Dawg Blog

Catching our breath in St. Augustine

Posted on Oct 26, 2008 by Patrick Jones  | 

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We apologize for the delay, but we had some connection troubles this morning, but now seem to have it working. It’s now 2:30 pm on Monday afternoon, and we are chillin’ on the beach at St. Augustine. It’s been nice to have a nice “sleep late” day and eat some good seafood. Last night we went to a local bar downtown  called “Tradewinds” that had a live band . Of course we wound up staying until they played the last set at 1am, and drank way too much beer (again!) , took a cab home to the RV and drifted off into a deep “coma like” sleep. The LSU weekend is still hanging over us just a bit. Yesterday’s long drive of 680 miles actually went quicker than the drive to Baton Rouge in the darkness and misting rain, and we got into town about 6:30 pm yesterday evening. We got set up and went to Saltwater Cowboy’s to get buckets of steamed oysters before we headed downtown. Widespread Panic was playing last night at the St. Augustine convention center, so there were lots of people down there later last night. We’ve been getting a lot of jokes from people who say “you guys are a little early in town for the Georgia Florida game huh?”, and when we tell them that we are on leg 2 of a 10 day marathon they are very amused. We’ve been passing out a lot of Bulldawg Illustrtated’s with our ad that was on the front inside page, and getting people to come to read about what all is happening on our trip. The weather here is awesome, it’s shorts and t-shirts weather, with people on the beach getting the last of the year’s rays. We met some new friends from Michigan, and hung out with them yesterday at the bar. They are big Spartan fans, and gave us a little hell bout the SEC all in good fun.  Tomorrow, we will get up and drive to Jacksonville to get in line for the RV lot. As always, they say don’t arrive before midnight on Tuesday. If you wait until midnight you will not get in the lot. They start handing out numbers and “staging” early in the afternoon, so we have to get there early or we will not get in the RV city lot, which is the whole reason we came here a week early. It’s really a pain in the butt, because you get in line, but the police won’t let the first people in until 6am on Wednesday. You wind up staying up all night because you don’t know if they will really wait until 6am to move, so it’s almost as bad as driving all night all over again. I think we will go somewhere here and get some more good seafood, and enjoy the night. We are entering the home stretch, where opportunity for sleep is very little, so we are trying to get a little here and enjoy the beach. Already some Gators are starting to get a little mouthy, and start the normal routine, but the LSU game gives up hope and a reason to think that just maybe… we may really enjoy this 10 day trip more than we thought. We’ll check back in as soon as we get in line tomorrow morning. Go Dawgs!

Tagged: rv trip, gafla

It's great to be a Georgia Bulldog

Posted on Oct 25, 2008 by Patrick Jones  | 

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“It’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog on Saturday night.” Those words have never rang more true. You can’t understand how great it was to walk out of “Death Valley” looking at what was left of the tiger fans who hung around to watch the spanking that our Dawgs put on the tigers. Not a single “tiger bait” was to be heard. One guy even yelled “ya’ll come back when you can whip our ass worse.” It was a great feeling. It made the $275.00 in diesel fuel that we spent to get here well worth it. Humble. That’s what we see here. Heads hanging low. To use a phrase from the war it is “shock and awe”. Not ONE LSU fan here, (or us for that matter) saw this one coming. But I must say that these are THE BEST FANS that we ever play. Even after the game, they invited us over for a home cooked Cajun dinner (which we couldn’t pass up), and even sent me home about 3 pounds of boudin to take with us. I can’t tell you enough how hospitable they are. We can take lessons from these guys. We have made many new friends that we will bring with us to tailgate in our lot next year when the tigers come to Athens. When we got to our seats, we were informed that the band had been moved and we no longer had seats there. The UGA pep band was now the proud owner of our prized LSU tickets, and they had no other seats to offer us. I was pissed beyond belief. We met with the band director and bashed heads, but guess what. WE LOST. We were offered the consolation prize of being able to STAND next to the band, in line with each other in the aisle one behind another right beside the drumline. I admit I was really not happy, but considering the way it turned out, I would be glad to stand in my underwear in the aisle if we play like this in the Florida game. We felt like we were part of the band, and our ears rang like we’d been at a Motley Crue concert when it was done. When it was said and done, it has to be one of the most memorable games that we have been witness to. Guess everything works out for a reason. We now have to get all our stuff packed up for the early departure and the 10 hour drive from here to St. Augustine to await the opening of the RV city lot on Tuesday. A couple of days to rest and relax will be great, and it sure will make the drive better thinking about the victory at LSU. Goodnight Dawgs, we will post tomorrow either on the road or when we get to the beach! It’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog!

Report from the trenches

Posted on Oct 24, 2008 by Patrick Jones  | 

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Well, by this time tomorrow we will pretty much know where we measure up. Are we for real, or are we pretenders? We have been asked by several blog readers to get an isight on how the LSU fans feel about this game. Are they really as cocky as we think? Are they worried? So we conducted a scientific poll today using several different venues to determine the real story. We started out at the grocery store as we were buying our food for the weekend. Upon walking in the store, an older man who was checking out saw us coming in dressed in Georgia gear and shook his head as if he didn’t approve of us being in his grocery store. We hadn’t even made it to the produce section, when a young lady came up to us and said “I’m going to go ahead and congratulate you guys, because I know how we are… we are going to get beat”. We found this somewhat strange considering she was wearing a LSU shirt, but this opinion seems to be more than just an occasional naysayer. After we moved over to the dairy section, one of the store employees came up to us and said ” You guys are going to beat the crap out of LSU, I will give LSU 14 points and I bet you cover.” I wish that we shared his optimism, but I can’t quite get to that point based on what we’ve seen in the past few weeks. We polled some people in our lot, to try to get an objective opinion, and let them know we are posting a blog on Bulldawg Illustrated. Out of all the people we talked to, not one told us that they were confident that LSU would handle the Dawgs. The opinion seems to be pretty shaky. Our new friend Jared who we posted the picture of as he is preparing a cajun dish called “chicken picante”, told us that “who ever can keep from turning the ball over, or getting overly penalized will win.” At this point, I felt that I would be feeling the fangs of the tigers telling us how badly they will beat us, but here at ground zero that is not the case. All of you that are reading this and coming to the game need to bring your “A” game, and let our team know we are here to support them. Be loud, and be proud to be a Georgia Bulldog! As for us… we are headed over to get some of that Chicken Picante. We’ll give you an update in the morning… Go Dawgs!

Tagged: rv, galsu, gafla

Countdown to Kickoff from LSU

Posted on Oct 24, 2008 by Patrick Jones  | 

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After getting a much needed good night’s sleep after the all night marathon drive to Baton Rouge on Thursday night, we awoke this morning feeling good, with just a few cobwebs. Last night was a whole lot of fun as we expected. We made some great new friends from Louisiana who cooked up one heck of a good meal last night, and shared it with us. We traded them some Alaskan salmon that I caught in August, and everyone was happy. We walked around the lot, and got interviewed by Fox Sports South, so you may see some really funny interviews. This morning the place is buzzing already, people are flocking into the lots like ants to honey. This is a really neat place for those of you who have never been, you need to come and experience it. I wish that our fan base was as lively and enthusiastic as the LSU fans who are here. Todd, Jeff and I all talked last night about how much we enjoy when we play LSU because of the fans. With the exception of the occasional drunken student, they are the very hospitable offering us food, drink and friendly conversation everywhere we go. Vance Leavy, my friend and the head man at Bulldawg Illustrated walked over with his wife’s uncle Jack this morning, ate breakfast and hung out for awhile. We talked about the game, and what we think we have to do to get out of here with a “W”. The Cajun boys across the way are cooking up some jambalaya and all the fixings for lunch, and invited us over to share again (which we will do). The RV is starting to get that familiar “locker room smell” that always happens on a “man trip”. There is too much stuff scattered everywhere, you would have to see it to believe it, but you know men are pigs and we can live in anything. We accidentally went to sleep with the windows open last night, and I woke up about 3am with it being about 50 degrees in here. Todd just walked in and informed me that he is drinking way too many beers this morning, so this could get interesting in a few hours. It’s getting close, we’re getting excited, and can’t wait ‘till kickoff. We’ll be back with what we hope is a great “victory post” so stay tuned! Keep your comments coming, we love to hear from everyone! Go Dawgs!

1730 miles, 6 men, 2 games, 1 RV

Posted on Oct 23, 2008 by Patrick Jones  | 

5 Comments

Almost two years ago, my friends and I were discussing the fact that in 2008, Georgia would play on the road in Baton Rouge, and then in Jacksonville the following week. Since we had been going to the Florida game every year together since 1997, it only made sense that we incorporate the two games into the “ultimate road trip” that every red- blooded Bulldog fan would dream of doing. Getting in our RV and leaving out from Dalton, going to LSU to see the game, leaving there and heading straight to Jacksonville to wait on the Dawgs to come battle the Gators. Since “RV city” (the RV parking lot in Jacksonville right beside the stadium) opens on Tuesday, it didn’t make sense to come back home for 2 days, so the deal was done. All we had to do was convince our wives of what a “great idea” it was. Lucky for us, I think we all have the most wonderful and understanding wives that we could have, and eventually we got the green flag. All that we had to do was fill in the “blanks” and work out the small details. Our itinerary in a nutshell goes like this… Leave Dalton Thursday October 23rd around 5pm and drive straight to Baton Rouge, arrive sometime around 2am and await opening of RV parking lot at LSU vet/med lot at 7am on Friday. Hang out there, see the game, leave out early Sunday morning headed for St. Augustine where we will stay two nights on the beach and await the opening of the RV lot at Jacksonville on Tuesday, Wed-Saturday will be in the lot there where you never get bored (or get much sleep), Watch Tebow cry on Saturday, and get up Sunday to head back home to see our families who have written us off by now! It all sounds good in theory, but many thoughts keep running through my mind…. Will our defense be able to contain the two quarterback Hatch/Lee attack? Can the Dawgs find a cure for our “Red Zone Blues”? What’s the over/under on how many times we have to hear “tiger bait!”? Can we contain the Florida offense that seems to showed up after a bit of an absence? What will our group spend more money on… beer or diesel fuel? Over the next 10 days we will find out the answers to all these questions! I’d like to thank Vance Leavy and Bulldawg Illustrated for offering us the opportunity to post this blog of our journey, and most of all thank our wives for understanding and letting this trip happen. I hope everyone enjoys checking in daily for a report and pictures from the “front lines” and hopefully we’ll see you on the road somewhere! Go Dawgs!

Tagged: rv, galsu, gafla