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January 07, 2006

Before the Rose Bowl

Since my husband is very into Texas football, everything that potentially could or actually did go wrong on our way to the game were intensified by 100%. (Note to hubby: I am not trying to downplay my mistake, just pointing out you were really on edge.) Much more than a normal game. But we made it.

Since the rain reduced the amount of parking around the Rose Bowl (something about messing up a golf course), we drove into Pasadena and parked in front of CalTecGirl's house. Walked to the train station and took it to the stop closest to the Rose Bowl. We had to walk more since the shuttles were not running at 8:30am. But that gave us a chance to stop at a grocery store and pick up some breakfast. Deli sandwiches and chips. Yum!

Once we got to the Rose Bowl, we found our tailgaters. Chatted football and the game. The general consensus was Texas would win. Overall the atmosphere was pleasant. USC fans were good and no one got out of hand.

We walked towards the stadium to find ticket holders to wear around our necks. The tickets were to big to fit in any pocket. We took some pictures in front of the stadium since we knew it would be crazy later. Bought the ticket holders and headed back for more tailgating.

The team comes in about 2 hours before game time, so we went to greet them. Along with a bunch of other fans. Probably 4 times as many who greeted the team last year at the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl was ready and had plenty of staff and barriers to keep us back. Back again for more tailgating.

During all the tailgating we were able to see our traveling friends. These are people we had gotten to know over the last seven years going to the games and meeting up at HornFans.com events. It was great to see them all and know that our dedication to traveling to the games may have influenced our team getting to this point. It was also hard seeing some of them without tickets knowing that not so dedicated fans were going.

We also saw some interesting things. One guy was dressed as Bush and selling USC signs. He had a boom box playing hoe down music. It didn't want a picture of that.

But I did get a picture of the Tower replica. The real tower is on campus and they light it up when Texas wins. If they win a Championship then they turn on the office lights to make the shape of a #1, like this.

Then there was the marketing for the TV show "Beauty and the Geek 2". They were handing out Nerds candy, geek glasses, tshirts and tiaras. My friend and I got some things and she even took a picture with the geeks. I kept my tiara but sat on it during the game. My friend gave hers to my husband and he wore it the rest of the time. (LOL) We ate our nerds and I gave my nerd glasses away.

Then we have the super bong made by some Mechanical Engineers. With 8 valves it held 32 beers. They stopped by our tailgate and coaxed some UT and USC fans to do it. The guys who had it did it every time they ran it and I am positive they were not in any shape to watch the game. Here they are pouring in beer and here it is in action.

I was not suprised at the number of Texas fans there. We travel well.

FINALLY it was time to go to the game. We headed on about 2.5 hours before the game and the stadium was already a mad house. We started at one gate, but it was very slow going. We decided to walk around to another gate and had better luck, but still had to wait to go through our tunnel to get our seats.

Stay tuned tomorrow for THE game.

Update: I forgot about the Gnome!!!! More about him here.


Posted by on January 7, 2006 11:44 AM |

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