Ben’s Favorite Season

Most of the world knows that there are four seasons in a year – spring, summer, fall and winter. Sometimes, in Florida, it feels like the seasons are more along the lines of early summer, summer, late summer and freezing. In Ben Colson’s world there is an extra season, in his mind the most wonderful season of all – College Football Season.

I can say with considerable confidence that my husband is one of the biggest college football fans in the south if not in the nation. He likes all sports and can get by from January through June on basketball, baseball and college softball (haha) but from June through August my husband’s mood ranges from sad and depressed because of nothing to watch to excited and bouncing off the walls at the thought of what is just around the corner. Thankfully for me and the rest of the world who has to encounter Ben in one of his moods – he came to that corner last Wednesday. What caused this extreme change in emotion? The start of another college football season marked by Ben’s annual college football road trip. For those of you in the know, I am sure you are saying “But Paige college football started Thursday” and my response to you is YES…but for Ben Colson…the road trip began on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, September 1st, Ben (Benji-dawg), our brother-in-law Hank (Hankus), and Hank’s brother Richard (Ricky-Bob) embarked from Turkey Creek to Orlando where they left on a jet plane (insert song here) for the great state of Ohio. 

The three amigos landed in Cincinnati where they attended the Cincinnati Red’s Game on Wednesday night. But Paige you say – The Reds are a baseball team – yes I know but its a sport so in Ben’s mind it counts. On Thursday the posse set out in their Chevy Malibu for the Horseshoe. Upon reaching Columbus they stopped for lunch at Schmidt’s Sausage House home of classic German fare ranging from Weiner Schnitzel to Apple Strudel and all the sausage you can eat….Ben’s wife was jealous. The restaurant even made cream puffs and we aren’t talking about the small puffs you get in the freezer section….we are talking ginormous puffs filled with gooiness (in Ben’s case peanut butter) You see that thing with the chocolate on top…that’s a cream puff Schmidt’s style…yum!

On Thursday night, Ben, Hank and Ricky Bob attended the opening game for the Ohio State Buckeyes who played Marshall. One of the highlights for BC was having his picture taken with the Ohio State Cowboy – He loved the irony of a diehard Gator like himself posing as a Buckeye and infiltrating enemy territory

On Friday the group traveled north to Toledo by way of Bowling Green (the school where Coach Meyer got his coaching start) and posed as Toledo fans for the Toledo v. Arizona game. Ben said it was neat to see the differences in schools and programs. Ohio State has 55,000+ students and an extremely generous fan base and Toledo is smaller and more close knit with a railroad track cutting through the campus. Ben said that no matter where they were, big or small, the fans were rabid about the home team.

On Saturday the boys embarked on the next leg of their weekend road trip and traveled to South Bend, Indiana and the hallowed halls and storied tradition that is Notre Dame football. The Fighting Irish love their traditions and from the wooden bleachers to the lack of replay screen to (my fav) touchdown Jesus, Ben got to partake in all the glory. Hankus even caught a glimpse of Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez when they arrived to cheer on the Irish. Ben’s wife was jealous of this too.

Sadly, their adventure had to come to an end and the boys traveled back to Cincinnati in time to catch their flight back to the Sunshine State on Sunday morning. I think they all agree that their college football road-trip was a GREAT way to begin their favorite season of all.