. OU plays BYU in Arlington today, but this is not THE Sooner migration. The game with Texas will be October 17 so you'll see another migration south then. At least for us in the Okc area, it's fairly easy to guess the date for the Red River Rivalry as it always occurs during the Texas State Fair which immediately follows the end of the Oklahoma State Fair. The midway and many of the exhibits pack up when our fair is over and head straight to Dallas so we know that the Texas game is coming up once the fair ends up here.

Debra

Another sure-fire indication of the OU/Texas game is when the Goldsby bridge over I-35 gets decorated! Lucky no one has fallen off it yet while adding the graffitti.

I'm sure everytime an OK or Kansas team plays in TX or vise versa she sees a migration. The same thing in bowl season. You can tell what teams are playing out west by the migration down US 54. Fall in near.

Dawn that is funny as they have always just laughed and joked when I referred to them as snowbirds. Here many time you are sure they are going to head south or west when they come through. So they are all snowbirds. ha. Jay

Debra,

I see THE Sooner migration every year and it is really a sight to see. LOL Sometimes I walk the dogs on those big travel days and stand on a bridge over I-35 and watch the endless procession. It is amazing.

I am well familiar with the UT-OU rivalry, having grown up in Texas (Fort Worth) and having been stupid enough to go to the State Fair of Texas a couple of times on football weekends when I was a teenager. We learned pretty quickly to pick a different weekend in future years because the football fans take over the fair on "that" weekend. LOL

That was back in the wild and rowdy days in the 1970s and 1980s when the Longhorn and Sooner fans turned the streets of Dallas into a crazy street party/pep ralley the night before the game. Dallas would have every available cop on the streets and filled up the jails....and still the fans partied on. I think the weekend lost some of its "spirit" when the city of Dallas started clamping down on the street parties...they kind of ruint that great tradition when they started making so many rules and so many arrests. I'm sure the streets are safer now, but the street parties and pep rallies are missed. You always knew the weekend would be full of 'interesting' news from the street parties and ralleys. The world is a meaner place, now, and I guess if the street party type pep rally nonsense was still allowed, it'd probably result in violence. Oh, the good old days....

And, the way I keep track of the Texas State Fair IS the OK State Fair because I know the one follows the other. Being closer to Dallas than to OKC, that's the fair we usually go to, although sometimes we make it to both.

One of the radio stations sponsors some sort of 'rest/meal stop' for the OU fans as they journey down. Some years it is in Paul's Valley and some years it is in Marietta at Carl's Jr.

You always know when it is 'almost' OU-Texas weekend because the gas station/convenience stores in Marietta put out big displays of OU merchandise. (And, yes, you OSU fans, they put out big displays of OSU merchandise too.)

Bob, What kind of grafitti do they put on the bridge? I assume it is pro-OU and anti-UT?

Jay, We got a laugh at those people's "we're winter Texans" comment. Every year, we get to meet at least a couple of these snowbirds in a most unfortunate way. Without fail, once or twice each year, an RV will catch fire traveling down the highway in the fall (or when headed back north in the spring) and our firefighters will be dispatched to put out the fire. Needless to say, by the time the firetrucks arrive, the RV is fully engulfed...they are highly flammable and burn fast. The smart 'snowbirds' disconnect their vehicle from the RV and save the vehicle at least.

Not too long ago, our son was driving down I-35 in Texas and saw an SUV pulling a flatbed trailer holding another SUV. Unfortunately, the SUV on the flatbed was on fire. They got the people to pull over and our son and another guy who stopped to help were able to disconnect the flatbed and save the first SUV. Unfortunately, the road sloped downhill and the trailer with the burning SUV started rolling backwards into traffic....it is a funny story to tell now, but it wasn't funny at the time.

Four or five other guys stopped and helped our son get the trailer with the burning SUV out of the traffic lanes, and then the fire dept. (our son's wife had called 911) arrived and put out the fire. It was quite a spectacle.

One thing I never knew before Tim and Chris became volunteer firefighters (which led to Chris becoming a professional firefighter) was how often vehicles on the interstate catch fire.....semi tractor-trailers, pick-ups pulling big horse trailers, regular cars, buses, etc. You name it, if it travels down the interstate, it can burn. We have a small fire extinguisher in each of our personal vehicles, but they won't put out a vehicle fire unless you catch it the very minute it ignites. Still, we always stop and try to help someone when we see a vehicle afire by the side of the road.

Dawn