What do you get when you have...

$100 ticket +
$150 in gas +
60 hours in a car +
31 to 17 =
PRICELESS 4 DAY ROAD TRIP

We started at 4am on New Year's Day on our way to the Sugar Bowl. We drove to Dallas the first night and got there around 1 in the morning. We crashed pretty hard and fast, but were excited for the next day. And what better way to start the day the Utes play than with a waffle shaped like the state of Texas? None, of course. You've gotta love Texan pride and it's rollover effect into every marketing niche there is. We got out of Dallas around 9am that morning as we headed for New Orleans and during that drive crossed over some pretty cool bayous and the ol' Mississippi.

When we got to New Orleans we had a few hours before the game so we decided to go get some dinner. The gumbo and jambalaya were great and the iced tea tasted like it should. We then made our way over to Bourbon street to see what that was like - it was OK and smelled like puke, piss, and alcohol. During our walk around we had to listen to the Bama fans say things like; "That's one, that's one imported ass whoopin'", "Roll Tide, Roll Tide", and other things that made us think we needed a good saying in Utah other than "go Utes". There was Crimson Tide everywhere. As the the attendance at the game suggests, we figure we were outnumbered 6 to 1 in fan support with about 10,000 Utah fans and the rest for Bama. Needless to say when the bands were warming the crowds up and the Tide fans chanted their school cheers it drowned us out pretty good. But, that wouldn't stop us once the game started. I was pretty nervous leading up to the kickoff. Once the opening kickoff happened and we forced Alabama to a 3-out I had already lost my voice and wouldn't be sitting down until the end of the game. When we jumped to 21-0 the whole Ute section was rocking and shaking the whole stadium and we were the ones drowning out Bama fans. As the game progressed and the Tide started coming back we got nervious but never stopped cheering on our Utes.

This is after we were up 28-17 in the 4th quarter. Everyone was all smiles around us and the Ute faithful were still loud and proud on every possesion.

This is the three amigos I traveled with on the trip (L to R): Stephen "Bubba" Beins, Eric "Elvis" King, and Jared "Bruda" James.

Here's Bubba raising the #1 up as we had rolled the Tide the Utah way - fast D, quick O, and all in style. Notice the borrowed baseball cap from Elvis that doesn't fit his head at all - nice touch.

This is the point in the game where I had no voice left, was on cloud nine, and wanted to get a pic of me and the scoreboard before we left. However, as you can see (or not) the scoreboard doesn't show up. Let me remind everyone what it was: 31-17, Utah!

The night was awesome and it was such a validation point to see all of the Bama fans with their stunned looks on their faces, heads down, and silent after the game. "Who was this team that came down from the mountains and whooped the crap out of the pride of the South?"

After the game we drove to Beaumont, TX and crashed the night there. In the morning we drove through the beautiful hill country of Texas to my brother's house right outside of Austin and hung out there for about 8 hours. That night we hit the road again for a straight 21 hours to make it back to good ol' Salt Lake City, home of the Utah Utes - Sugar Bowl Champs!!!

Low Tide, Low Tide!!!! GO UTES!