College football has several ancillary benefits.  Tailgating, for example, is a staple of game days wherever your favorite team is playing.  It often becomes something of an extravaganza for home games where you find everything from pimento cheese sandwiches and barbecue to stone crabs to jambalaya to tenderloin.

Tailgating is for passionate and loyal alumni and fans, but it is also for kids which is one of the redeeming features of this popular activity.  You see kids with the home team logo pasted on their rosy cheeks. You see them playing games, including touch football.  

You see them crying when the home team loses a heartbreaker, but they will be back the next Saturday when there will be another opportunity to sing the fight songs as they yearn for better results.

When there is victory, they swoon to the music of the band resonating off the landscape and renew their touch football games.  They can’t wait for the next home game.

Then there are the road warriors who find a way to set up their tailgates in “enemy” territory.  While few and in a minority, they, nonetheless, cheer for their team with the same commitment that they do at the friendly confines of the stadium of their alma mater.

When Georgia travels to play the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, it is always a fun trip.  Last weekend, the Bulldogs didn’t play like the No. 1 ranked team in the country, and it was strange playing at Kroger Field in September.  But you return home a winner whenever you spend time in the Bluegrass State.

Longtime Bulldog fans can remember what it was like when these two teams played in late October.  Fall color was often at a peak, the horses were running at Keeneland, and the distillery tours attracted countless Bulldog fans who couldn’t get enough of the trimmings of the 15^th state admitted to the union.

An excursion to one of the classic horse farms is a must even if you have done it before.  Everything about the bluegrass experience is often unforgettable.

In the days of the Big Red Machine, the Cincinnati baseball team, you could even come to Lexington early enough to catch a World Series game.  When the baseball season was concluded, you might see Pete Rose at the betting window at Keeneland.

It is only 82 miles from Cincinnati to Lexington and Pete made frequent trips to Keeneland.  His addiction to gambling is well known, which has kept him from being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as he was foolish enough to bet on his own team.

Most every SEC town has something attractive, included but not limited to Dreamland barbecue in Tuscaloosa, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the Crystal Bridges Museum a half hour from Fayetteville, the bayou scene when you go to Baton Rouge: A game with LSU often allows visiting fans to spend time in New Orleans for a couple of days and then drive up on Saturday for the game.

When your team plays in Columbia, S. C., it is not all that much out of the way to make your way to the low country and hang out in Charleston for a couple of days.

Not many take the time to lollygag though the Pine Mountain Ridge on the west side of the state of Georgia.  With Auburn also being something of a day trip for most fans, few think about spending time on the Ridge, but it is one of the most becoming areas of our state.

When fans flock to the Golden Isles for the annual Georgia-Florida game, there is golf, fishing and good food, but fans miss the most spectacular opportunity there is—Little St. Simons Island.   

The river scenes in Knoxville and Starkville are emotionally uplifting and if you took a vote, more than likely, most fans would vote a visit to Oxford, Miss., the best trip of all.  Visiting Rowan Oak, the home of author William Faulkner, gets the highest of marks for visitors along with Square Books and City Grocery, one of the most popular meal opportunities in the country.

Follow your team but find time to enjoy the extras that travel to the small towns of America offers.  That is a rich experience often with cultural enlightenment,  

If you are curious about Austin, Texas, and Norman, Oklahoma, standby.