Last week I got an email that I had been approved for press credentials for the preseason college football game between the University of Oregon Ducks and the Louisana State University Tigers on September 3.

I get credentials for all of the home games but, because this game was being played in Dallas, Texas, at Cowboy Stadium, I had forgotten that I had applied for the credentials.

After finding out I was in, I began planning my trip.

First on the list was to ask the editor, Scott Graves, if I could use the company jet to fly down there.

Wouldn’t you know it, the company jet is scheduled for maintenance that weekend and not available for me to use. 

I’m thinking that if Scott and the publisher didn’t use it for their monthly jaunts to the Mediterranean it wouldn’t need so much maintenance, but it is what it is.

With the private jet access gone, I began to look at other options. 

I looked at a couple of the budget airfare websites and the cheapest tickets I could find were around $700 – including taxes and fees – to fly from Crescent City to Dallas.

Changing my originating city to Portland dropped the price by close to $150 but I would have to drive six hours to the airport.

A co-worker who is a big fan of the airline where bags fly free said to check their site for deals, and I found a ticket, but it would have cost me just as much as flying direct to Dallas from Crescent City.

I can’t really see paying that much for an airplane ticket, so I looked at taking my motorcycle.

I recently rode to Medford on my 400cc Honda and thought that a ride to Dallas shouldn’t be too much more difficult than a Medford trip.

It is 2,114 miles to the stadium from Brookings. According to Google Maps it would take me one day, 10 hours to get from here to there. That’s without stopping for potty breaks and food.

Because the tank on my motorcycle only holds 2.5 gallons and I get 35 miles to the gallon, I figured I’d have to stop 30 times for gas on the way.

Of course, my wife wouldn’t be too happy about me being on the road for nearly two days, by myself, on a motorcycle that is almost as old as I am.

A friend suggested I look at taking a train. I thought it might be cool to see the country and I would hope that the train would be significantly cheaper than an airplane.

Boy was I wrong. $789 for a single seat and the trip would take 74 hours – one way.

If I were 65 and retired, weighed 200 pounds and didn’t care about the time I spent cooped up inside a chugging coffin on two rails, I might consider it. I do though. So the train is out.

The features editor suggested the bus and I figured if I didn’t want to be stuck in a train, I sure wouldn’t do the bus. 

It would take 56 hours, and while it was the cheapest of the pay-to-go methods at $420, I don’t think my seat mate would appreciate being stuck next to me in seats smaller than I for that long.

I did find out that Greyhound now offers wireless Internet and outlets for recharging phones and laptops in each seat. Maybe I’ll take that trip someday, just not now.

My last option was to walk. According to Google Maps, it would take me a little over 27 days to motivate myself from here to there. Umm ... yeah, that’s not going to happen.

Go Ducks. No go Jef.