This weekend was the end of the tour. We drove down to Tuscaloosa, AL for the Iron Bowl. Alabama-Auburn is widely considered the second best rivalry in the nation after Michigan-Ohio State. Mark used to worked with a kid named Josh who goes to Bama, and he managed to find us tickets. Mark came home with me for Thanksgiving and the morning after we left at 6:30 to drive all day. Since gas in so cheap right now the entire drive down cost $60.
We made it to Tuscaloosa early that night and Josh had some of his friends up from Auburn. We got to the drinking early and he had a room entirely decked out in Bama gear, it was pretty crazy. We sat around for a few hours with long necks of Bud Light and told stories. One of the kids from Auburn told some hilarious stories. We decided to go out around 10:30. We went to a house to pre-game, it was the usual $5 a cup deal that always catches me a little by surprise because I'm so not used to it. We then went over to a frat. All the frats at Alabama look exactly the same which kinda sucks because it is usually cool to the different types of frat houses but theirs are all brick with white columns and black shutters. The frat we went to was U-shaped and had a courtyard in the middle. One thing I've picked up on from the SEC is that there is always live music. They had a room about the size of a volleyball court that had the band in it, and about 250 people inside. We had to schmooze some of the brosefs to get a beer because everything is BYOB down there. The band was a cover band that played mostly Van Halen, AC/DC, Bon Jovi and rock. Mark climbed up on the rafters, hung upside down from his knees and chugged a beer. That was very cool, and it got ever more awesome when the band played Sweet Home Alabama.
The next morning we woke up and got ready for game day. The weather was 60 and drizzling, so of course Mark and I wore shorts and a T-Shirt. Thankfully the light rain kept us cool. We both got some Bama gear because like normal, I brought 5 Michigan shirts for a 3 day trip. It's always lame to wear a shirt of a school that isn't playing that day, and we let the guy in the Ohio State gear know it. We got some southern Bar-B-Que sammiches and went to the stadium. It should be noted that like most SEC schools tailgating is limited to food and not chugging as much beer as humanly possible. I've been told that it is because of tradition or the football teams being good enough that people actually want to watch them but I think I finally figured part of it out, at least for Alabama, the student seating is done by first come first serve general admission. So the students all arrive to the game a few hours before kickoff. Since Josh is a huge fan, and by huge I mean that he hasn't missed a home or away game in over 3 years, we got there when the gates opened. But it is also tradition for Mark and I to tailgate before the game, so on the way we bought a 10 pack of Jim Beam single shots and snuck them into the game. We bought a couple of cokes and did the bulk of our tailgating at our seats in row 15 on the ten yard line.
The student section is mostly full by the about an hour before kickoff. Also, all the Greeks sit together separate from the rest of the student body, which is weird.The stadium rocked. It only furthered my belief that every college football stadium should have a sound system. Now I've never heard Jump Around at Camp Randall, but I have heard Hey Baby in Beaver Stadium, Dixieland Delight in Neyland and Sweet Home Alabama in Jordan-Hare and although I like the band, you can't beat a sound system to pump up the fans. The entire lower bowl stood for the entire game alumni included. I was kinda hoping that Auburn would make a game out of it, but 'Bama just stomped them to end a 6 games losing streak to Auburn. Surprisingly the Auburn fan that we sat with didn't get as much shit as I would have expected, and once it got really bad in the 4th one of the Alabama fans gave him his flask because, well, he needed it. With about a minute left in the game I got to participate in the Rammer-Jammer cheer, which was tits. Even thought the game was over around the middle of the third quarter no one left the stadium for at least 20 minutes after the game.
We finally left and got some beer before going over to a house to watch the late games. Mark and I decided to split a case of Miller Lite. We grabbed some food along the way at a greasy dive pizza place. I tried to keep up with mark but he somehow got ahead of me. When we left to drive to downtown Tuscaloosa bars he was up 12-10. But we finished off the last two while riding in the back of a truck to bars that was being driven by a man who looked like he could have starred in 70's pornos. We got the the bars and the previous 11 beers didn't prevent me from taking Jaeger, Tequila and Soco + Lime shots. Of course the bar had a band, but I don't really remember a whole lot. I did manage to get down another beer before things got spotty. But my next memory is of me in the back of a cab covered in my own upchuck. Then I remember spewing chunks out the window of a cab. I think Mark payed him 3 times the meter price. We got home and Mark says I was throwing Haymakers at him as he was trying to get me to bed. But at least I didn't pee myself like I did in Knoxville.
Our goal was to leave at 7 or 8 the next morning for the drive back to Ann Arbor but we didn't wake up until 10. Thankfully Mark somehow was able to drive for 500 miles before I took over. The ride home took us 13 hours, and the entire trip was 23 hours of driving for 40 hours in Tuscaloosa. My only regret is that we didn't get to stop at Big Jim's Boobie Bungalow, I don't know the next time I will have that opportunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment