BRUIN ROAD TRIP MEMORIES

I was reminiscing the other day about a road trip I took with the UCLA band to Arizona for the football game in Tucson, where we played the U of A Wildcats. Let me share...
Second week of October, Fall Quarter, 1989. UCLA football, 3-2 at the time and still having a chance for a successful season, was on the road that weekend to play the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson.
It was arranged for a roughly half of the marching band to go with the team. Since the band directors emphasized brass, and I did not play a brass instrument, I did not expect to go, even though the trip was geared for the upperclassmen, which I was. Around Tuesday of that week I found out that the band was alloted an extra bus, and that the tenor saxes, which I was one, were allowed to go, so on that Friday I was on a bus with my friends, and the spirit squad it turned out, heading east on I-10 to the desert.
The cheerleaders were reserved the first 10 rows on our bus. They ended up to be really nice and friendly; me and my friends played blackjack with some of the yell guys. The dance team and the other girls in the front were studying, which I can't do on a bus; I get too distracted. I also remember stopping off in Blythe, near the California/Arizona border, for snacks and stuff and joking that we were gonna get left behind, saying, "How fast can you run?"
We got to Phoenix by the evening, where we stopped at the Day's Inn. The next morning we bused down I-8 2 hours to Tucson, where we faced them Wildcats, at the site where they filmed the classic "Revenge Of The Nerds", incidentally.
The only thing I could say about the game was that it ended mercifully: Arizona 42, UCLA 7. It started a 5-game losing streak for us and led to a forgettable season.
Afterwards that night, my friends went to a club. Since I wasn't a club type of guy, I was just hanging out when I was recruited by some alto sax players to help them buy beer. I was fairly popular in that area, because I was over 21, and most of my bandmates weren't...After walking for about 2 or 3 miles, we get to the liquor store and the guy wouldn't accept my ID, even though I was 22! Something about needing an Arizona license in that state. Talk about some B.S! We were all pissed about that. After I was made to sign some forms, we ended up getting the beer, and walked the 2 or 3 miles back to the hotel...we headed back to L.A. the next morning.
My friend Mark summed it up best when he said, "It was a great trip except for 3 hours." I had fun, the type that every college student needs to have at least once.

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