Journey to Houston: A Texas Tech fan travels 25 hours to see the bowl game

After three flight cancellations and being stuck in Manhattan, New York, one Texas Tech fan and his family hopped on a bus to get back home to make it in time to see the Red Raiders face off against the University of Mississippi Rebels.

Carter Dixon, a first-year construction management student at Tech, said the original plan was to fly back to Houston, his hometown, and fly in his girlfriend and surprise her with two tickets to the TaxAct Texas Bowl game.

However, Southwest Airlines and the weather had other plans.

“When we were boarding to come home — basically — our flight got canceled. This is the first time it ever happened, so we didn't really know what to do,” he said.

So he and his family rushed back to the Southwest Airlines table at the airport in New York and were told they weren’t the only Southwest flight that had been affected.

According to USA Today, as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, more than 2,500 flights were canceled. Before that, 5,600 flights in total were canceled on Monday and Tuesday.

In a statement released by Southwest, the company blamed the polar vortex that brought extreme weather conditions in part for network-wide cancellations.

The other part — scheduling issues of the flight crews.

“Southwest said tons of flights are being canceled everywhere for Southwest, because all the pilots like reached their max hours in flying,” Dixon said. “They literally didn't have any pilots, or they didn't have like any flight attendants or anything like that.”

Then an unusual solution presented itself to Dixon and his family: a 25-hour bus ride to Houston.

“I don't think people should be able to sit down for this long,” Dixon said, laughing.

With an expected arrival time of 1 a.m. Wednesday in Houston, he said he is still really excited to see the Red Raiders later that night. It's all thanks to Tech Athletics for sparking his interest in sports.

From a family of Texas A&M graduates and his brother being a second year at the school, Dixon said he wanted to be different from the rest of his family and decided to choose Texas Tech.

Dixon said this is the first time he has shown an interest in sports, and it’s because of the culture athletics cultivates with the students.

“The student sections were just so cool, to like be involved with and how all the cheering and all the just different things that keep the students involved in the games,” he said. “It's not just going into some football game and watching the game; like it's actual things that you do in the crowd that makes it entertaining.”

He said his girlfriend’s flight was also canceled, and she won’t be able to make it — so he is taking his father instead.

Through his journey back home to attend the bowl game, Dixon said everything happens for a reason.

“To be honest, it's Christmas time. So enjoy your time with your family,” he said. “It may seem like everything's kind of going spiraling out of control, but honestly family is still there and you've just got to enjoy the little things.”

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Journey to Houston: A Texas Tech fan travels 25 hours to see the bowl game