BYU vs Michigan State

Back in May I was talking with a few of my buddies from dental school. We were mentioning how we would love to go to a BYU football game on the road. They mentioned that since Lisa had passed away their wives were feeling sympathetic to me and that we should capitalize on that sympathy and plan a guys only road trip. We looked at our calendars and decided that the BYU vs. Michigan State game would be the best for all of us.

We all flew in on a Friday evening and went to our hotel. That night we went to Buddy's Pizza to get some Detroit style pizza. It was so good. On Saturday we decided to hit up some local touristy things in Detroit before heading up to East Lansing for the game. Our first stop was the Ford Museum. It was really cool. I had to take this picture for my son Tucker.

Here's the first photo of all of us together. Me, Jarom John, Rob Leale, and Brandon Jergensen. Jarom flew in from Fort Collins, Colorado. Rob from Spokane, Washington, and Brandon from San Diego, California. It was so good to get together with them again.

After the museum we went into Detroit and got a view of Ford Field where the Lions play and Comerica Park where the Tigers play. Such a cool looking ball park.

While we were dowtown in Detroit we had lunch at Coney National Hot Dogs. Another famous Detroit eatery that didn't disappoint. From there we headed on up to East Lansing. Their stadium is beautiful and huge, seating over 70,000 people.

 Before this game BYU was a heavy underdog. They didn't really have much of a shot of beating Michigan State in East Lansing. The first half started out slow for both teams, but BYU really started to pull away in the second half.

The fourth quarter was really fun as a BYU fan. We beat MSU on the road despite the odds. It was so exciting to experience that with my friends.

While there I ran into one of my friends from Cougarboard, Jared Kohl. This was the third game we've watched together. We have watched two together out in Washington DC when I've been out there.

One of the highlights from the trip was the conversation we had one evening while going to sleep in our hotel room. The four of us friends had some great spiritual conversations. Some very uplifting and motivational discussions. At one point Brandon Jergensen and I were chatting about how life has ended up harder than we thought it would be. He was discussing some of the challenges he's had raising a son with Down Syndrome. I mentioned that I could empathize because of how difficult life had been watching Lisa pass away from cancer and becoming a single dad. There was a moment of silence and then Jarom said, "well, I have 5 daughters." All of us burst out laughing. It was pretty funny. You win Jarom!