As it does with every game day parking crew event, it starts very early, but with an 11AM kickoff, this one had us in Tuscaloosa by 5:30AM. So it was an early early alarm at 3AM to get us up and moving on this day. We had originally planned to do a game in November, but when it was seen that the troop needed someone to lead this game, we stepped up to this game. Magan had a photo session on this day, but was able to move it, so we could all be together as a family. Then Sam called me and asked if it was OK for Noel to join us on this day. Haha, well of course.
But it first began with getting to Tuscaloosa that early in the morning, delivering some food to Sam so he could quickly get home for a couple of hours sleep before kickoff. But I was also in charge of setting up our 3 troop parking lots, and had to get 4 full barriers into our already full car before we even got to the lots. While in there I missed a text to pick up Sam's football game ticket, forcing him to go there and get in line for his ticket. Then I ran to get breakfast for everyone, and my stomach was hurting, so that took a little more time than usual. Then after dropping the family off at the family deck, I took off to set up the other two lots. I told Magan to give Sam his breakfast and tell him to not wait for me, but to just go on home to get some much needed sleep. Setting up the other lots was slow as one family was late...yeah, then I had to describe the process to both lots since all were new, and thus finally I ended up at the campus deck about 30 minutes later. But I was surprised to see that Sam had waited for me...Sweet kid. I quickly saw that he had not waited for me, but wanted the meals from his momma and his latest batch of banana bread. Did I mention I also had to call Sam and get him to pick up vests and another item from the radio room that I had forgotten. So Sam...I hope you know that I did have a plan to help you out, but it did not pan out.
The work was very busy as the deck has become the location for all of the workers at the stadium, and they all have to be checked in individually on a list instead of an easy scan. But slowly we got into the new routine. Me, and Davis and Ruby were working really hard to help the traffic flow well into the deck, while Magan and Belle....well, they covered up and just enjoyed sitting there. Ruby is a hit with all the Bama fans, scanning their phones, then adding a cute little smile saying "You are good. Roll Tide". When I saw the Tesla Truck, I looked over at here, and saw in her eyes that she wanted to scan that vehicle. I took my usual role providing directions all over the campus for folks, but I will say that Davis has it down pretty well also, and jumped in whenever needed. I think that is another reason why he is looking at Alabama, because the campus is very familiar to him by now.
We got a head start to the game since Mr. Mike was working the deck with us, and he was able to return all the equipment for me. Noel and Sam had driven back and parked at the deck with us. And Magan likes to take all the pictures as we walk towards the stadium, and there were lots more, but she seemed to be focused on one couples hands linked the whole time. At the game, we have great tickets to get into the stadium, but we don't have seats. And with a group of 7, that is difficult to find. So the first picture below is where we ended up standing for most of the 1st quarter and 2nd quarter. I did walk around the stadium with Ruby on a search for seats, but also just to not have to stand around. You could not see any of the field much, but we did have shade, which made our spot a bit more enjoyable that many in the stands.
I knew Magan wanted to see the band, so I lead everyone over to the 50 yard line entry way, where we waited in the tunnel for the 1st half to end. It took forever because this was just a sloppy game and there were probably 3 turnovers in the last 3 minutes of the half. Then ready to watch from the tunnel during halftime with a pretty decent view, the stadium staff said we would have to take our seat. So of course we waited for all the halftime tide pride folks to walk out of the tunnel to get their food and drink, and we slipped into the perfect seats on the 50 to watch the halftime show. Sam and Noel broke off somewhere to find seats on their own.
After the halftime show, we wandered across the stadium to see a large grouping of open seats that I was looking for while Magan was watching the million dollar band. And we found a huge open area, but when we got there, the seats were reserved for the Men's basketball team. But we were finished with the1st half of an ugly game, and I figured if they haven't shown up by now, they would not. Plus I once touched rim in the 12th grade, so I probably had the skills for these seats anyway. And finally as the third quarter began, we all had seats together for the remainder of the game.
So me and the boys cheered thru some really ugly football, Belle and Ruby stared blankly at a large field, and Noel and Magan just never stopped talking about stuff. I did tell Magan that Noel probably wanted to watch the game, so stop bothering her...jokingly, as Noel loves football about as much as Magan. The game ended uglier and sloppier in the last few minutes that the whole game combined. It really looked like the Tide had bet on South Carolina and were trying to let them win. But they squeaked out another win, and we all cheered for the home team. And while expensive at $15 each, those giant pretzels at the stadium are really great.
We left the stadium, and Sam and Noel "accidentally" got lost from us, so we moved slowly back to the car, with a very long detour I took us on to the Ferguson center where I thought we would maybe get ChickFilA, but it was closed, so Sam took us to a really amazing pizza place called "Lost Pizza". Everyone laughed because I again overordered getting 4 large pizzas for our group of 7, but I defended myself that one was a large strawberry cheesecake dessert pizza. And I have never seen any pizza ever go to waste, so I think the overordering just helps for future meals. And we left with me giving Noel the expectation to get Sam somewhere quick to let him sleep. You could see it in his eyes...or perhaps eyelids...at the pizza place, he was going down quickly with only 2 hours of sleep. And our drive home ended like our drive began that morning...with everyone in the back passed out again. Another great family time at Bama.
