Yes, Teresa and I did go to the Alabama/Georgia game two weeks ago in Athens. We had a great time, stayed in our new little camper at a local state park called Watson Mill Bridge, just east of the campus. That was a much better deal than either driving over there and back in a day or getting a hotel room (which was not possible).
We took off Friday afternoon, with a full tank of gas, and began the 90 minute trip. The drive over was uneventful as rush hour traffic had not yet kicked in. When we got to Athens we found a gas station that had fuel (a miracle at that time!!!) . After filling up the SUV again we had a real sense of relief that we would make it home without a problem!! We arrived at the state park around 4:00 pm or so and set up shop.
The state park is beautiful. Has a covered wooden bridge over an old dam on the river that people used to divert water to an old, now destroyed power plant. It was a smaller camp site, probably only 20 or so campers were there. However, there were 2 other big motor homes there with their Alabama flags already flying!! Teresa and I said hello to them before sunset, they were nice folks from Alabama, retirees who go to all the games they can now. What a life!!
Saturday morning arrived and we were initially thinking since the game was at 7:45 pm (ick) we would probably drive the 15 miles to campus around 4:00 pm. As we were eating breakfast a cop came thru the camp site and told the other Bama people that the campus was already filling up and that parking is hard to come by. We changed our plans and headed out around 12:30, right after lunch. On the way in we stopped in at the Cup of Karma Cafe in Comer, GA to use their wi-fi to pay some bills on the computer. That, my friend, is roughing it when you go camping!!
We arrived in Athens and were in a parking spot waaaay across the campus around 2:00 pm. With nothing else to do we took off walking the mile and a half to go towards downtown. The place was already crowded with tailgaters and people buying tickets. We could have just made some big bucks and left then but no way were we going to miss the game. Since we had about 6 hours to kill we just stopped at various restaurants to watch some other games on TV and watch the crowd. Everyone was nice, all wearing black (Blackout Bama weekend!) and as the day wore on people were getting more and more wasted. (note: College kids are getting vulgar these days, I've never heard such trashy language in one day - I'm getting old!!).
We finally sat down to eat around 6:30 @ Amici Cafe. It was a nice break from walking around aimlessly. After dinner we went straight to the stadium and climbed about a million steps to our seats THREE ROWS FROM THE TOP. Man, that was waaaay up. It felt like you were falling when walking around up there. I didn't feel too bad about the seats because all of the Alabama people were up there too.
The game, needless to say, was GREAT! We stayed until the Rammer Jammer song, couldn't resist!!
On the way back to the car the Georgia people were no longer noisy or vulgar, they were stunned. It took us a while to get out of the area then finally returned to the camp site around 1:00 am.
Sunday was sleep late and hiking day. We checked out some trails in the state park then headed home around 1:00 pm. On the way home, dragging the camper behind us, we stopped to eat and as we were getting back on the freeway someone behind us was blowing the horn but I couldn't make out who the were upset with. As I turned onto the entrance ramp and got up to speed I looked in the rear view mirror and to my horror my camper was leaning to one side.... FLAT TIRE!!!!!! I quickly pulled over and parked under a bridge on the side of the freeway. Guess those people were honking at us??
We struggled our way thru changing the tire, which took forever because there was a piece of the bumper in the way of the spare tire and I had to un-hitch the camper, leave it on the side of the road, and go back to a Home Depot for a hack saw! We returned, camper still there, and sawed off the offending piece of the bumper, changed the tire and headed home. My next project is 3 new tires for the camper (2 for the camper and new spare). I'm not taking any more chances with that!
It was a good weekend, our second weekend in a row using out camper. We went to Fort Mountain State Park the weekend before to break in the camper for a long weekend. A lot of hiking, a horseback ride and relaxing in the woods @ 3,000 feet up!
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