Heading back from the stadium after a long day of tailgating and football, we were charged.  Charged with a DWA.  That's right.  Driving While Awesome.  And there was no room for reasonable doubt.  We were guilty.

 

Just as the beer stepped up, as we went from Bud Light to Yuenling, so to did the tailgate.  I'm not sure if it was due to our improved rankings, or to the great bbq.  Maybe it was the crystal clear HD picture on the big screen, or the ice cold adult beverages.  My guess?  The people.  The crowd on hand was the biggest and the best we've had...at least so far!

 

Let me catch you up on the past couple of weeks.  Tailgate number one, while fun, taught us how to be better people.  As a result we've made improvements to the keg so it works as you'd expect.  Next we improved the A/V setup with an HD antenna and we made the speakers even louder.  We found in week one that no one was spending time in the bus.  We figured the table was in the way, so we added legs that allow the table to work outside the bus as we party.  Then it pops back in for the ride home.  Ingenious. 

 

I guess word spread about the upgrades after the UCF rout.  The fans came out in droves to partake in the festivities.  Geoff brought some great food from Sonny's, the beer was cold and fresh, and there were some great games on TV.  Newell, our tailgating neighbor to the North (or our "Canada" as I like to think of him) decided to improve the setting by trimming the overgrown bushes around our parking spaces.  I swear that man must be part Mexican, because he sure knows how to handle a hedge trimmer.  That, of course, is a joke.  Stereotypes have no place in my blog, and for that I apologize.  But seriously...he's a hell of a bush trimmer.

 

That's when the party took an odd yet amusing turn.  Newell went behind a truck to dispose of the clippings.  I'm not sure what made him peer in to the cab of the truck, but something told him to look.  What he saw was so disturbing.  It was erotic.  It was beautiful.  It was nauseating.

 

We all took turns parading past the junk in the truck.  Apparently the gentleman driving had pulled in to the full-service lane.  We made some passes with the camera (damn the limo tint and glare).  When we'd seen all we could handle, we decided to wait.  It was like standing in applause after the curtain drops at a broadway show, waiting in excitement for the lead performers to take one final bow.  The only difference is instead of being talented actors in a majestic playhouse, this was a ho in a dodge pickup.  I guess that simile wasn't exactly on point, but I stand by it.  It's how I felt, and I'm not going to hide that.

 

Anyhow, the pair emerged to a roaring round of applause.  The embarrasment we excpected was instead a gleaming sense of pride.  We all had photos with the lovely lady, and she told us stories of cocaine abuse and apparently all-u-can-eat establishments.  She was a healthy girl who likely would've suceeded in plus-size modeling if it weren't for her face.

 

So that was the fun.  And it was all capped off with another good win as we continue on the road towards being screwed by the BCS.  Two more consecutive weeks at home await and next week promises to be even better than the last. Newell is bringing a full bar and a DJ.  Hope to see you there!

Well, it took me until almost a week after game one to recover enough to update the blog.  Last week was a very long week getting ready, and after some hiccups, the party was great!

 

First off, last week featured not one but two all-nighters.  First Vince and I saw the sunrise after paiting the second logo on the passenger side.  Then there was Friday night.  With under 24 hours until game time we still had to install the TV mount, the dish on the roof, internal and external speakers, and the new AC.  Oh yeah, we got a new AC.  And a new generator. You see, the previous generator had a decibel level somewhere between commercial airliner and hungry two-year-old.  Between that and its curb weight of roughly 800 pounds (give or take 600lbs), it wasn't a viable option.  We now have a whisper quiet kipor electric generator that many people didn't even notice was running at the tailgate!  Problem is the new generator lacked the juice to run the massive overkill AC we had purchased even with nothinkg else plugged in!  So Megan and I figured out a way to mount a window style AC unit in the bus without taking out a window.  I'll grab some pics of the setup tonight, but all credit goes to Megan for the ingenious idea!

 

So anyhow, Megan and I called it a night at 4am on Saturday after the dish was up and working.  Vince burned the midnight oil as Joy stayed up to launch the GoGatorNation.com Web site that our company worked on (check the site out after the Tenn game with its new design and functionality).  When we joined back up at about 9am Vince had gone above and beyond, wiring awesome outdoor speakers that bookend the TV.  We packed up and rode to the stadium with speakers blaring outside and in.  It was a great feeling.  Lots of honks and waves made it a fun drive.

 

When we got to the parking lot we had to contend with a 12" curb but eventually got her parked as you see in the pics.  We quickly setup the TV and raised the dish to the required heading.  No signal.  We tried all nearby headings.  No signal.  I stood on the roof and ripped down enough branches to build my very own wigwam, and still no signal.  It was a cable commercial if I've ever seen one.  Finally we moved the entire bus about a foot to the left and the signal came to 75%.  Crazy. 

 

Next hurdle was the keg.  We setup the dual tap system with one inside and one out.  However both were just dispensing foam.  After spending about a half hour changing pressures and checking seals, we went to the backup hand pump tap.  The problem was diagnosed and fixed this week, and turned out to be these weird valves in the connectors I bought that were gumming up the works.  We're going to set it up early tonight with the dual taps to make sure we're good and will just keep the fridge plugged in to the extension cord in my house.

 

So once we got beer and had the TV working, it was time to relax.  We gave a bunch of tours to friends, coworkers, family, and perfect strangers.  We popped opened the bbq feast we had won at a silent charity auction from Sonny's.  It was advertised as a feast for 20 people including ribs, chicken, turkey, and pulled pork along with mac and cheese, slaw, bread, baked beans, and sweet tea.  Well I don't know who those 20 people are that they are expecting to feed, but we fed about 30, ended up inviting neighboring tailgaters over, and I've eaten bbq for the entire week at home! 

 

Now that we have one under our belt, setup should go much easier.  We know how to get a dish signal right away, mount the TV, etc.  We're going to experiment with orienting the bus a bit differently in the parking spot to maximize our shade time.  I think we'll all be able to relax a bit more this time around knowing that everything works. 

 

As always, please feel free to join us tomorrow for the game.  We'll be in the same lot between 15th and 16th on university ave.  Have a beer and watch some pregame with us.  Go Gators!