Tracking The Terrys: Day 2 at the Natty!

Monday, January 11, 2016

Day 2 at the Natty!

We got up bright and early on game day. We had a large crew to organize. Our rental house was the meeting place. Our Utah and Colorado friends brought all of the normal tailgating supplies since they drove to Arizona. It was perfect and we were so thankful for all that they did to make our tailgate so great!

We were some of the first cars to arrive at the lot...surprise, surprise! They wouldn't let us in, nor could you block the street and wait in line. We had to circle around the block three times before they let us in. Once we were inside the lot we parked really close to the stadium. We had three parking spaces and it was the perfect spot! Everyone went to work setting up tables, food, flags, banners, and we were set!

I was so excited to see Libba...one of my Clemson roommates! We hadn't seen in other in years!!

How many $2 bills do you have, Shannon?!?! He was like a bank!

Time was running out so I rounded up the troops for a group picture. Sadly, several had taken walks to other places and weren't in this photo. Everyone started leaving to go in the game soon after this so we had to get the photo while we had the most people there at one time.

The day went by SO fast! Before I knew it, we were walking to the tailgate inside the stadium where the stage and all of the activities were being held. We were on a mission to see Eric Church! Richard made us stop and take 1,643,285 selfies on the way. We had to pose in front of everything!!

My man, #4 Deshaun Watson!!

We finally made it to the stage and were pretty close. It was challenging trying to tell our other friends where we were located. Some of them found us. Others did not. Eric Church only played for a little while, but it was still awesome!

On our way back from the stage and up the hill to the stadium, we ran in to so many people that we knew. My favorite was my high school friend, Austin!! We literally were jumping up and down and kissing each other's faces. It has been years since we have seen each other. Austin and I played basketball together so we spent lots of time together in middle school and high school. It was so awesome to see her. On a completely different note, her husband looks JUST LIKE Dabo Swinney. I should have taken a photo of him, too! He was looking at us acting crazy!

Love this girl to death. She is hilarious and has not changed one single bit since high school!!

We also saw some of Richard's work friends there, too.

Where is your beer, Richard?

We finally made our way into the stadium. I am happy to announce that it was not nearly as chaotic to get in here as it was the ACC Championship game. Thanks to the Straups, we had awesome seats!!

Can you tell how excited we were??

We were like deflated balloons at the end of the game. We were SO ready for this win. We had WAY more fans than they did and I think our team and fans had WAY more heart. Alabama fans were so very cordial from what I saw. They were all super nice and I can't complain about them at all. However, we wanted the win SO badly!! Not that they didn't, but they have won. So. Many. Times. And we were so close. I love what Dabo has done for our team. I love the integrity that Dabo instills in our football team, our school and program in general. I truly believe that we will be back to The Natty sooner than later. I hope it's next year in Tampa, FL!

On our way back to our house in the mini-van, Shannon tried many a time to get a good selfie of all of us. Since we were no longer #1, we were all holding up #2. #2 in the country isn't so bad. So glad that we have these fun and silly friends who make a win or a loss fun!!