The New Mexico State Odyssey

Hello, Commissioner Escalante here,

The weekend of October 1st, I took a trip to Las Cruces to go visit New Mexico State University. I wanted to write a bit about it, because, for me, it was a once in a lifetime experience. So if you want to follow along on this journey to Las Cruces, I’ll tell you how this trip came about. 

HOW THIS TRIP STARTED 

I really wanted to go watch a college football game somewhere I had never been before, and I started to look at the teams closest to my house. It was mid August, and I found a game between FIU and New Mexico State on October 1st. I checked my normal job’s PTO calendar and there were some days off. I immediately requested those days without any solid plans and made sure my wife would be ok with this trip if it happened. “Uhh hey, I want to randomly go to New Mexico State for a football game, is that ok?” Luckily for me, she agreed, and I got to go (my in-laws think I am crazy but that’s ok with me). 

I checked Google Maps and noted it was about a 9 hour drive, which is about the same length of drive I would make to go back to my hometown in New Orleans. I discussed this potential trip with some of my friends in our group Discord and tried to gauge interest. Some were reluctant initially, as they were not really college football fans but they really enjoyed the Sickos Committee account.

A few weeks later, I had made up my mind that I was going to make the trip without anyone anyway and posted that in the discord. At that point, my friends Andrew and Richard both said “fuck it, I’m going to join you”. I emailed the New Mexico State media relations department in late August about possibly attending a game in Las Cruces right around their Week 0 game. I didn’t hear back from them for a week (which is understandable), so I went ahead and bought tickets to the game because I was going anyway. About a week later, I sent a follow up email and they replied and said yes they would give us credentials and had spots in the press box for us. I honestly didn’t really expect them to say yes and let alone let us into the press box. Absolutely thrilled, I replied, and we were off. 

Fast forward to the week of the game - Andrew was going to drive from Houston (basically driving the entirety of Texas in two days), and Richard would come from Austin, about 1 ½ hours away from my house. We would embark on our journey driving nearly 9 hours on September 30th through desolate west Texas towards Las Cruces for a football game between FIU and New Mexico State, two teams we don’t have any affiliation with at all, although Andrew’s sister is an NMSU alumni. It really felt quite ridiculous and awesome at the same time. 

THE DRIVE

We set out around 6:15 am in my 2012 sedan. I cracked open a Mountain Dew Energy Drink to keep me alert and awake. The goal was to make it to Fort Stockton, TX about 4 hours and 15 minutes from my house. We cruised past Kerrville and Junction, towns both full of Texas A&M lore. We drove through nothingness for hours, enjoying the 80mph speed limit and minimal traffic. We saw wind turbines and noted the near 100 miles between exits. 

We stopped in Fort Stockton, TX to fill up the gas tank and got a lovely Burger King breakfast. I was served the lightest color iced coffee I’ve ever had. It basically looked like milk with a tiny hint of coffee. The gas station had a giant pocket knife collection and decorative pea shooter guns along with fancy brass knuckles. Apparently you need those out there in Fort Stockton.

We were at about the halfway point of the drive to Las Cruces and still in relatively good shape. We kept telling ourselves, “We’re making good time”. We had no idea what was in front of us. We thought it was desolate before, but this portion took it to another level. The wind turbines were gone, but it became windier and my little sedan was having fun staying on the road. We passed what they called “towns,” but it was basically 100+ miles between any type of civilization. We knew that Interstate 20 would eventually end and meet Interstate 10 at some point, and we expected some sort of town near there. Nope. It was absolutely nothing, and we even saw exits to the interstate that apparently led to nowhere. Exit 222 confused all of us. 

We kept seeing mile markers listing Van Horn as the big destination coming up. My only time hearing about a town named Van Horn was based on Red Dead Redemption 2. You know, as the town without any laws or police and if you angered one resident, you’d have to fight the whole town. We began to dream of Van Horn as this giant oasis in the desert, and for some reason we all pictured it with a Top Golf driving range. We all placed a bet on the sign we would see when we entered Van Horn about how many exits the town would have. For reference, Fort Stockton had 5 exits. I set the over/under of 3.5 exits in Van Horn. Andrew took the over, Richard and myself took the under - turns out there were 3. We passed through the town, and came across an actual exit called “Golf Course Drive,” so I guess that Top Golf is coming to Van Horn.

We still had about two hours to get to El Paso, and some sort of substantial civilization. We passed through towns celebrating their 6 Man State Football titles on their small water towers, and we finally got to see some large mountains on the horizon. Finally, we made it to El Paso and realized we were on Mountain Time, a fact that completely caught all of us off-guard. We passed by UTEP and waved at the Sun Bowl, but still had about 40 minutes to go. As soon as we entered New Mexico, it began to drizzle, and you could see the rain clouds slowly move over mountains and over the road. Welcome to the Land of Enchantment. 

ARRIVAL IN LAS CRUCES

We were greeted by the sight of Las Cruces and one of the first exits - New Mexico State University.. With the time change, we were a little early to check in at the hotel, so we exited and drove right down E University Avenue. We wander around campus, looking for the stadium and get a little lost down looking at the unique New Mexico architecture. We remark as we see what looked to be a basketball player or just a really tall guy trying to enter one of these houses, as he is literally taller than the roof and has to duck down to get into the door. We finally find the stadium and swing back around to the New Mexico State bookstore, as we have to buy things for our families to document this incredibly ridiculous trip.  

The New Mexico State bookstore is incredibly expansive and two floors fully equipped with escalators. I’m immediately drawn to the ceiling where there is a suspended bi-plane with New Mexico State’s mascot, Pistol Pete, painted on it. My friend Andrew pulls out the list of items he needs to get, and we begin shopping. I find my items relatively quickly for my wife and kiddo. Andrew continues to wander around the bookstore looking for a New Mexico State shirt that has Pistol Pete with guns a-blazing. He continues to repeat out loud “Pistol Pete… with guns” over and over which became the random phrase we repeat for the remainder of the trip. We purchase our items and decide it's time for a slightly late lunch. Andrew gathers the food recommendations from his sister, and I attempt to surf through the mentions on the twitter account. 

LAS CRUCES LATE LUNCH

We descend on a tiny seemingly hole in the wall restaurant, but it really matches the other buildings in Las Cruces. We settled into a sparsely packed restaurant called Nopalito, recommended by Andrew’s sister. 

We sit down and are immediately greeted by delicious Hatch chile green salsa. After ordering, they asked if I wanted red or green salsa and I immediately said both please. 

My food arrives, and after the first bite of the food, I am immediately looking up houses on Zillow along with Richard. The red chile con carne is absolutely divine. The green salsa is so damn delicious. I’ll spare you the picture of my empty plate but I finished all of it. 

We go check into the hotel and gather a few things from Walmart to prepare for the game tomorrow. Later that evening, we decided to hit up a local brewery called High Desert Brewing on the recommendation of Uncle Skip, a Jeopardy! Champion and famous guest on the Shutdown Fullcast. Had some fantastic craft beer - the Oktoberfest, Coffee Cream Ale and Peach Wheat were awesome. 

GET UP IT’S GAME DAY IN LAS CRUCES

We woke up around 7 a.m. local and were totally thrown off that College Gameday was already on the TV. We wanted to go to a bar to watch some early games, but we couldn’t find one that opens before 11 a.m. We watched some early games in the hotel and headed out to The Game Sports Bar and Grill. We asked our server if she knew how much parking was for the game later that day; I was thinking maybe $5 or $10 for parking. She advised she was not much of a sports fan and didn’t know. Another server advised us it was completely free to park for the game. We continued to eat more hatch chiles. This time, Andrew and I had a Pecan encrusted Hatch green chile strips in a wrap, and Richard decided to have this hot dog monstrosity we believe it was called a New Mexico Dog for lunch.

After eating lunch we went back to the hotel to prepare for the game and all of our first forays into a press box as credentialed media. Andrew brought a microphone and video camera so we could try our hand at interviewing folks at the tailgate.

TAILGATE AND GAME TIME

We made our way and found great parking near the stadium. The weather was perfect for a game: high around 84, with a 10mph breeze.

I decided that I needed some courage to interview strangers for the first time in my life, so I opened a can of New Mexico State’s official beer, Pistol Pete’s 1888.

We wandered around the tailgate and interviewed some fans asking for score predictions. Some fans shied away from predicting anything, and one fan was bold and said NMSU 55 - FIU 14. We saw the New Mexico State Aggie Walk to the stadium and got to meet Pistol Pete!!  

It was time for us to enter the game and find our way to the press box. We obtained our press credentials and made our way into the stadium.

Once inside, we realized we didn’t have a clue on how to get into the press box. We asked a few ushers, but they weren’t sure either. Eventually, we got to the box but went through the wrong door, ending up at the camera’s nest at the top of the stadium. These press passes will allow you to get in anywhere! We finally made our way to the press box and we saw three slots for the Sickos Committee, and I’ll tell you we were all stunned.  We really could not believe New Mexico State allowed us to be in the press box. 

The view was absolutely incredible.

We got to sit with the FIU and New Mexico State media and were surrounded by the coaches in the booths next to us. I won’t get too much into the details of the game here, but both teams had fantastic staff, and we got to see them do the behind the scenes work.  We heard the yells and screams as plays developed and saw the scramble for the elevators at halftime; thankfully, no one got stuck like at ODU.

It was just an incredibly awesome experience and one we will never forget. We asked the media director Jon if we could run on the field after the game, and he said yes. So, of course we did and acted like little kids. I acted like I was running in for a touchdown. Andrew and Richard were Pistol Pete posing when we took a few pictures near the Pistol Pete logo. We eventually headed back to the hotel to face our daunting nine hour drive back home exhausted from the day's events.   

THE NEXT MORNING

We wanted one last meal with the red and green chilies and went to Weck’s for breakfast. Andrew got the largest breakfast burrito likely known to man, Richard and I tried the papas. Richard opted for the larger plate and I settled for a bowl. Now you are likely wondering what papas are? Well just imagine a mountain of hashbrowns, topped with ham, bacon and sausage then throw red and green chile on top. 

After one bite, I was looking at houses in Las Cruces again, and thinking about sending my kiddo to New Mexico State for school. On our way out of breakfast, we randomly ran into the Pepperdine Women’s golf team coming in to eat and let out a “Go Waves” as we walked to the exit. 

THE DRIVE HOME

Realizing what we had in front of us we loaded up on some coconut water and more Mountain Dew Energy drinks. We made it to the Texas border and were immediately slapped in the face by this highway sign. 

This sign just completely messes with your mood and you just settle in for the incredibly long drive back. A few hours into the drive, we stopped at a rest area in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I opened Snapchat to see what the filter called the area - it was listed as Wildhorse, TX.  

We traversed 20 mph winds trying to toss my 2012 sedan all over the place on the way back to Fort Stockton and eventually made it to get some food and gas. 

After a seemingly endless drive, we finally hit Junction and the desert area started to seem slightly greener. Finally, arriving back home, we unloaded my stuff and I gave my wife and my kiddo the gifts we bought for them. My kiddo was taught the “Pistol Pete with guns” line and has been repeating it for the past week while playing with his New Mexico State football.

Richard decided to press on and drive back to Austin. Andrew did the same and drove back to Houston. I gave them the remaining energy drinks to make sure they had enough energy to make it back home.

REFLECTION

The trip was a fantastic whirlwind, and I am glad I took a day off of work to try to recuperate after about 18 hours of driving in three days. I definitely realized I am not as young as I thought I was.

We don’t know if we could ever thank Jon and New Mexico State Football enough for allowing us to be credentialed media for the game. We loved every single minute of the experience and hospitality of New Mexico State and Las Cruces. We’re still blown away by the experience, and we totally want to come back next year for another game. 

Who knows, maybe we’ll be back for the UTEP vs NMSU 100th Anniversary for the Battle of I-10 with even more people this time?? 

Also, don’t forget, Pistol Pete…with guns.

Commissioner Escalante