Texas Thanksgiving Trip!

It's been a long, boring summer for me, as work has prevented me from traveling as much as I'd like. However, the project I'm working on is finishing up in late November, so I thought I could swing a short west coast trip before Christmas. I checked out the Leafs' schedule and sure enough, they are in Anaheim on November 27th. I also noticed that they are visiting Dallas two nights before, and the American Airlines Center is one of the few NHL rinks that I have yet to visit. That Friday is part of the American Thanksgiving weekend and the Dallas Cowboys have a holiday home game the day before against the winless Miami Dolphins, who are battling Indianapolis and St. Louis for the right to draft Andrew Luck.

That Wednesday is a holiday here, which usually means air tickets are outrageously expensive. After some searching though, I found a reasonably-priced flight departing on Wednesday and returning Sunday. This opened up Saturday as a possible sports day and a quick check of college schedules showed an SMU football game would be played in Dallas. Suddenly we had the makings of a whirlwind sports road trip.

I checked the AHL schedule but there isn't a team close enough (the Texas Stars are about 3 hours south in Cedar Park). Fortunately, the Central Hockey League has four Texas-based teams and one of them is the Texas Brahmas who play just a few minutes from the airport. Amazingly they have a game that starts about an hour after my flight lands. It will be a tight squeeze, but I hope to make it. The full schedule is as follows:

Wed Nov 23  Arizona Sundogs at Texas Brahmas 7:00 (CHL)
Thu Nov 24  Miami Dolphins at Dallas Cowboys 3:15
Fri Nov 25  Toronto Maple Leafs at Dallas Stars 7:30
Sat Nov 26  Rice Owls at SMU Mustangs TBD (NCAA Football)
Sat Nov 26  Samford Bulldogs at UT Arlington Mavericks 7:00

That's it. Since the NBA is locked out, there won't be any Mavericks' games to see. Update: I might be seeing a Mavericks' game after all, just not the NBA variety. The University of Texas at Arlington Mavericks have a game on Saturday night - whether I can make it depends on what time the SMU game starts.

It's going to be a quick trip, but a lot of fun. Check back then for reports on all those games plus more. I can hardly wait!

Best,

Sean