My daughter and I ended up leaving Friday afternoon and go into Tallahassee a little after 7 there time (we are CST). Grabbed something to eat and like any usual teenage girl she had to go to the Mall. Chilled out rest of night as we knew Saturday was going to be a long day.
Headed to the tailgate and got there a little after 10. There were about 15 people or so when we arrived. Saw TexanMark and he welcomed us with open arms. Next person I saw was Sean (AirForceOrange) who was busy slinging up dogs. Got to meet his wife and kids for the first time...great family Sean! More people came in the next few hours including Jerry Fairchild. I never got a chance to personally talk to him as he was in out along with talking to different people at the tailgate. Met SarasotaPaul and son for first time as well, great guys. Mark introduced us to CuseInTheA and her husband. She also got one of the discounted rooms that we got as well and was very grateful I posted the link on the board. JarHeadJim and his son finally showed up around 11ish which didn't leave too much time for Jim to chug a lot of beers
. Before we headed to stadium needed to take a quick bathroom break (located inside FSU bball arena) we ran into Cody Conway's parents and grandparents. If there was ever a question where Cody gets his height from all you have to do is look at his dad...big boy! Chatted with them for a while as they were walking to catch the shuttle to the game. Mom told us they were headed back to Illinois right after game as she had to be to work Sunday night (is a nurse). I told her I didn't envy them. Told them if we won to pop up at our tailgate really quick as people would love to meet them, but we know how game turned out so that didn't happened. Got back to tailgate and headed to the stadium, which was about a 15 minute walk, and got there just in time for the kickoff (lines were long). Place was pretty filled up where we were at but the upper seats towards the top where SU bench was and end zone (where Dungey scored our last TD) were pretty scarce. At halftime our area cleared out as the students bolted, which I guess is the normal at college games now.
I won't get into the game details but it was hard to watch us get behind (again), make a heckuva a comeback, and come up short. After the game we had to meet up with the guy we got our discounted hotel from (steal for $125 for weekend), walked back to where tailgate and Mark and Paul had already booked out as they had a 4+ hour drive ahead of them. Ran into Sean and family and they were headed back home, which I believe they said was near Panama City, Fl. Told them we may seen them again for the SU/FSU B-ball game in January. My daughter and I headed to the Mall as she wanted to go back (imagine that). Finally got back to the hotel and watched rest of football games that night with some folks down in the bar/lounge area. All of them were FSU fans but were decent folks. A few of them said they were still in shock that FSU won today and thought Syracuse was going to beat them. Got up next morning and headed back home. Actually glad we had the time change this weekend as that extra hour of sleep helped out Monday morning.
One last thing, hats of to TexanMark. The guy has it together when it comes to doing tailgates, tickets, food, etc. so again big kudos to him and also Sean who organized a lot of this too so don't want to leave him out.
Headed to the tailgate and got there a little after 10. There were about 15 people or so when we arrived. Saw TexanMark and he welcomed us with open arms. Next person I saw was Sean (AirForceOrange) who was busy slinging up dogs. Got to meet his wife and kids for the first time...great family Sean! More people came in the next few hours including Jerry Fairchild. I never got a chance to personally talk to him as he was in out along with talking to different people at the tailgate. Met SarasotaPaul and son for first time as well, great guys. Mark introduced us to CuseInTheA and her husband. She also got one of the discounted rooms that we got as well and was very grateful I posted the link on the board. JarHeadJim and his son finally showed up around 11ish which didn't leave too much time for Jim to chug a lot of beers
. Before we headed to stadium needed to take a quick bathroom break (located inside FSU bball arena) we ran into Cody Conway's parents and grandparents. If there was ever a question where Cody gets his height from all you have to do is look at his dad...big boy! Chatted with them for a while as they were walking to catch the shuttle to the game. Mom told us they were headed back to Illinois right after game as she had to be to work Sunday night (is a nurse). I told her I didn't envy them. Told them if we won to pop up at our tailgate really quick as people would love to meet them, but we know how game turned out so that didn't happened. Got back to tailgate and headed to the stadium, which was about a 15 minute walk, and got there just in time for the kickoff (lines were long). Place was pretty filled up where we were at but the upper seats towards the top where SU bench was and end zone (where Dungey scored our last TD) were pretty scarce. At halftime our area cleared out as the students bolted, which I guess is the normal at college games now. I won't get into the game details but it was hard to watch us get behind (again), make a heckuva a comeback, and come up short. After the game we had to meet up with the guy we got our discounted hotel from (steal for $125 for weekend), walked back to where tailgate and Mark and Paul had already booked out as they had a 4+ hour drive ahead of them. Ran into Sean and family and they were headed back home, which I believe they said was near Panama City, Fl. Told them we may seen them again for the SU/FSU B-ball game in January. My daughter and I headed to the Mall as she wanted to go back (imagine that). Finally got back to the hotel and watched rest of football games that night with some folks down in the bar/lounge area. All of them were FSU fans but were decent folks. A few of them said they were still in shock that FSU won today and thought Syracuse was going to beat them. Got up next morning and headed back home. Actually glad we had the time change this weekend as that extra hour of sleep helped out Monday morning.
One last thing, hats of to TexanMark. The guy has it together when it comes to doing tailgates, tickets, food, etc. so again big kudos to him and also Sean who organized a lot of this too so don't want to leave him out
.
