an experience

WE WON! WE WON! WAR EAGLE! NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

Our trip was quite an experience....

Sunday morning about 8 we flew out to Arizona. It was Josh's first flight and he could not stop looking out the window. We finally got there and went to rent our car. They gave us a hot pink Ford Fiesta. Josh was happy to be the driver. ha! We went to lunch at Jack in the Box since we don't have those here. It was the most random food on the planet. Their combo was a hamburger, fries, 2 tacos and an eggroll. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then went to a pep rally. We were able to find my grandparents (it was their first week with a cell phone). It was insane how many Auburn people were there. They started blocking off the gates and people were at every level of the parking deck across the street watching the stage. It was really fun. Then my grandparents took us to dinner and we went back to the hotel. The next day was finally gameday. We could start parking at 12:30. We decided we should leave a little early in case there was a lot of traffic. We got there and there was almost no traffic but there was a line of cars already waiting to get into the parking lot. They eventually gave in and opened the lot at 11:20. We found the line to wait for student tickets. The line was a full parking lot away from will call because we were in the way. Their grand plan was to take 5-10 people from the line to the will call then come back and get more. That lasted about 20 people then the entire line took off running to the will call window. They had to pat every single person down before they went inside a fence. We finally got to the window and got my ticket but they REFUSED to give Josh this girls ticket. She was even on the phone willing to talk to them and the guy yelled at me that he "would not be able to do that for me". So we went to the designated scalper area. They had all the scalpers behind one little barrier and they couldn't sell tickets outside that fence. This meant that they always knew what everyone else was selling tickets for...aka not good for the buyer. They were selling tickets for $2500 a piece! Ridiculous. So we went to the tailgate party and decided we would come back closer to kickoff for cheaper prices. At the tailgate they had barbecue. When I think barbecue I thing Jim-N-Nicks, Mike and Eds, Dreamland. This was not barbecue. It was so gross. We got a free taco instead. We went to tiger walk which also was a fail because where they said it was going to be, was not where the players were at all so all of us were out there but never saw anything. We went back to the scalper area. The prices had come down to the low price of $2000. What a joke!?! We eventually got a ticket, got in the game, and watched our team win it all. We tried to go down to a little bit lower section but at this stadium you had to have a ticket to THAT section to go down there after the game. It was by far the worst stadium experience I have ever had. We went to In-N-Out Burger(another thing we don't have here) after the game and it was full of Auburn fans.

Needless to say, the University of Phoenix stadium was very unprepared for the amount of people they had in and around the stadium that day. It was easily 80% Auburn and 20% Oregon. Inside the stadium it felt like a home game. We had most of the stadium and Oregon had their little visitor section. They even had an eagle fly! It took a ton of craziness to get there but seeing Auburn beat Oregon (twice) was completely worth the time, money, and effort.

The next day was when the real craziness began. We got a phone call on the way to the airport that our flight to Philadelphia was delayed. We then got another call that our flight from Philly to Atlanta was cancelled. We just thought, ok we'll get another flight no problem. NO. We get to our gate and start talking to the lady and she tells me it is going to be Friday at the earliest. I went and sat next to Josh and just said "I don't know what to do right now". After 4 different counters, we finally talked to a guy who found us the last 2 seats on a flight to Columbus, Ohio and then from there to Atlanta on Wednesday. My grandparents were still in Arizona so we decided to stay with them that night. My wonderful poppa came to pick us up and we picked granny up and went to dinner. I am so incredibly grateful that the Lord just provided for us that day. We FINALLY got back to Auburn last night and Toomers was still rolled! We are rolling it all week to celebrate the win. I seriously love this town. I love everything about Auburn. I love the town, the team, the university, the family, everything. We might not win national championships as much as other schools, but I wouldn't trade one single thing about Auburn.