Game Day - Cajun Style

Greeted with a glorious Saturday we headed down to campus and got a prime parking spot. We didn't get but 5 ft from our car when 2 cajuns asked us "what are y'all?" We went right into character mode - "Freedom Bowl, Pac 10 6 vs. SEC 5 12/29/09 in Anaheim, CA." They bought it. We found out during the day that everyone would.

Five guys in green blazers was without question a popular way to go. Not only were we pulled into every tailgate we walked by (LA folks were ridiculously nice and polite) we also were consistently asked about "bringing back the Freedom Bowl." Some liked it - "great idea" and some didn't - "Ladies and gentlemen, LSU will never play in the Freedom Bowl."

College GameDay was in town and while we dreamed of getting on stage it was not to be (they were not ready for our star power). It was a bit boring after awhile but there were two highlights. The first was Chris Fowler addressing the crowd during a break and asking "when you get to the 17th shot at 12:00 isn't that going a little overboard." The second was the free Chik-Fli-A sandwiches being distributed. A fine treat.

After a visit to the CBS sports trailer and then Mike the Tiger's habitat (don't call it a cage) we descended on Tiger Stadium. As advertised it was loud and a lot of fun. #1 Alabama led by former LSU coach Nick Saban were taking on the struggling Tigers. It was a tight game and back and forth most of the time. While we watched the two slug it out I was impatiently checking my phone for the Hawkeye score (they were playing #2 Penn State). The stadium erupted when the Hawks won it on the final play. Quite a moment.

The ballgame we were live at ended up going to overtime where Alabama won and kept alive their national championship hopes. We moved on to a local pub and then back to our hotel for more college FB (Texas Tech stroked Oklahoma State). In the morning we were off to our respective homes dreaming already of next year's tilt...Ole Miss perhaps?

Friday in Baton Rouge

Hitting the ground running (or shuffling) we went out to breakfast in downtown Baton Rouge. We were accosted by a cajun gentleman to try out his restaurant and we found the food to be solid.

Biggest problem we had was our chief medical officer (and Joe Madden lookalike) was extremely limited in his ability to function. We got him to down about a gallon of water and escorted him back to the hotel where we had some down time.

Once recovered we headed down to LSUs campus. The campus had a unique mix of buildings and was buzzing with activity due to the big game. We ended up walking around quite a bit making a tearful visit to the Food Science building where one of our members told the tale of how he almost burned it down 10 years ago.

After dropping coin at the bookstore and having a couple at a local bar we made a stop at a liquor store on the way back to the hotel. While buying groceries and provisions for the next day we came across a big decision: which size Crown Royal bottle to buy. Lucky for us a local LSU student made it easy for us with this line: Ya gotta get the big one, it's the Alabama game. Well said and we did in fact get the big one.

Prior to dinner we had our first ceremonial "Dawning of the Blazers" in our hotel lobby. Pitures were taken and it was another teary moment. We adjourned to a free dinner with the Alabama media and then a quiet night getting needed rest for what would be a long day.