well I am in Texas

Forgive the first post from Texas taking so long, but after a 14-hour bus ride, and some much needed sleep and some much needed time with my extended Texas family, this is my first opportunity.
The trip out with the ABAC Stallions was relatively tame. Unfortunately for me though, I got very little sleep.
When I was a sophomore in high school I worked as the scorer for the basketball team. One night we were coming home and the bus driver temporarily dozed off. I am meaning no offense to the countless buses I have ridden on since, but I think I have always had a phobia about the bus driver falling asleep again. With that, I have always had trouble sleeping on a bus, even if it is a 14-hour trip.
I did get to hear snoring in several different accents though, and that was somewhat entertaining. Also every time I did seem to doze for a few seconds, I would wake up and think someone was standing in front of me. The someone was always coach Alan Kramer's suit jacket which he had hung to keep from getting wrinkled.
Also early on I did get to hear Kramer, coach Red Hill and coach Dale White discuss strategy. That is always fun for me to hear how coaches plan to operate.
One good thing about the trip was that it was noticeably shorter than last year. The drivers were good, and they knew what they were doing.
Well things did begin to stir around 6 our time when we pulled into Vicksburg, Miss. The rest area we stopped at was right on the Mississippi River and the view was spectacular in the early morning light.
We would then stop in Tallulah, La. for breakfast.
Everyone woke up for breakfast, but quickly fell back to sleep until we got close to Dallas.
Plano is a northern suburb of Dallas, and that is where this week's national tournament is being played. After eating lunch, the team went to practice some at the Collin County Community College courts, and they then went to check in at the Southfork Inn.
For those of you that remember the old "Dallas" television show, yes the Southfork Inn is named after the Ewing ranch on that show. There is memorabilia from the show in the hotel.
It is a very nice place and putting on my travel hat for a moment if you ever come out to visit, I would recommend it as a place to stay.
As most of you know I have friends in this area, and I stayed last (Saturday) night with them. While I was waiting at the hotel for them to pick me up I noticed something that may be one of those things only I would notice, but also could tell you what school pride some of these schools show.
Several of the ABAC players had some sort of Stallion T-shirt on. But as I noticed other teams checking in to the hotel, the only way you could tell what school they were representing is when the front desk clerk would ask the coach.
The only school I noticed that had several players with school shirts on was Laredo - the Texas school that I believe has won the past four national titles, and features the two top-ranked players in the nation this season.
(Note here: believe it or not even though you may think of tennis as an individual sport, it could very come down to the team this week for appropriately enough the team championship. That is because depth could play a big role in who wins the national title. A team has to be solid from top-to-bottom to earn points in every flight. That means if a team has a player that's dominant in one flight, but may be less than strong in other flights will be at disadvantage.)
Anyway for those of you that don't know, Laredo's nickname is the Palomino and their colors are green and gold. I know none of you that know of a junior college that features a type of horse for a nickname and has green and gold for team colors, do you? :-)
Well I would later go with my friends to see Wolverine, a good movie by the way if you are into that sort of thing. The team was supposed to have an early night, and have a full day of work today (Sunday) highlghted by the national awards banquet tonight.
Play hopefully begins tomorrow with ABAC hopefully having a light day as most of the low seeds will see action. The seeding will be later tonight, and that will also be a big part of the week in how a national champion is determined.
The reason I said hopefully the tournament will begin today is the weather forecast is similar to last year's. That tournament was delayed several times due to rain.
Anyway I am sitting in a Dairy Queen in Denton, Texas just down from North Texas State University. My friends work here and believe it or not I am trying to help out some.
But I will be back later tonight with I hope some seeding news from Coach Kramer.
Until then I want to wish all of the moms out there a great and special day.