Tailgating and Gamecock Football

First game of the season! We left home about noon yesterday and headed to Yesterdays for lunch. After lunch we decided to go on to the fairgrounds and try for parking. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes until the gates opened, but we secured a great spot. Meanwhile, our friends, Mike and Leigh were on the phone with us and we waited for them to pull into a spot and then spent the rest of the afternoon tailgating and catching up with them. We had a blast!

Going looking for Mike and Leigh.

We found them! And, had a blast tailgating together....can't wait for next time!

Ben enjoyed some tailgating snacks and then made his own place in the back of Mike's SUV to play his gameboy.

Ben and I walked over to the Gamecock Village where he tried some football practice with his "throwing arm".

Finally about 5:30, we headed towards the Biscuit House where one of Ron's vendors was hosting a tailgate.

Mike and Ben watched a game ( Ga. Tech, I think) on the bigscreen at the Iron Mtn. tailgate area.

And the band played the fight song for us after they ate dinner.

We hung out there for an hour or so before Mike and Leigh headed off to the game and we started looking for tickets. That was interesting.....we thought we'd never find 3 tickets together. Finally, right as "2001" came on and right as we were ready to give up, the gentleman came by and told us he had 3 tickets, upper bowl, under the press box. We were hoping for lower bowl tickets, but snapped these up as we realized if we wanted in, this was it! From there we ran...yes RAN all the way to the tip top of the stadium and our seats were on the very next to the last row at the top. By the time we got to the top, we couldn't breath from running and the heat. I was seriously thinking I was going to throw up and was debating how much damage would be done if I had to throw up in my Vera Bradley! Luckily, I just sat still for a few minutes and the feeling finally passed.
Can you tell how hot Ben and Ron were? This was about fifteen minutes after we sat down!

Other than the fact that the overhang prevented air flow, we liked our seats.

Our (literal) view from the top!

We had a great view of the field, except for during halftime when a couple rude guys decided to stand up through the entire show.

Clay called during the game (he's at Edisto with his friend, Chase and his family) and we gave him a hard time. I held the phone up and asked, "What's that the sound of?"

Clay, "the people cheering?"

Me: "NO! Real Football!" and then Ron, Ben and I started laughing. Clay, I'm sure, was shaking his head and rolling his eyes! He's not only a Clemson fan, but a Michigan fan. It turns out he wore his Michigan shirt on Saturday and took quite a bit of ribbing from folks at Edisto after THAT game.

Ron will be out of town for the next home game, so we're really getting ready for the last game of this month.