We came, we saw, and 3/4 of us conquered! (Updated with Jeanine's photos)

FOOTBALL IS HERE, Y'ALL!!  And we welcomed it in the best way possible.

 

Ben and I spent Thursday night readying the motor home, followed by a viewing of the Vandy/South Carolina game.  FOOTBALL!  Friday morning, we picked up our friends Jeanine and Alex in the motor home and headed for ATL for a glorious football kickoff weekend.  We got a parking pass at the Georgia World Congress Center and tailgated with about a thousand of our closest RV-driving friends all weekend.  The only problem was that, since we didn't have electrical hookups, we had to run on generator power.  That in itself is not a problem, but apparently when you're on generator power, you can only run one of the two air conditioners.  Because it was 90 degrees outside and we were parked on blacktop with no shade whatsoever, it was 86 degrees in the bus by mid-afternoon each day.  One poor little AC couldn't keep up.  Luckily, it cooled off enough at night that we could sleep.

The Chick-fil-A cows were making their rounds through the RV lot giving out free chicken sandwiches.  We got 8 of them, which turned out to be pretty handy.  We put most of them in the fridge, and I ate them when we got back from the games late at night, for breakfast, or whatever.  Surprisingly, they were still good even a day and a half later when they were cold. 

The four of us went to the UT game Friday night and were pleasantly surprised that UT looked pretty good! 

 

 

I was not-so-pleasantly surprised at the rudeness of the UT fans.  They were taunting all the NC State fans on our way into the game and at the game itself, and they BOOED the NC State BAND.  Who boos a band??  Maybe I am just used to Auburn fans, who are famously welcoming and accommodating (for the most part - obviously, everyone has at least a few bad apples), but I really don't remember Tennessee fans being so rude.  In any event, thankfully we were on their side and they weren't rude to us.  I've got to tell you, I felt out of my element in a UT shirt, though (but I'm glad Jeanine had an extra shirt she loaned me - the outfit I brought included a lightweight orange sweater, and as I mentioned above, it was HOT outside).  The majority of the RVs in our parking area belonged to Auburn folks, and it was very strange to hear them yelling "Go Vols!" at me instead of "War Eagle!" when we were walking to the UT game.  I felt like I was in some kind of parallel universe.  

Anyway, we were all very happy with the results of the UT game, and I was hopeful for the next night's game.  Jeanine wasn't interested in going to the Auburn/Clemson game with us (she loves her husband, who loves football, but there's only so much she can take!), so my friend Kim from high school came to the game with me (it's a long story, but we had 2 sets of tickets that were not together, so Ben and Alex sat together, and Kim and I sat together).  It was so great catching up with her after (ahem) a few years!  I also got to see my childhood friend Brandi and my cousin Beth while we were tailgating this weekend.  Very good surprises all around!  Here's a picture of me and Kim at the Auburn game:

 

 

There was a bit of drama in our section.  To make a long story short, some Clemson fans got kicked out (for about 30 minutes) because Clemson Bitch Barbie slapped an Auburn fan who was telling her boyfriend to stop dropping F Bombs in front of all the kids that were sitting around them.  I'm not really sure why they let them come back after 30 minutes, but they were pretty subdued after that. 

In other Clemson fan news, their "ladies" have a very different idea of appropriate dresses for football games than the lovely, sundress-clad ladies of the SEC.  Here's just one example of the many atrocities we saw:

 

Yes, it was a backless dress; and yes, she was wearing some sort of non-backless bra.  I'm pretty sure this is what Julia Roberts was wearing when she picked up Richard Gere on Sunset Blvd., if you know what I mean. 

 

Anyway, the game was somewhat disappointing (this is why only 3/4 of us conquered this weekend; sadly, I was the non-conquering fourth).  I wasn't MAD, because I didn't think Auburn played terribly (although they definitely have some things to work on over the next few weeks), but I was disappointed that we got so close to scoring so many times and just made stupid mistakes that kept us out of the end zone.  Even one of those missed opportunities could've changed the outcome if it had gone differently.  There were also some questionable referee calls that hurt us, but that's football, I guess.  As we have come to expect, Corey Lemonier and Philip Lutzenkirchen had a great game, and we've found a new shining star with Tre Mason at Running Back.  We just need some polish at some of the other positions.  Kiehl Frazier needs to learn to see the whole field (he missed an open Lutzie at least twice when throwing into double coverage or (worse) taking a sack), and hopefully we'll get Dismukes back at Center soon (he was suspended for this game, and our backup center was snapping the ball everywhere except straight to the QB). 

 

Losing the season opener sucks, but Clemson is a good team, and this was a tough opener.  I'm still excited about the rest of the season and looking forward to spending a bunch of time in Auburn this fall.  The Georgia Dome is nice, but it doesn't compare at all to the Jordan-Hare experience.  I believe in Auburn and love it!  WDE!!