Road trips have become one of my favorite reasons why I love the fact that Texas A&M moved to the SEC. Going to these awesome venues to enjoy their culture and walk their campuses are both thrilling and educational. This past week my friend, Chris Paradowski, and I made the road trip to Auburn, Alabama. The road trip was a 10 and a half hour car ride through 4 states. The ride could not have been more fun; played “Callin’ Baton Rouge” when we entered Louisiana, “Mississippi Queen” when we crossed over the Mississippi River, and of course played “Sweet Home Alabama” when we entered Alabama. Not only did we play those hit songs, but you better believe we played the Aggie War Hymn and “Power” by Kanye about 20 times throughout the trip. While we drove, my father and uncle flew into town and we both arrived into Auburn around the same time Friday night. Friday night we went to dinner and afterword’s went out to the bars at Auburn. We decided to go to the famous Sky Bar, or how the locals call it the Sky Bar Cafe. This bar is the coolest bar I have ever been too and it is the biggest bar in the state of Alabama. This bar is like a castle, it had two stages for live bands, an upstairs where to could look down, and a long balcony where you could look onto the street and enjoy the night air. The craziest thing about this place is that it has around 8 different bars inside so it would be dumb to ever start a tab because you would forget which one you did it at.
Saturday morning couldn’t come any quicker. We made it an early day as we all wanted to walk around the campus. The four of us went to campus at 9:30am and the kickoff was at 6:00pm so it was going to be a grand day. Since we were visitors, we had a plastic cooler with beer in it to walk around. Since I was the youngest, you better believe I got to carry that thing around all day. Fortunately, the more beers you drink the lighter the cooler got, so of course By 10:00 the cooler was already feeling lighter and lighter. We started our adventure at Toomer’s Corner. As everyone knows by now an Alabama fan poisoned the trees a couple years ago. This was actually the first year the students were able to roll up the trees since the incident. Auburn had won a home game last week so we got to see little bits of toilet paper in the trees from the week before. Someone actually pointed out to me that this was the first time Gus got to roll the tree as a head coach at Auburn. Auburn’s campus is very beautiful with all of their red brick buildings and walkways. We all really enjoyed walking around it as we could because it is not a very big campus. As it became closer and closer to kick off, more people were showing up and setting up their tailgates. The tailgating scene is a little bit different in Auburn than A&M. It is more corporate based as people pay the company of “Tailgate Guys” to secure the spot and provide TVs, chairs, and other tailgating needs. There were some tailgates that were set up by actual people around campus but the big lot right by the stadium was all tailgates set up by the Tailgate Guys.
Auburn and A&M are very much a like in many ways. Auburn hates Alabama, A&M hates texas. Auburn has the nickname Tigers but their live mascot is an Eagle, A&M has the nickname of Aggies but their live mascot is a collie. But I think the way the two schools are most alike is the hospitality of each school. The Auburn fans were so nice to us and other Aggies who traveled. They would by us drinks at the bars, they would invite us into their tailgates, and they would just smile and say “Welcome to Auburn”. One particular tailgate invited us into their own and that is where we post up. They let us eat and drink and I had lengthy conversations with all of them. It was even better that they worked for a liquor distillery because they had all the top shelf stuff. These people were just so friendly it made the day so much better. We did not find out until after the game when we went back to their tailgate that one of the girls who ran this tailgate was roommates with my cousin’s wife sister. It is funny how small this world is. Auburn was hands down my favorite road trips so far and I would advise anyone if they have the chance to go spend a game day there.
The Aggies won their first SEC game of the season and have continued to get better each and every week. Saturday we get to go to Jerry World to face the Arkansas Razorbacks who are also 3-0 and ranked in the top 20. This game could be another thriller, but hopefully it does not go into OT for the 3rd straight year and the Aggies can take care of business in regulation. The game starts at 8:00pm so it will be a great day of tailgating. I will also have cousins come in from Arkansas so it will be a great time! Thanks and Gig’em!