First…Dallas. Is Dallas the most chill big city in the country? We parked at the Mockingbird station and took the train downtown and walked around a bit. Nobody was out. Very few cars. Very quiet.

We spent a fair amount of time in the art museum which was cool. Every one of the employees there was super nice. Plenty to see in that museum.

Then we hit the food truck lane. Wife and kids grabbed some Greek. I grabbed a brisket sandwhich. Everyone working in the food trucks was super nice. We had a nice time sitting at the park and enjoying lunch. There were a few people there. Just quiet and chill.

We hit some shops around Mockingbird station. The employees in the stores were all very nice and cordial. We filled up at Buccees on the way out of Dallas. All the employees there were over the top nice.

I had to remind myself we were in one of the largest metroplexes in the country. Something like 8 million people there. Seemingly all of them nice. And just a really laid back and chilled vibe.

The game…

COUGAR nation shows up. That was really fun to be around so many likeminded and passionate fans. My kids really had a kick seeing how many of our fans were there. And it was great seeing families. A lot of young kids and young teens there just having a great time. And I’m guessing most of the BYU fans were Texas residents. It’s not like that many people are flying in from Provo. It’s great to be part of a big church family.

SMU fans. This observation from my 15 year old son…that SMU may have one of the most “beautiful “ fan bases and student body sections he has ever seen. It was clear that his neurons were firing. And no problems whatsoever from the fan base as a whole. Plenty of comments about how they were shocked about how many BYU fans were there.

And the game…gutsy performance by the D. Incredibly frustrating college football game to watch to the point where a really really good win left me with significant concern about coaching and performance on one side of the ball. For some reason nobody goes into that little stadium and wins. But BYU did. And yet it’s clear the qb position is significantly flawed and the offensive play caller doesn’t know what to do with the situation. Retzlaff is so erratic I simply just don’t know what to expect for the rest of the season. I thought my two sons were going to storm right out of the stadium and walk all the way back to Houston when he threw that pick to the lineman.

SMU campus was nice enough. Little bit haphazard in layout and nearly every building looked virtually identical.

Overall great and memorable day. I’m glad we made the trip up and took it all in.