Advertisement
Published: January 4th 2008
Edit Blog Post
The Three Amigo's
Blue Steel, Two Tickets to the Gun Show and Rich the Meerkat - what more could you want in one night? After the cruise we didn't have much time to relax as New Years Eve was upon us. Fortunately for us our original plans for hosting a New Years Party had fallen through and we were invited to spend it with Andy and Leanne our American friends (who Fi thinks is the yank version of us!). As they only live a short distance away we decided to ride around to the party - a decision we would later regret....for obvious reasons! With typical American hospitality Leanne and Andy had everything we could possibly need for a great New Years Eve at their place...ie a Keg of Beer. Unfortunately it was American Beer, but hey, beggars can't be choosers (seriously though I have actually found some American beers that aren't too bad - mostly thanks to Andy's perseverance).
Also following typical American hospitality the night began with a couple of tequila shots - that would pretty much sum up the theme for the night. There was great merriment to be had during the night including teaching some of the Americans how to play Rugby in Andy's garage, a sing-along with Andy and Rich on guitar accompanied by me drumming on a potty
One time at Band Camp.....
I certainly wouldn't want to go to that band camp..... and the dancing genius that is Fiona, and maybe a few fireworks. We had a great time during the evening, however we don't want to bore you with too many drunken tales of the night, so we'll let the pictures do the talking. All too soon it was time to go home so we grabbed our bikes and before we could get them on the road we'd had our first stack! This was soon followed by another stack into someone's garden, mind you all stacks were by the same person who will however remain anonymous......
The next day Jacksonville was to host the annual Gator Bowl, a college football final of sorts. Foolishly we had decided to attend said event and meet Greg and Kelly at the ground for our first Tailgating experience. Tailgating is another great American experience which is not unlike the carpark party at the Melbourne Cup. Basically you rock up to the game about 4 hours early with beer, some food and a football and have a car park party. We rolled up to the car park with a portable BBQ and some nice greasy meat and a couple of beers. We got off to
I wanna be a rock superstar
I this the next Australian Idol?? a bad start by arriving about an hour after our agreed time only to find that we had forgotten to assemble our brand new portable grill which need tools to put together. Not to be disheartened we managed to put together the grill which somehow managed to stay together for the day. We ate, drank, threw the Gridiron ball around which then quickly deteriorated into a game of AFL kick to kick before heading over to the game.
The Gator Bowl for 2008 was not the two best college teams in the country competing. In fact Greg reckoned that we could all have probably made it onto the team if we wanted to, but seeing as it was Rich and Kim's first taste of American Football, and our first college game we weren't too fussed. The game was between Texas Tech vs Virginia something University, and seeing as Andy's brother had attended Texas Tech we decided to follow them. College football is a little different to NFL, but it is just like you see in the movies - both teams bring their college band which has at least 100 people. There are then the cheerleaders, both male and female
Playing the Potty
They could've told me it was a potty before I started playing it.... - think you missed your calling Jamo. Then there's also the flag girls, the mascots, and about another 100 hanger-oners.....pretty crazy really. But, things weren't going so well for us with Texas Tech playing some absolute rubbish football and being down 28 - 14 at three quarter time. Greg and Kelly decided to leave to beat the traffic but as we only have a limited time to see all the Americana we can, we decided to stay, and wasn't it a great decision. Suddenly Texas Tech were on fire - they scored a touch down and then managed to intercept a pass and with three minutes to go it was tied up at 28 - 28 with Texas with the ball.
Now I must say I have really warmed up to American Football since I have been here, but one thing that frustrates me about the game is the continual stop starts and timeouts etc. It usually takes about 4 hours to play a game of 4 x 15 minute quarters - about 1 minute in four is actually game time - a bit different to the sport we are used to. Anyway, I do really enjoy the game
Fi and Kim
Fi just makes it into this picture.... and it is great to watch live, BUT, the last 3:30 of the game took 40 minutes to play.......Texas Tech ground away and managed to get within goal kicking range and scored with 2 secs to go - what an amazing finish, just a bloody pity it took 40 freakin minutes to finish!!! Seriously though it was an amazing comeback and a great game - Fiona was celebrating by jumping around in the aisles with all the Texas Tech fans - she loved it.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0298s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mylo
non-member comment
Concerned
A bit partial to yank footy? I'm not surprised to be honest. Ever since you wore that highly unfashionable, yet great for concealing your face, helmet with the Ramblers I've suspected that you've always wanted to dress up more while playing "footy"... just never would have thought you go so far as to like Gridiron....... wearing excessive amounts of armour and clothing (complete with face paints) while playing male dominated team sports sounds like the start of a long slipery slope that could end with you in some interesting vocations in The Cross. Just say "no", Dan. Just say "no".