Other than missing the GatorNet Tailgate (which was EXTREMELY disappointing), I had an absolutely amazing weekend! My daughter purchased tickets to the game as a Father's Day gift some time back. Little did I know the tickets were in Champions Club seating. I was blown away by the accommodations, the food, the air conditioning, the escalator, the view. I could go on and on, but more on that later. J Anyway, Steve sent me the GPS coordinates for the tailgate before I left Chattanooga. I punched them in and saw that they indeed took me to Gainesville. I didn't zoom in, which was a mistake. We got to Gainesville around 2:30 and made a couple of stops to pick up Gator paraphernalia (jerseys, etc) since the game would be over so late and our hotel room was in Lake City. Around 3:00, we started looking for the tailgate. The GPS took me down 13th street. Waaaaayyyyyy down 13th. It almost appeared to be taking me down to Paynes Prairie area, so I called Steve. Voicemail. He called me. Gave me rough verbal directions. Did I mention I am TERRIBLE with verbal directions? L Got back to campus and traffic was horrendous! Headed toward Lake Alice and ran into a detour. Followed detour signs, got turned around, lost, GPS dying, verbal directions gone, and starting to get worried we wouldn't find a place to park. Suddenly, I saw a landmark I recognized! We were back at University Ave and 13th St! How did we do THAT? Sigh. Bladder about to bust. Stopped at gas station. Leon called. "Where are you?" I tried to recount my last hour of traffic-hell and gave up. It was now getting close to 4:00. We needed to find a parking spot soon before they filled up. Found a lot at 10th St and 4th Ave with room left. Long hike, but I didn't care. I was bummed out by missing the tailgate. We started walking toward University Ave, and I started feeling better just being out of the car and the traffic. THIS was familiar! THIS was great! THIS is the way it SHOULD be! Anyway, as we made our way down University Ave to BHGSAFF, I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. I realized later that that was just the "foyer". The REAL heaven was up in the Champions Club! We rode up three different escalators to get to the Champions Club and the last 20-30 feet, we were greeted with a blast of air conditioning. I was amazed! Air conditioning? At a gator game? We arrived in the lobby of the Champions Club and it looked like a small airport. There was carpeting, couches, wall monitors everywhere with the Bama-Arkansas game playing, and a buffet at each end of the club area that was to die for! We loaded up on carbs for the game, and then stepped through the glass doors to our seats. AMAZING view of the field! I was almost moved to tears. I don't know how many times I thanked my daughter, but it wasn't enough. Anyway, one of the things that I found interesting is that there were only about 500 people in that section, and we shared four (2 men and 2 women) HUGE restrooms in the air conditioning. No lines. Again, heaven. J The game was, as you know, the best of the season so far. Gators dominated and made the trip even better than I could ever imagined. After the game, we began our walk back to car, stopped to enjoy the post-game band celebration with a crowd of 500-600 people, then followed the band as we made our way back to 4th Ave. It was an absolutely amazing weekend with an amazing daughter! It was truly a "once in a lifetime experience" because as cheap as I am, I would NEVER pay for Champions Club seating. My apologies to Steve and the rest of the group of tailgaters for my being a no-show. I REALLY missed seeing all of you. L I uploaded a couple of real short videos to www.qik.com/randylyons. Due to using the GPS so much before the game, my battery was going dead in my phone, or I would've taken more videos. One more time. "Thank you, Heather!" J Randy
-- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us
