It’s a few days late, but better late than never. Now, join me as I take you into a first person experience of last week’s BCS National Championship.  (Que Jurassic Park Music)

The day started at about 8:30 when my wife and I left our humble abode, dropped of el perro, picked up my sister, and jumped on the Turnpike, destination South Florida.

After 3 hours of horse play and other GatorTrey car ride shenanigans, we arrived to the 3rd terminal at the Fort Lauderdale Airport to pick up my old room mate. You might remember him (or his sister) from prior Trey misadventures. The Gator fight song blares from the speakers as we make our way out of the airport, it’s game on.

Remember that sweet hotel I had in Atlanta? This place was nice, after all they don’t call it the Quality Inn for nothing! A stale coffee fillup, check the baggage in the room, and prepare to make the 4 mile trek to the site of that night’s all important match.

From the Tailgate

After shoving 8 of us in my parents car we made our trip to Dolphins Stadium. The traffic was rather light at 3pm, mostly because we went to the opposite side of the stadium as everyone else. Score.

The first thing you noticed? A lot of Orange and Blue. No shock, the game is so close to the population bases of UF alum. The second thing?  We were awesomely close to the stadium. You could practically hit it with a rock. The third thing? The lack of bushes, rocks, or port-o-lets so that 120oz of coffee I drank could leave my system.

The tailgating festivities were great. People were genuinely amped, tension filled the air, it was unlike any tailgate I had ever been too. Some Oklahoma fans across from us were tossing a football at the same time we were. My father, not paying attention to a 10 year old participating with them absolutely housed this kid. He must have flown back 10 feet. Horrified that he might have just put the youngster in the hospital, he apologized and helped him up. His response. “It’s ok, I’m from Oklahoma.” Turns out it’s the family of an Oklahoma offensive lineman, kid’s got pedigree, surprised he didn’t put my dad on his ass.

Game time came relatively quickly, and you noticed one thing there were no tickets to be found. Luckily, I didn’t take the chance of showing up empty handed.

Sweet Seats, eh?

My seats were sweet. (thanks Dad) We had four tickets in this section, my father, mother, wife, and I. Next to us, a family of Oklahomans. A father, mother, daughter in law, and son. What? Destiny! The bizzaroTrey and I shook hands and agreed not to kill each other during the game.

Wuerrfel sighting! Kickoff finally came.

The game was about as good as you can ask for, I’ve been into detail on it. But the Cliff’s Notes…Wow…shit…wow!…Dammit…Woohoo…Stupid defense…Halftime…Yes!…Nooooo…Choklahoma! And just to note. On that Tebow jump pass. Ya know the one that put the game away? I jumped about 3 feet off the ground and came down right on bizzaro Trey’s foot.

Post game the family all met in our section (my sisters, the roomie, and one of their fiance’s were elsewhere) for photos and a little post game celebration. We walked out, and sat at the car for a few hours waiting for traffic to clear. I popped some champagne and threw it around like I just won the game myself. PS – To the random woman who drank most of it…I said just a sip, not for you to relive your sorority days by drinking as much as fast as you can.

We got home from the stadium at 2:30 AM. Started celebrating again at the Quality Inn, poolside, with a few other Gator fans like a bunch of a-holes who just won a National Championship. Then that moment that my old roomie and I always seem to have on these type of evenings happened. He grabbed my wife and I declaring, “Come on, just the Original Peaches, the way it was meant to be!”

With a ripple of the ol’ chords I broke in…”Batter uuuuuup…”  followed by a rousing rendition of the “League of Their Own” song. Ya know. “We are the members of the All-American League…” Everyone soon followed. The night way complete. We were national champs and we somehow found a way to really really remember it.

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