SAN ANTONIO — So I rolled — OK, flew — into San Antonio this evening, looking forward to nothing more than checking into my hotel, getting in a session in the fitness center and then having dinner on the Riverwalk before it gets too zany with the April part of March Madness.
One of those things — the fitness center part — went more or less as planned.
I arrived at my hotel to blank looks from the desk staff, which had no record of my reservation.
After much shuffling of paper, and more than a few visions of a.) spending five nights on a park bench, given that the Final Four tends to put a premium on hotel rooms, or b.) ending up either in a broom closet or some pay-by-the-hour type place on the edge of town, the hotel staff ultimately took my word for it that I should, indeed, have a room and somehow produced on. Not only that, it turned out to be a corner suite. The view isn’t much — a freeway on one side and most of the other major hotels on the other — but it sure as heck beats sharing a room with a mop.
So, after 45 minutes on the treadmill, it was time for a short trip down the Riverwalk. My intended destination was Boudros, a Riverwalk institution favored by the NBA beat-writer fraternity, but as I plowed through a sea of humanity (the “walk� part of the Riverwalk isn’t particularly wide in most places, so the going tends to be pretty slow), I began to have the idea that this quietest night of the Final Four weekend — after all, a lot of fans won’t be in until tomorrow — wasn’t particularly quiet at all. And indeed, when I finally made it to Boudros, I was told the wait for a table would be at least one hour. Plan B ended up being a barbecue place I’ve eaten at before (thanks to the Lakers-Spurs rivalry, I know San Antonio fairly well), where I ate at the bar (to avoid a half-hour wait) and marveled at two bartenders who seemed to be going at 78 rpm in a 33 1/3 rpm world. (Parents, please explain that reference to your kids.)
Oh, and while I was at dinner, my cell started singing the chorus of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.� The call — with an Indianapolis area code — turned out to be someone from the NCAA, apologizing for the hotel-room mix up. Since the situation had been resolved — and I ended up with a room larger than my apartment — I found it quite easy to be gracious.
That and the dinner both worked out OK, but the crowds already massed on the Riverwalk make me wonder. I’ve had a few Final Four veterans tell me this is their favorite site, because it’s compact and the Riverwalk — which really is quite charming for the most part —provides all your one-stop dining and sightseeing needs.
I’ll have a better idea of that in a few days, but I am sort of wondering if that compactness might be a curse as well as a blessing, at least when it comes to simply moving from point A to point B. On the other hand, if you want to have a chance to run into anyone and everyone in college basketball, this is clearly the place to be.