BOA, Saturday night , Sunday and Monday Nov 15.

 After Ella and I wandered around and played in leaves on Saturday afternoon and had a late lunch,  we went back to the hotel, met up with Lexi, rested a while, then headed back over to the stadium for the FINALS.  CTJ High School made it to the finals on Saturday night, which were from 7 to 11 pm with the awards ceremony following.

Ella and I moved from our high, 50 yard line seats to lower ones, closer to the drum lines and awards. 

Their band placed 7th out of 12 finalists.

Drum majors represented the bands on the fields. Also, the Rutgers University marching band performed during the award ceremony.  They were my favorite of all. It wasn't a Broadway production with props and singing and dancing and costumes, etc. It was a MARCHING Band. And they did it concisely and crisp and nice and to the point. If they played "Rocket Man", they formed an outline of an astronaut outline on the field. 

That all took a very long time ( the awards ceremony) and we (Ella and I) didn't get in bed much before 1 am on Sunday. We left when the final #1 band was named, but that wasn't the end! Nope, the winners got to do their performance again as an encore. Braeden and some friends were at the awards ceremony ( but not their whole band, sadly), so they didn't get back to their hotels until closer to 2 am! 

Outside the Lucas Oil Field stadium. It was cold outside. Thankfully, this stadium is covered and warm inside! 

Our hotel lobby was cozy, too. Firelight and ceiling lights. Lexi and Tandy and Braeden all had to get up and catch earlier flights than me and Ella, so Ella, the teenager, slept and slept and slept.....

 Eventually we got out, walked to a chocolate place for our hot cocoa, walked back to get our luggage, called an Uber, rode to the airport and started home. Indianapolis to San Antonio Via Denver, again. Only this one was planned.

Ella got some pretty shots out the airplane window.

And this big 4 point buck was on the side of the road in their neighborhood as we drove in that evening. 

Bye! Thanks for a fun trip! Damian had to take me to the airport pretty early. I was home in Cedar by 3 pm or so on Monday . Tired. Lots of airports, waiting, planes, bands in 5 days! I told Tandy on Sunday morning that I see marching bands every time I close my eyes to try and go to sleep.