This was it. The day that I had biked all the way around the country for. The one day that I had been waiting to get get to Georgia for. The big SEC match of Georgia against Auburn. This game had a lot more riding on it then just pulling out a victory for Georgia. If Georgia won this game then it would be the first time that Georgia had been able to beat both Florida and Auburn in the same year since 1982. Before we could make our way to the game we first started indulging in a monster of a breakfast. Everything that you could think of was on the table for the morning. Eggs, biscuits and gravy, sausage, bacon, and the great southern classic grits. Everything was steaming hot on the table and was delicious. We sat around the table and ate until we couldn't move. We had so much food that when we left the house to go and tailgate I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to eat any food before the game. We had a about an hour to drive to get to Athens, where the University of Georgia was located. As we approached Athens, the traffic was growing heavier and heavier in the area. I had never been to a stadium in the south where the capacity was almost 93,000 people. This was going to be a new experience for me in the area of college football. Seeing Iowa State play football in Iowa was a stadium of 55,000 people and it wasn't always full. Here in Georgia, the stadium was always filled to capacity and everyone, I was told, was very strong towards their team. When we were able to park the car behind a church on campus, I started to see some of the tailgating. We were a good mile away from the stadium and people were parked everywhere and were preparing for the game ahead. Food was being grilled almost everywhere and people were everywhere. It was already something else to me that I hadn't witnessed before. the campus seemed beautiful for the small section that i was able to witness and then before I knew it, we were walking on a road that took us directly beside the stadium. It was very cool how everything was laid out in the area and how the stadium seemed to be in the middle of the campus. Everyone was tailgating around campus, in front of different buildings, and we all had a great day for it. Another thing that seemed amazing about walking around was the color of everyone's shirts. Every game the fans would wear red for the games except for this game. The seniors had told everyone to wear black and so everyone did. Billy had purchased a black Georgia hat and a black Georgia shirt for me to wear to the game, and with these products I was able to fit in with everyone else. We moved away from the stadium about one block before we made it to some of Billy and Amy's friends to tailgate with. They had all sorts of foods to eat and by this time I was actually hungry again. There were chicken strips, little sandwiches, and a lot of other little snacks to tide my stomach over for the course of the next couple of hours. After chatting for a little while, my cousin Matt came over to the tailgate area and joined us before we headed into the game. He was currently attending a college in northern Georgia and was playing baseball. He wasn't but a couple of years younger than I was and he offered some conversation while we were in the tailgate area. Together we continued to shovel more food in our faces before we finally started to walk some food off towards the stadium. It was still a good hour before the game when we arrived in the stadium, but the stadium was not empty. There were people filling up the seats and by the time it was 15 minutes before play time, the stadium was full. No one wanted to miss a second of this game and everyone was fired up. Everyone was wearing black except for one little section in the stadium where the Auburn fans were wearing orange. The Georgia players came out to practice and they were also not wearing black. I think that everyone was a little surprised that the players weren't in black jerseys, but the coach had mentioned that it was going to be difficult to pick up the jerseys. The Georgia Bulldogs had never worn black in the stadium before so it seemed like it was going to be a little difficult to make the senior's dreams of wanting to wear black jerseys come true. As the game came closer to starting the fire was growing all around. The bulldogs were just about to run out of the locker room and anything was possible. Everyone wanted to know if they were going to come out in black, but no one knew what was going to happen. Then they came out of the locker room. Everyone was wearing black and the crowd was going crazy and the game hadn't even started yet. From what I was told afterwards, the black jerseys were a surprise to even the players. When the players went into the locker room they always had a moment for prayer where they would turn off the lights. When they turned the lights on after the prayer, the jerseys were laid out behind the players and everyone in the locker room was going crazy. They had no idea they were going to be wearing black jerseys, but the fact that they had wanted them for so long they were all excited for the game ahead. The coach said that when he walked back into the locker room after chanfing into black, the room had gone up about 15 degrees warmer. The game was on its' way at this point and everyone was waiting to see what would happen. The Bulldogs started by kicking the ball off to Auburn and there was a cheer that i think I'm going to have a tough time forgetting at this point. Goooooooo Dawgs.... Sic em...Woof Woof Woof. The first play that Auburn had was an interception in to the Bulldog's hands and everyone was on their feet. The energy was explosive in the stadium and things started out with a Bulldog touchdown. The game seemed to be very close for most of the afternoon and at half it was 17 to 20. the Bulldogs were behind with 17, but not for long. They came back out and everything started to turn around. One play after another and the Bulldogs were back to where they had started the game, ahead. With a good runnning game, some great 3rd and long plays, and some excellent interceptions, the Bulldogs pulled ahead at the end with a final score of 45 to 20. I couldn't have shown up to see a better SEC game. This was an incredible show of the fans and the Bulldog nation. For a final day of the entire trip, this was the greatest ending that I could have asked for. THANK YOU BILLY AND AMY.
Daily mileage: 0.0 miles
Total mileage: 6,150.0 miles
Total mileage: 6,150.0 miles
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