Alabama Trip

Last Friday, the high school senior daughter C and I kicked off a gameday weekend to watch the Aggies take on the Tide in Tuscaloosa. But first we had to attend an out-of-town football game where she was cheering. Sure enough, we ended up with lightning that did NOT stop the game. Which was a scary prospect since we were all perched on metal bleachers. Then the sky opened up and poured buckets in the 4th quarter. Since the cheer coach can't seem to get her act together with the rain ponchos, this is the second game this season where the cheerleaders have gotten soaked to the bone standing out in the crappy weather. With C's low body fat, she ends up cold and shivering in her sopping wet uniform, shoes and socks. Her dad and I are definitely not a fan of that.

After making our way to the Austin airport hotel since a 1.5 hr drive back home was out of the question at 10 pm when we had to fly the next morning before the butt crack of dawn, we were hanging wet things all over the hotel room to dry. Thankfully, I had an umbrella in the car and so all that got soaked on me was my shoes and the bottom 6" of my pant legs. 

After changing planes in Atlanta, we hit the Birmingham airport rental car place and skidded out of there on two wheels headed towards Tuscaloosa. The sun was shining and the air temp on the car readout said 91. Not perfect game watching weather, but coulda been worse. And then by golly it was...

About the time we found our assigned parking lot at the Coliseum, the bottom fell out. So instead of getting to peruse the cool booths of Bama wear and fan goodies while checking out the tailgating situation, we sat in the car and waited for the torrential rain to cease.

With kickoff at 2:30, we exited the car with our mini umbrellas in hand around 2:15 and started the trek to the stadium in sprinkles. Along the way, we dashed into a shop to pick up a couple of rain ponchos. By the time we cleared security, grabbed a drink at the concession stand and got to our seats, the sun was shining bright once again. And then it was Louisiana humid, thick enough to cut the air with a knife and not a whiff of a breeze, and so the sweat was pouring off me. Thanks to my old lady planning, I had bought our seats on Stub Hub for a rather outrageous amount just to make sure the sun would be located behind us rather than beating directly down on us, and NOT in our eyes. Plus we had seat backs. I surfed some Bama fan websites to find a really great section/row with good field visibility for the game and big screens from about the 40-45 yard line on the home side. Pricey, and yet we had a GREAT location for game viewing... to watch the Tide roll over the Aggies.

When it became obvious by the end of the 3rd quarter that there was no way the Aggies would be able to come back for a win against a team that really brought its A game (pun intended), we hit the road to make the drive from Tuscaloosa to Auburn. No, we weren't headed for the Auburn vs Arkansas showdown to make this a college gameday doubleheader. We made the trek to Auburn so the senior could visit with her boyfriend on Sunday. 

While they toured campus and had lunch and caught up, I saw a movie and poked around the local mall for several hours to kill time until we had to drive back to Birmingham that evening for our flights home the next morning. 

Sure it was rushed and kinda crazy, but also fun. The weather didn't always cooperate, but we made it through the weekend without any serious glitches. TAG, dad's it for the next campus visit to Clemson at the end of November for them to get a look at the business school. And the daughter can celebrate her 18th birthday with the boyfriend at Auburn that weekend.