Two Tickets ...

$90. Hotel Stay $300. Parking $35. Hamburger and Barbeque at the Game: $30. Watching Austin celebrate as the FSU Seminoles won one of the biggest games they ever played in: priceless. Even if it was at the expense of my Crimson Tide. Seems Austin's teams are getting the better of mine this year, with East Limestone starting off their season by thumping my state champion Athens Golden Eagles 7-6 back in Sept.



Connie bought two tickets to what was billed as the "River City Showdown" last March and gave them to me and Austin to go. Austin has been a Florida State fan since the days of Coach Cav at East Limestone (Coach Cav turned ELHS into a mini-FSU, complete with similar uniforms, war chant, and attitude!). Of course, I've been an Alabama fan since the days of Bear Bryant and 63 National Championships (no, wait, I think we have 64 now!). Every thing worked out just great. Except the game. I was mad, no angry, that we played as poorly as we did. But give a lot of credit to Florida State's defense. They made everything we tried to do look foolish. JP had an awful game. The o'line looked like a high school unit and let's not even talk about the backup DB who gave up two touchdowns!! We've got some serious work to do and not much "stuff" to do it with!



We left out Friday afternoon after Austin got out of school, got haircuts - can't go to the game looking shaggy now could we - and hit the road. East Limestone had their football game Thursday night, so that was good and bad. Good in that we got to leave after school Friday, bad in that we were out late Thursday night and didn't get much sleep - not good for a looming 9 hour drive to Jacksonville. For the record, the ELHS Indians moved to 5-0 on the season, with a very convincing 58-0 win. Now, for all their troubles, they get to face their arch nemesis, the North Jackson Chiefs, also 5-0 and ranked #1 in the state in class 4A. The Indians and Chiefs both dress like Florida State and use the war chant as their fight song...over and over and over and over ... Can we say "I'm tired of this Na, Na, Nannna Na, ... Na , Na Nanna Noooooo! Oh well, back to the River City Showdown...

We stayed on Amelia Island and of course everybody there was there for the game, so there were FSU and Bama fans everywhere. There were even some other divided families there with "FSUBama" Car tags and flags of opposite colors flying from each side of their cars. Saturday morning we thought we'd go down to the beach and play in the sand for awhile. Little did we know that there was a "Red Tide" warning. I'm not kidding! Both of us were coughing and sneezing and having sinus troubles within minutes. When we noticed the locals were wearing masks, we left the beach! All day long, I kept telling Austin that it was a "Crimson Tide" warning! After the game, he told me the warning had been downgraded to a watch!




Of course, Austin's favorite part was visiting with the FSU band during the third quarter. We went over to where they were sitting and next thing I know, he's down in the middle of the band talking to the percussion section leader about different drumbeats! He got some up close videos for his own ELHS band drumline - maybe, Ms Sam will cut him some slack for missing competition to go to this game!




Congrats to FSU and to Austin. Better start saving for that tuition, son. I hear it's expensive for out of state students!

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, and Lily Grace ...
Green, Party of Four ...