So much for another late-night sojourn from Kansas City to Russell. Mother Nature has decreed I should stay until tomorrow morning through her epic lightning display, which was followed by another outpouring of the heavens.

Fortunately, I packed for such a potential, and I will be trekking two miles north on I-29 to the Holiday Inn Express. I had the points to stay for free, and I do not care for the Courtyard on the other side of I-29 on Tiffany Springs Parkway, given the lack of hot water for shaving and housekeepers who can’t understand a Do Not Disturb sign.

Besides, I’m getting to spend extra time with some of my favorite people on earth, especially Elizabeth Psenski, Brittany Davidson and Jaclyn Blankenship all of whom are working this Labor Day evening. I’m also bonding with young Raymie, one of the newer servers. She’s a cutie and is going to break a lot of hearts. But I’m an old man by comparison.

Louisville is beating Miami 24-13. Ugh. I have never liked Louisville, and I cannot stand Bobby Petrino, who has all the morals of Barabbas, the man who was freed by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus Christ before the Sanhedrin. He used Louisville in an attempt to get jobs at Auburn and LSU, quit the Atlanta Falcons by attaching a form letter to the players’ lockers, then showed up 24 hours after a Monday Night Football game as Arkansas’ new coach, then blew the gig in Fayetteville not only by carrying on an affair with an engaged intern, but lying about it after the two were in a motorcycle accident.

Louisville has never been beyond shady ethics, so it didn’t surprise me one bit when they re-hired Petrino after Charlie Strong went to Texas. Then again, Strong may have a better moral compass, but Petrino runs circles around him as a football coach. I guarantee there’s no way Louisville loses to Central Florida last year with Petrino coaching.

I not only dislike Louisville and Petrino, I want Miami to win, because that is the alma mater of the sweetest and most talented sports broadcaster around, Jill Arrington of Fox Sports 1. Jill graduated from Miami in 1994 before going into broadcasting, where she was the sideline reporter for SEC football on CBS for five years in the early 2000s. She came back to TV this year on Fox Sports 1, and it is great to have her back. I also remember Jill doing a turn as a television news reporter on Monk in 2009.

I’m eventually going to leave Buffalo Wild Wings, but this time, I have an even shorter drive to the hotel than I had over the weekend from Briarcliff. And it’s easy out to M-152 to I-435. I figure I’ll leave between 9:30 and 10, visit with Jack, then turn around and go to Beloit.