After many years of watching college football and hearing everyone talk about how the SEC football experience was a level above the rest of the country, we decided that the big college football trip for '08 was going right into the heart of SEC country. A little research of the schedules and local eateries brought us to a pretty easy decision - Mississippi St vs. Alabama in mid-November to go see Big Al.
We flew through Atlanta and into Birmingham on Thursday ahead of the Saturday game and were immediately met with a state obsessed with college football. Every other car seemed to have either a 'Bama sticker or an Auburn sticker on it and with Auburn hosting Georgia that weekend, the state was in full tailgating mode. We drove into Birmingham on Friday and toured around the city. As lunchtime descended
, we headed to the corner of the UAB campus and a little BBQ joint with a big reputation, Dreamland Bar-b-que. It's one of those places where the menu is on the wall and they only serve about 6 things but they are all wonderful. We split a slab of ribs, a side of mac and cheese and banana pudding for desert. Words can't describe how good this food was. I sat in the rental car in the parking lot afterwards, breathing heavily and wiping my forehead from the meat-sweats. If you find yourself within a tank of gas from this place, go there.
We headed into Tuscaloosa late Saturday morning and wandered the campus a bit. Unlike many schools where tailgating takes place in the parking lot, the bulk of the pregame festivities is front and center right on the quad and about a block from the 92,000 plus seat stadium.
And tailgating at Bama isn't just beer and throwing around a football, this is satellite dishes and flat screens. Seemingly the whole quad was watching the Auburn/Georgia game (and rooting against Auburn). The southern hospitality was as-advertised and we seemed to amuse some of the locals as we munched on some boiled peanuts and explained to them about our sports-related travels. All this lead up to The Million Dollar Band (and of course Big Al himself) leading the crowd from the quad to the stadium in a tradition known as the Elephant walk. It's basically tens of thousands of fans following behind the band and walking together into the stadium about an hour before kickoff. If that doesn't get you ready for the game, nothing will. #1 Alabama rolled to an easy victory over Miss. St. between the hedges and ultimately into the Sugar Bowl. The fans were amazingly friendly (and quite dedicated), the atmosphere was as it should be for an SEC football game under the lights and the food was great - what else could you want. We learned a few things:
1. Airline tickets to Birmingham through Atlanta are $50 a ticket cheaper than the same flight stopping in Atlanta. In other words, they paid us $50 each to keep going once we got to Atlanta.
2. "Roll Tide" is a saying with many uses in this great state. It can be a greeting, as heard on the quad or the post-game call-in show, where people begin conversations "Roll Tide." It can be used as an addition to a refrain, as the student body adds "Roll Tide Roll" in between "Sweet Home Alabama" and "where the skies are so blue". And it can be used as a reason to wear rolls of toilet paper on your head and Tide boxes on your chest for the day.
3. We can't wait for our next trip to SEC country.
ROLL TIDE!
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