A seventeen year odyssey across the backroads of America during the ultimate College Football roadtrip.

Category: Uncategorized (Page 28 of 42)

In & Out Burger

During our trips this fall we have done our best to ferret out some of the finest in authentic roadside cuisine.Out travels have exposed us to a breadth of simple, approachable food, and as a rule we eschewed chain restaurants at every turn.

There is one such exception to be made for that rule, however, the famous California institution known as In & Out Burger.In & Out is unique among burger chains in that they are exclusive to California (only recently having opened a handful of locations in neighboring states) and none of their locations are more than a day’s drive from their headquarters in Irvine, CA.The 240+ restaurants were family owned until 2006 and they have never franchised.Furthermore, they pride themselves on using only the freshest of ingredients.Their burgers and fries are never frozen, the vegetables are fresh and the shakes are made with actual ice cream. For these reasons, In & Out stands as an anomaly among fast food burger chains and they have built themselves a cult following because of it.

Their blindingly uncluttered menu board reflects this dedication to simple, timeless drive thru classics.Burgers, fries, shakes and soda – that’s it.

While some purists may still snub their nose at chain fare of any form, as Theodore Donald “Donny” Kerabatsos so eloquently put it:

“Those are good burgers Walter”.

And I concur. Following the NC game we promptly made our way to In & Out for a well deserved post game feast. I ordered up a classic double-double “animal style”, fries and a chocolate shake.For the uninitiated that translates to a double burger, double cheese, with extra pickles, extra sauce, and fried onions.This was a simple yet classic combo that was the perfect nightcap for an exhilarating day.Forgive my lack of usually detailed photography, but this little treat lived a short, albeit delicious life.

For the astute readers out there, you may notice the lack of any mention on the In & Out Burger menu to the term “Animal Style” and you would be correct.One of the beautiful nuances of In & Out is their non posted “secret menu”.This is basically a second language for regulars to customize their burgers off the menu.As a marketer, I think it is a phenomenal example of building a “tribe” mentality among your most ardent followers.And I pride myself on going “animal style” whenever I order at In & Out.

For you newbies out there, I’ve taken the liberty of posting their secret menu so you can talk the talk with the rest of the skate shoe wearing SoCal regulars.

Burgers

  • Veggie Burger: A hamburger with extra tomatoes instead of meat
  • Extra Toast: This order toasts your bun a little bit more than usual making it extra crispy
  • Protein style: Protein style removes the bun and wraps your burger in lettuce like a burrito.
  • Grilled Cheese: A bun, tomatoes and onions, if you want them, grilled with melted cheese.
  • Flying Dutchman: For the ultimate meat eater. No bun, no veggies, just two beef patties and two slices of cheese.
  • Double meat burger: a double double without the cheese.
  • Animal style: makes any burger come with extra pickles, extra sauce, grilled onions, and a mustard cooked patty.
  • 3 by Meat: three beef patties and no cheese.
  • 2 by 4: a double double with two extra slices of cheese. Not for the weak hearted.
  • Chopped Chilies: This adds diced jalapenos to any burger
  • Mustard grilled patty: ask for this and they will spread your patty with mustard before grilling it.
  • No Salt: you wouldn’t think that this would apply to a burger but it does. In-N-Out patties are heavily salted, ask for no salt and you will get a much healthier and fresher tasting patty.

Fries

  • Fries animal style: an order of French fries drenched in cheese, grilled onions, and special sauce (a thicker thousand island dressing)
  • Fries Light: French fries taken out of the fryer a little early. These are a little bit raw on the inside and less crispy.
  • Fries Well-Done: The opposite of fries light. This order leaves your fries on the fryer extra long, making them really crispy and oily.
  • Cheese Fries: Fries with melted cheese on top

Drinks

  • Neapolitan shake: All the milkshake flavors swirled together, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.
  • Root Beer Float: Half vanilla milkshake and half root beer soda.
  • Choco-Vanilla Swirl: A chocolate milkshake swirled in with a vanilla milkshake
  • Lemon-up: Lemonade and seven up mixed together.
  • Large and extra large shakes: if you ask for a large shake they’ll give you a shake in a medium sized soda cup and extra large in a large soda cup.
  • Tea-Ade: An Arnold Palmer. Half iced tea and half lemonade.

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Big 12 Championship – Horns vs. Huskers

After the conclusion of our regular season, our ravenous appetite for college football had yet to be satiated.Fortunately one of the benefits of living in the heart of Big 12 country is the Big 12 Conference Championship game rolling into town a week after the end of the season.Both of us were anxious to see if the undefeated Texas Longhorns could overcome the Nebraska Cornhuskers to secure their spot in the National Championship game.I was also rather excited to be witness my first football game in the newly christened Cowboy Stadium, without having to suffer the indignity of actually watching the Cowboys play.

Coming into the contest, the Texas offensive juggernaut had run unchecked through Big 12 opposition all season, posting an average of 43 points per game, good for the #3 offense in the country.Behind the winningest QB in college football history and Heisman candidate Colt McCoy, the Longhorns were on the cusp of clinching their second National Championship berth in the last five years.

Standing ominously in their path on the other side of scrimmage, however, was the heralded Bo Pelini Nebraska defense.Nebraska boasted the stingiest scoring defense in the country, allowing an anemic 10.4 points per game. The Husker’s featured man child defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who, in addition to being named the defensive player of the year, had the rare honor being a defensive player mentioned in the Heisman conversation.Clearly, this was going to be a contest of the unstoppable force versus the immovable object.

Texas vs. Nebraska lived up to this hype, and proved to be the most exciting game that we witnessed all year.The Nebraska defense locked the Horns’ attack down all day long.Limited to a paltry 202 yards of total offense, the Texas attack was forced to punt nine times on the evening, and managed a lone touchdown.Despite a praiseworthy performance against Texas A&M the week before, Colt McCoy’s Heisman stock plummeted amidst his lackluster 184 yards and three interceptions.In fact Colt was picking himself up off the carpet for the better part of the day after being sacked nine times, including four of them by Ndamukong Suh.Suh was all over the place during the game, raking in 12 tackles alone and anchoring the Nebraska defense that kept the Huskers within a score the entire game (fortunate considering their offense barely managed over 100 yards all day).


The game got extremely nerve wracking for the burnt orange crowd with about 1:44 left to play when Nebraska kicker Alex Henery booted one through the uprights to give the Huskers a 12-10 lead.It seemed Texas would have to go nearly the length of field against the stalwart Husker defense to claim their spot in Pasadena…..or would they? The Nebraska kicker promptly booted the kickoff out of bounds, spotting Texas at the 40 yard line.At nearly midfield, McCoy then connected with his favorite receiver Jordan Shipley for 19 yards. The well disciplined, self aware Nebraska squad decided this would be an opportune time for a personal foul, so they spotted Texas yet another 15 yards on the end of the play.After a sack and a stuffed run, Colt McCoy then rolled out on a 3rd down passing play with :08 on the clock.Taking his sweet time surveying the field (and evidently unconcerned with the clock), McCoy then lazily lobbed the ball out of bounds as the final seconds ticked off.Instantly, the Nebraska bench rushed the field in victory, as throngs of red clad Husker fans erupted in celebration in the stands.A hard fought victory, and a salute to the old adage of “defense wins championships”.

But wait a minute…..”the previous play is under review”….With a collective sigh of relief for the burnt orange, the Huskers were corralled off the field to await the results of the replay trolls.76,211 stood in hushed silence, and after an agonizing five minute review, plus the requisite allowance for some atmosphere killing TV commercials, the officials determined that there was in fact :01 left on the clock.With that one second, the Longhorns BCS Championship dreams were still alive, and exclamation points would live on in facebook status updates for eternity.After a tenuous 46 yard kick by Hunter Lawrence that just eeked inside the uprights, the Longhorns were the ones celebrating under the ticker tape.Their next stop would be a trip to Pasadena to cap off a perfect season and play for the Big Crystal Football.

I somehow managed to capture the winning kick in mid air…

What a game…

Hook Em’ Horns!

Special thanks again to our friends Jared and Kimberly for helping us out with tickets to the game, and tailgating festivities.College Football is meant to be enjoyed in the company of good friends, and it is always a pleasure to hoist a few with some of our favorite ‘Horns fans.

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Bedlam! Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State

The last regular season game on our schedule was a return to the stretching plains of the OklahomaTerritory.We were in Norman to witness yet another one of the most storied programs in the history of College Football; the Oklahoma Sooners.Home to seven national championships, 149 consensus All Americans, five Heisman Trophy winners, and of course, Brian Bosworth.

It was rivalry week up in the SoonerState, and the Sooners themselves were hosting their hunter orange clad in state rivals from OklahomaState.“Bedlam” as the game is otherwise known, in parlance of this irritating modern trend of branding every rivalry contest.

Oddly enough, the roles were reversed this year.The perennial powerhouse Sooners were at the finale of a rather disappointing 6-5 season, largely driven by the delicate shoulder of injured Heisman winner Sam Bradford.The Norman natives were growing grumbly with long time head coach Bob Stoops.Proof that despite going to seven BCS Bowls (four championship games) and a career .801 winning percentage, your only as good as your last game in Sooner country.I for one would be more than happy to relieve them of the “visored one” for greener gridiron pastures in South Bend.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, came into the season with lofty expectations on the strength of their powerful returning offensive trio of Zac Robinson (QB), Kendall Hunter (RB) and Dez Bryant (WR).Unfortunately, Hunter went down with an injury, while Bryant managed to get himself suspended by the NCAA for the remainder of the season for talking to Deion Sanders (Proving once again that nothing good can come of conversing with Deion Sanders).Though their 9-2 record was impressive, a win over their heated in state rivals would be a nice little capstone to finish off the season, and vault them into a BCS payday.

That big payday would have to wait, however, because the Sooner defense absolutely stifled the Cowboys all day long, surprising considering Texas Tech had lit them up for 41 points the week before.In fact, smothering would be an understatement, as OSU could only manage 109 yards of total offense on the day, and didn’t convert a sole first down in the entire second half.Their punter may have needed a hip replacement after kicking the ball away a total of fourteen times.While Oklahoma’s offense wasn’t spectacular, Demarco Murray still scampered for two touchdowns and Freshman quarterback Landry Jones didn’t give the ball away.At the end of the day, Oklahoma strutted away with a dominant victory, blanking the ‘Pokes 27-0.

Despite the high caliber matchup on the field, this game was far and away the sloppiest we had seen all season.Although there were only four official turnovers in the game, in the first half alone the ball was fumbled five times.Even the officials bungled their duties, having to second review a handful of plays and dragging out an already glacially slow game.While these “official reviews” are a great time to grab a sandwich and beer at home, I wouldn’t advise it at The Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.I grew concerned that Mindy had been abducted when she disappeared for over half a quarter braving one of the woefully understaffed and serpentine lines at the concession stand.By my count there were a grand total of three soda fountains open to serve the entire 85,606 person crowd of crimson and cream.

Prior to the game, we had a chance to check out the infamous “Sooner Schooner”. The schooner is a replica covered wagon that the Oklahoma “Ruf/Neks” (no that is not a typo) parade around the endzone after each Oklahoma score.The Schooner might be one of the more impressive touchdown celebrations in College Football, as the wagon and horse team (Boomer and Sooner) race out onto the field with a Ruf/Nek precariously hanging out the back of the wagon gripping a flapping OU flag.They gallop out in an arc that nearly reaches the fifty yard line. Up close and personal, however, it’s deceptively small.Comically, the Sooner Schooner is about the size of a covered Radio Flyer pulled by a band of pygmy ponies.I think Ralphie the Buffalo is safe as the largest livestock mascot in the Big 12.

Although Norman is a storied and quintessential little college town, our trip to Oklahoma would be a short one, as we returned home promptly after the game because Mindy had caught a rather nasty bug.So on the next go around, I will be sure to swing into Earl’s RibPalace to give you some first hand reporting on their storied swine.

http://www.earlsribpalace.com

Despite the abbreviated trip, it was a gorgeous sunny day for football, and one could do a lot worse than spending a late fall Saturday afternoon in Norman when the Sooners are playing.

Boomer Sooner!

Special thanks to our friend, Eric, for the hospitality in the game-day village and helping us find some tickets to the game.

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Final Posts Are Coming…

Obviously, the big news is that we made a last minute plan to see the National Championship Game, and it was a phenomenal experience.

The crazy travel schedule has finally settled down, so I am putting together that post, as well as the posts for the Oklahoma and Big 12 Championship games.

So be sure to stay tuned….

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