Saturday morning dawned early. The Alumni Band had registration at 7:30am. I wasn't playing this year, so I didn't rush. What I didn't know was that my daughter's idea of early was more like 9am. I waited and waited until finally I had to give her a shove. Didn't want to be too late after all. Then I lost my sense of direction. I used to have a great sense of direction. Could find just about any place just by instinct. Well, that's all gone now apparently. I went North on the interstate instead of South. Didn't realize my mistake until 15 miles later! So now we're 30 miles away instead of 15. Needless to say, I was really late getting to our group to help set up. I had all the food in my car, so folks were hungry and waiting.
Almost missed seeing the band practice, but was fortunate in that they were taking their time this morning since so many alumni had forgotten how to march and play at the same time ;-)
It was fun to see everyone. I didn't know most of them, but the atmosphere was energetic and game day excitement was building. I always loved game day. SEC football is a blast!
After practice, we went over to our tailgating place and sat and enjoyed catching up with old friends. My daughter held court with the younger kids. She was really good with them. Didn't seem to get annoyed at all.
I took a bunch of the kids to see the Tiger Walk which is where a bunch of fans line up along the walkway between the athletic dorm and the stadium and cheer as the coaches and team (and cheerleaders) walk over to the stadium to prepare for the game. Apparently this really gets the team psyched. I couldn't really see well since the crowd was so thick, so it really didn't do much for me.
Time came to go into the stadium. I love the inside of Auburn's stadium. The field is beautiful and so well groomed. We had seats in the endzone opposite the student section. Sun was shining all game on us. A little hot, but I used lots of sunscreen. The game was uneventful since the opponents (Tennessee Tech) weren't that good. Who wants to have to work hard at their homecoming game after all.
The band was loud and great. Close to 380 marching members! The alumni band was pretty good too. They had over 250 members! At one point during halftime, both bands were on the field and playing together. Now THAT'S loud!
The game was pretty much over by the third quarter, so we left early in the fourth and went back to socializing at our tailgate.
Later on that evening we went out to eat at a decent BBQ place. Country's Bar-B-Que in Opelika, AL. We had to wait a while for the food due to the huge crowds over the weekend depleting supplies. It was pretty good once it came to the table. The kids all did well waiting for so long. The restaurant reduced our bill since it took so long. Nice of them to do that.
Off to bed for the night. Up early on Sunday.
Had to get to the airport to fly home. Atlanta airport is one of the busiest in the U.S. I arrived in plenty of time to go through the check in. Had time to grab some lunch at a decent place there.
Then it was time to sit and wait on the call to board. Problem is, I never heard that call. Ends up I missed my flight. Never heard them calling for boarding dispite the fact that I was sitting in the right place. So I had to go on standby for the next flight. The wait was 2.5 hours. I did a lot of walking! When time came for this flight, there wasn't any space, so I had to go to the next flight. Fortunately the ticket agent took pity on me and got me a guaranteed seat. I was very grateful. Still, I had to wait until 8:30pm to board. So in total, I spent over 8 hours just wandering around the airport. Sure am glad I don't fly that often. I couldn't take the hassle and waiting.
Oh, almost forgot... my wife was supposed to pick me up in Philly at 4pm. I tried to call and stop her from leaving home but missed her by 2 minutes! She doesn't have her cell anymore, so she ended up driving all the way to Philly airport for nothing. She did call me from there and got the information about my new flight. I told her not to leave to go back up to the airport until I called her from the plane as we were taxiing to takeoff.
Got home at 12 midnight. Into bed by 12:30. Alarm goes off at 2:30am and I'm up and getting ready for work.
And I still haven't recovered.
Tomorrow night we host a bonfire for my third daughters youth group. Should be close to 40 kids. It's gonna be 40 degrees out and possibly rainy. The kids will probably spend most of the evening in our house instead of out in the cold. Hope we have enough room and food!
Next week SCC concert in Lancaster and then three days later... Nashville!
