auburn vs. texas a&m

Well shipoople. Auburn made it all the way to the NC and didn't win. Wah wahhh! Fear not, friends, I'm still gonna recap the season! First up, the Texas A&M game! 

Naturally, I went to Auburn before the trip since I was riding with my sister. I ate lunch with ol' daddio the day before and got yet another shot of him and one of his hot rods. 

Binky and I had a plan to find people on Facebook in the Auburn Ticket Exchange group to ride with us/split the gas. We were in luck and found 2 random guys who didn't know each other and also didn't know us (but we're all part of the Auburn family, right?). Binky stayed up the whole night before, slept during the afternoon, and drove us the entire way of the journey starting at midnight on Thursday night.  

Sunrise over Louisiana

We stopped in Baton Rouge for a gas station break at 6am, and low and behold, ran into one of my friends from college! He works in BR, so it was a crazy coincidence. I should've taken a picture, but sleeping in the car for 4 hours = no bueno in the looks department.

We made it into Texas by mid morning. Binky and I made some friends last year at the A&M game in Auburn, and we kept in touch all year, so we had plans to hang out once we got into College Station.

Our buddy recommended we eat at the Dixie Chicken, so that was our first stop! It was delicious, and there were lots of Auburn people there for the game. How exciting!

Gotta love the Aggie cheers!

Burgers and beers! Yum! Our friend Blake was able to meet us for lunch and gave us some suggestions on things to do. Such a friendly Aggie! 

Watch out, College Station! The Herring sissies are in town! 

We stayed at the Knights Inn, and it was in manageable walking distance to the bars. College Station has an area called Northgate which has tons of bars and restaurants. It was where the Dixie Chicken was, and one of our favs was the SHOT BAR! Woo! 

Our friend Adris from Dothan was there. He gave us a call earlier in the night, and it turned out he was staying 2 doors down in our same hotel. How convenient! Naturally we ran into him at the bars. 

Soon enough it was game day! EEEE! We brought along mom in coozie form. 

Then she and my auntie Carol found our tailgate! Aunt Carol lives in Texas, and ma stayed with her. They drove over to College Station on game day. 

Our friend Blake and his friends had this tailgate and graciously hosted us. It was awesome with grilling, beer, and games, even some TVs to watch the other games going on that day.

That's him behind/between me and Aunt Carol with the cowboy hat.

Binky and I played a game (was it called washers?) with some Aggie friends, and even though we had never played, we won. We joked that it was foreshadowing for the game. 

Our host of the tailgate so nicely found us some tickets to purchase so we could go to the game at Kyle Field! They have this awesome system where you can transfer/buy tickets through a website then they scan your phone for entrance into the game. Easy peasy! 

Bink and I hiked to the stadium. We noticed earlier in the day how NICE everyone is in College Station! We had several people tell us they hoped we had a nice time in town and enjoyed ourselves. 

Once we got up to our section, we saw this:

We giggled, because WHO WOULD TOUCH A BAT?! haha! Kyle Field is supposedly full of bats (we didn't see any), and they are undergoing a massive remodeling of the whole stadium that's going to take a couple years (therefore should be ready by our next visit!). 

We sat in an Aggie section. I was a little nervous, because I know how some other SEC schools handle visitors. Our plan was to keep to ourselves and not go totally nuts if/when we scored. 

They did a flyover! 

We all know I love a good flyover. 

Auburn running onto the field! It was a glorious day. That whole side is the A&M student section!

Aw wee! 

Right before the game started, Binky noticed the guy to her left was taking her picture. I thought we were about to rumble until he told us he sold his tickets to a guy who sold them to us after he swore he was going to use them himself (and most especially wouldn't sell them to the opposing team's fans!). He was sending him a text of all the orange he was next to. We became fast friends with Jeremy and his lady Carolyn. 

We chatted throughout the game. Meanwhile, some amazingness was going on down on the field. They would score, we would score, they would score, we would score. At one point, Binky leaned in and said "WE'RE REALLY DOIN IT, HARRY!" (which is from Dumb and Dumber and was probably the quote of the whole season). 

One thing I wanted to mention was how the Aggies act at halftime. They all stand and watch the band. Their band is pretty awesome, and it was cool to see how much the stadium respected their performance. I also saw someone else who wrote about their experience, and noticed that Texas A&M flies the visitor's flag in the stadium (in our case the AU logo). How classy! I probably would've shed a tear had I noticed! 

The game was very stressful when we scored with about a minute to go. All Johnny Football had to do was get it down the field one more time. Good ol' Dee Ford put a stop to him, and we miraculously won! EEE! 

At one point right before the game ended, our new friends asked if we liked liquor or beer. I think we answered in unison "BOTH!". They asked us if we'd like to join them at their tailgate after the game. Of course we did!

Right after it was apparent we had won, they asked if we were ready to go to the tailgate. I remember Binky asking if they were sure they still wanted to have us. They replied of course, good game! We shuffled out of the stadium in a sea of Aggies trying to contain our excitement.

"Get a shot of me with the field!"

While we walked down the ramp, we were grabbing each other like we were little kids not allowed to talk even though we wanted to shout from the rooftop. At one point, we were tackled from behind by fellow Auburn fans (whom we didn't know) but we hugged and gave high fives.

Auburn section from the ramp:

One of the things I remember most was several Aggies telling us "good game" and "have fun tonight!" and "hope y'all are enjoying College Station" as we left the stadium. SO NICE! 

Here we are with our new BFFs Jeremy and Carolyn! Their tailgate was huge! A big tent and an open bar with TVs and places to charge our phones! We had drinks and hung out for a long time.

My friends Stephen and Dorothy Powell were in town for the game as well. They moved from Bham to Ohio, so I was glad we got to catch up for a few minutes after the game. The tailgate we were at was close to the stadium, so they hung out for a bit.

Another Aggie brag: While I was talking to them away from the tent (so as not to make our Aggie friends hear us squeal with excitement), Jeremy brought me another full drink because he saw mine was empty! I LOVE THIS PLACE!

Jeremy and Carolyn ended up knowing Blake, so we walked back to our other tailgate. We watched the end of the Ole Miss/LSU game (which Ole Miss won, a day of miracles indeed!) before heading back to Northgate. 

Our new friend Matt aka Chaca went with us to all the bars, and I'm sure was amused with the War Eagles we told everyone in orange and blue. 

Apparently the Dixie Chicken has a rattle snack in the back! We weren't told that when we went earlier, so of course we had to check it out.

We had too much fun that night, especially for having to drive back 12 hours the next day. We ate lunch in College Station then headed back to Alabama. One of the guys that rode with us ended up flying back since he was from Texas and decided to visit family. That meant I was banished to the back and had to deal with this by myself:

Oh, the joy of little sisters. We ended up eating dinner in Baton Rouge. I'm sure they were thrilled with the Auburn gear we were all rocking, including my face tat. 

It's safe to say the Aggies were the nicest fans ever. I won't every forget how welcoming, kind, and full of Southern manners they are. I can't wait to go back! 

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I'm on a mission to get through regular football season posts before March. I can't make myself not post them, so just bear with me until I can catch up!