Jamie, Kenny and Kenny's sister Kim headed out EARLY at 6:30 for Tuscaloosa to get the tailgate ready and kindly allowed me and Shana to sleep in. It was a 7pm game and there's no way I could've made it all day if we had to get up before the sun even rose to be in Tuscaloosa. Shana and I made it there a little before noon. The guys and Kim had everything set up for the day with Kenny's DELICIOUS pork tenderloin simmering on the grill. The quad was jam packed with people celebrating the impending show down between the two teams and the excitement was undeniable. Of course, there was the usual mouthing off between rival fans, but it was all in good fun. We even had a few LSU fans tailgating with us for the day. An eclectic group of people, including a very foul-mouth Opthamologist that kept flirting with Jamie and Kenny and an air traffic controlman that introduced himself as Poat Chop, not Pork Chop, but POAT Chop . Needless to say, he was quite the character!
Midway through the day, Shana and I made our way to the Strip for a little retail therapy. We both found ourselves fighting the crowds in a local favorite, The Locker Room. I found a cute long sleeve tshirt for Noah and one for myself, while Shana found shirts for herself and both of her boys. Together, we bought 5 t-shirts all for the very inexpensive total $130 (yes, sarcasm intended.) We were told about 4 different prices by the college kids that work the store so when we checked out, we were quite shocked at our totals. For the discrepancies, the owner gave us each a Locker Room koozy. Gee, thanks!
A few hours later, it was almost game time, so we joined the mob of people heading towards the stadium. The excitement was palpable. I've been to alot of Bama games since my parents were season ticket holders for alot of my childhood, and Jamie and I used to be before Noah was born, but I've NEVER seen anything like it. Fans of each teams were chanting cheers and taunting rival fans as they marched into Bryant Denny. Quick funny story... I've been having some problems with my back (stenosis and pinched nerves) and since our seats were in the very top of the upper deck, I chose to ride the golf cart to the top. Shana waited in line to ride with me, while the guys went on up. Yes, I realize that makes me sound really old that I stood in line to take the golf cart, but I was afraid that my back would begin hurting on the walk up and I wouldn't be able to enjoy the game. During the wait, we made friends with the guy in charge of letting people on and off the carts and begged him to get us on the next cart (They only had room for 16 and we were #17 and 18 in line and kick off was in 20 minutes). When the carts came back down to load people on, we squeezed on the carts... we didn't break line in front of anyone, however 2 ladies that we supposed to ride this rounde, weren't able to get on the carts. The reason was because an older man (who by the way, was wearing a flashing Scripted A hat... yes, flashing, as in blinking red christmas lights...i.e. tacky) and his wife, who weren't even in line, but happened to be walking up the ramp as the golf carts stopped to load up, JUMPED on the cart, completely breaking line! Well, the guy in charge tried to blame US... umm, HECK NO. Thankfully another lady defended us and pointed out the old man and his wife broke the line and that they should be the ones to get off the cart. That man just sat there with his head tucked down trying to hide and wouldn't budge from his seat off the cart! I was shocked that this old guy would do that and so I again, told the guy in charge that the old guy had broke and we weren't the ones at fault but the man in charge wouldn't say anything to them! (my guess is because they were older?) Needless to say, Shana and I moved from our seats to allow the 2 ladies on the carts... thankfully another couple let Shana and I squeeze on the seat with them. I was fired up. Normally, I love old people and would NEVER be rude or disrespectful to one but these people's behavior was ridiculous. After our almost-fight with the old folks, we made it to our seats and the "game of the century" started. I'm fairly certain that you all know how it went... it was a good game to watch, a defensive battle and came down completely reliant on field goals. We made mistakes that cost us, there were a few bad calls, and LSU came out on top in overtime 9 - 6. Even though we lost, I still had a really, really good time.
Following our disappointing loss, we headed back to the Quad and fired the grill back up. Earlier in the game, Shana had told me that me that one of her lifetime goals was to learn the Electric Slide... so to keep ourselves warm from the drastically cooler temperatures, we taught Shana the Electric Slide, as well as taught eachother a few others, such as the Thriller dance, the Tootsy Roll, and Shana's favorite, the Funky Chicken. :) Since they won't let cars into the Quad to load up tailgate equipment until 2 hours following the game, we had some time to kill. Finally around 11pm we began breaking down the tailgate and packed everything up (all the while, foul-mouth, flirty opthamologist girl stood there wrapped in a blanket, smoked cigarettes (of course, cussing about some boyfriend drama) and watched us...free-loader). Around 11:45pm, Shana and I got on the shuttle to head back to my car. The guys didn't get the truck loaded up until around 1am, which is how long it took us just to get BACK to my car. Traffic was terrible. We didn't get OUT of Tuscaloosa until after 2am and made it back to Birmingham at 3:15am. Our poor husbands were awake 22 hours. It was a LONG day but thankfully, we gained an extra hour due to "falling" back. Despite our loss, we still had a great time with our friends! Needless to say, once we returned home on Sunday, we were exhausted and hit the bed by 8:15 and slept until 6:45 Monday morning. I guess once you're in your 30's, it's much hard to recuperate from staying up past midnight!
1 comment:
Oh me... Looks like a fun day! Those pictures of Jamie and Kenny bring back so many memories... Some great, some scary! :) Chad was there too and he had a great time. Just wished the outcome was different!
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