Seth Rye thought it was a ruse.
About six years ago, an email from his father told him to fly one-way to the Motor City.
"Guess what? You're going to Detroit to drive a school bus back with no heat," Matt Rye told him.
It was winter. But the Ryes, Al Gomez and Tom Donlan had just bought a short red school bus in need of rescue after Detroit Red Wings hockey fans "abandoned" the rig.
So the son accepted his mission even though he'd never driven anything like the bus before.Â
He got the keys and had someone give him a once-around the lot.
Once the bus was in drive, Seth Rye saw fluid spilling from the brake lines. He alerted the workers immediately.
"If you would have jumped on the interstate with that, you would have been dead within 10 miles," one worker told him.
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Rye survived the drive but learned a traffic lesson along the way.
"Rush hour in Omaha is nothing," said the 31-year-old.
You'll find the bus, along with Husker-themed tents, in The N Club lot just across the train tracks and off the bridge in the North Bottoms.
My tailgate scout, Jon Pfeifer, helped lead me there before the Oregon game.
The margarita maker in the bus was clutch, and the autographs of some possibly famous hockey players on the walls are a draw. I couldn't decipher them.
But the food's king at the red bus.
On this Saturday, they had tender, succulent ribs, a Monterey Jack and chorizo dip, fire-braised chicken with chips and grilled duck drummies slathered in Sparky's buffalo sauce.
"Someone said they were pretty tough," Gomez joked.
My favorite: the skewers showcasing a heavenly marriage of bacon, cherry tomato, jalapeno and cheddar and jack cheese blend.
"We like to be a little different," Gomez said. "We like to be unique."
* * *
The East Stadium loop is a far cry from the jungles of Vietnam or the hell fire of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan.
On a fall Saturday, tailgating brought a Vietnam veteran, now retired from his dentist practice in Omaha, into conversation with an ex-Navy Seal, now employed as a financial adviser in Lincoln.
I cornered Marv Dvorak after he'd finished sharing with the younger veteran the last of his war stories.
What was it like to experience war and return to a country where thousands fixate on a college football game?
"You look forward to getting back," Dvorak, who volunteered with the Navy in 1964, told me.
He served with the Third Marine Division and was stationed in Vietnam for 13 months.
The Howells native had just graduated dental school when he enlisted.
He never took direct fire over there, Dvorak said.Â
Back home, he knows he's lucky.
His son, David, now runs an Omaha law firm, Dvorak & Donovan, which has a tailgate in the loop.
"You never look at things like this the same again," Dvorak said.
* * *
Cheers to Will DeViney of Virginia.
In tailgating, we all meet that reveler who breaks news of a big upset to us.
On Sept. 17, DeViney shouted that the Bison of North Dakota State toppled Nebraska's Big Ten nemesis Iowa.
Elation. High-fiving. Schadenfreude (happiness at the misfortune of others).
DeViney, a newly minted Husker, didn't go to college in Lincoln. He went to the University of Idaho.
But his work as a leadership consultant bringing back the Sigma Nu chapter at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln brought him to a city where the scarlet and cream are easy to embrace.
"You can't really live here and not be a Nebraska fan," the 23-year-old said.
Wherever we come from, we can all agree: It's fun to see the Hawkeyes cry.
Think you're a top-notch tailgater? Contact the writer at 402-473-2657 or rjohnson@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSRileyJohnson.