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Rutgers Tailgate Wrap-Up:

            -Un-named Game Day Parking Lot, Piscataway, NJ

 Tailgate Quote: 

 Mary:  “Take a left at the ‘No Left Turn’ sign.”

Bob:  “Uh, are your sure?”

Mary:  “It’s Jersey, you can do whatever you want.”

Overall:

I don’t know if it’s because of the outcome of the game or what, but the 2007 Rutgers Tailgate was one for the ages.  We pulled up to the stadium not having a clue where to go, just a blury map that showed us where a couple of pay lots were located, so when we took a right into a small parking lot marked “game day parking” we figured it was as good as the next place.  It wasn’t listed on the parking map we were using to navigate, but sometimes on the road you have to have a little blind faith.  We pulled in and as soon as I paid the $10 to get in, I was already starting to regret it.  The lot was all Rutgers with no signs of port-a-john, but since paying 10 bucks is the equivalent of signing a contract in blood, we figured we’d stick it out.

 Since we pretty much had the north end of the lot to ourselves, we left as much space as possible between us and the Rutgers Frat boys throwing the football (rather poorly at that) in the lot.  We then figured out the best place for a make shift “men’s room” and set up shop.  We were lucky enough to find a nice location under a tree and no sooner did we get out the food and beer but another Maryland car pulled up.  Then another, then another, before we knew it our end of the parking lot had turned into College Park north, and we all started to feel a little better.   

Because we only had 5 of us (me, Chris, my sister Mary, her beau Matt, and RIW Jr.), the table did not make trip and our options were limited to the horse racing game, and LRC.  So we broke out horse racing, and quite frankly we never put it away.  I don’t know what the record for most consecutive horse racing game played is, but I know it was set in the great 2005 NC State tailgate courtesy of the Snively family.  I believe that record is still safe since we had a longer tailgate in NC State than we had in Rutgers (more on that later), but the point is, we played for a while.     

Only one of the greatest Maryland road football games of all time could break up the party, but thanks to north Jersey’s legendary traffic, it was only a break.  After the game we played LRC for about an hour.  We played for $5 a person, and $1 a person, we played for “Straight cash homie”, and we played for Susan B Anthony and Sacagawea coins.  We played until we were the last car in the lot and the road was finally clear.  Then we all piled into the Dakota and drove half a mile, and joined the grid lock.   

Tailgate Highlights:

Not to be mean, well maybe a little, but the tailgate highlight based on crowd response was when Chris went off to find BJ and Sara and guide them back to our lot.  Before he took off his last words to me were “play my cards for me”.  So I one upped him, and played him every time it was his turn to roll the dice.  For example, on his rolls I would say something that Chris would say in except in a high pitched girls voice, such as:

“Your trucks too dirty, I’m getting my Khaki’s all black.”

“Hold on, both my cell phones are ringing”

“I got to go cut grass”

But to be fair, I felt a little bad and for my turns would say stuff, again in the high girl voice like:

“It takes me 30 minutes to eat a sandwich” and

“Next year the Orioles are going to be good!”

 Tailgate Lowlights:

Assuming the leafy bushes surrounding the “make shift men’s room” wasn’t poison ivy, the tailgate lowlight was the start time.  Seriously, you are not a major college program if you don’t observe the 6 hour tailgate rule.  I don’t know why this hasn’t been written down somewhere. 

 I once saw a map where all the counties in the country were designated by how someone orders a soda.  If you say “Coke” you were colored red, if you said “soda” you were colored blue, and if you said “pop” you were colored white (I’m guessing this study wasn’t brought to us by the good folks at Pepsi), but the premise behind it was to delineate the Midwest and the South from the rest of the country (Coke=South, Pop= Midwest, Soda=North East).  But the same principal can be applied to the tailgate start time.  Of course there would only be two categories, American and Commies, and the whole country besides Rutgers and BC would be American. 

Flip Cup Results:

Yeah, we don’t really need this section this week, but had we played flip cup, I’m sure my team would have rocked it.

Weather Report Card:

Those last two forecast were mixed.  I got the overall conditions right for Wake, but it was a lot hotter than I anticipated.  The Rutgers one was pretty damn good.  I even got the breeze right.  Not too windy, but you did notice every once in a while.  So far I’d say the weather forecasts are off to a great start.  Unfortunately one of these games the weather is really going to be the newsmaker, will the D7 Weather Bureau be ready???

The “Save the Terrapin” Drive:

Unfortunately the tailgate wasn’t organized well enough that we had a place to keep the chips, cash, and pot from horse racing so the “Save the Terrapin” drive didn’t really have any place to keep money, but I do plan on making a $10 donation, so that will raise the total to $79.50, ah screw it, I’ll go $10.50 to make it an even $80.00.  Three hundred is still the goal, and I think we are going to see a pretty strong push in October where every game is a home game.    

Tailgate MVP:

This is almost as bad as giving out a tie, but I’m taking home the MVP.  It basically came down to 3 people.  Me, Chris, and my sister Mary.  Chris is always a threat because he has to travel to go to all but one ACC game.  And Mary bought all the food, and without her efforts it would have been 5 people huddled around a Pringles can.  But enough about them.  I had the hardest job of all.  The ride home. 

If you ever need excitement in your life try this out for size.  Get into a Dodge Dakota with 5 people.  Pull your seat up until the steering wheel is inches from your belly.  Place your hands at the 10:00 and 2:00 position, and tie your elbows together with some rope so that they can’t get any further apart than 8 inches.  Then make sure you have no lines of sight, you have no idea where you are going, the person giving directions waits until the last second before warning you about turns.  Then have someone in the back seat contradict those directions.  Do that for an hour straight and we’ll talk.

Honorable Mention (in no particular order): 

As mentioned earlier, both Chris and Mary get the honorable mention.  Chris because he took a bus at 3am from Boston to New York, then took a cab to the subway, and took the subway to Jersey City, and then walked through Jersey City.  All to get to the Maryland Tailgate, you have to respect that. 

Mary, not only provided the food, but also the housing, and she now has more 2007 Maryland Tailgates under her belt them some of the original D7 members have.  I would have thrown Matt in as well for Honorable Mention but he played the horse racing game for 4 straight hours without losing a single race, so he can take a flying leap for all I care.

I’ll also give a shout out to my Dad who funded most of the horse racing.  I don’t know what it is about D7 fathers, but if you are one of them, you may want to avoid the horse racing game.  Just trust me on this.  And finally I’ll throw in BJ AuMiller, that’s right, perhaps his first mention in a recap since the WVU Gator Bowl, but BJ gets the nod because Maryland is undefeated against the Big East in games we both attend. 

And while I’m at it, I’ll throw Jen in for good measure, she wasn’t at the tailgate, but she did give me a shout out on the ramp to section 201. 

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing like Lot 1 in College Park but sometimes you just need to hit the road.  The Rutgers tailgate was a blast, and one that I won’t soon forget.  Of course it’s hard not to have fun when you’re drinking and gambling and gearing up for Maryland football.  And everyone should just once feel what it is like to walk out of an opposing stadium after having just beaten a top ranked team who’s fan base harassed you before the game for thinking your team actually had a chance.  There really isn’t anything like it.

Next tailgate is October 6^th.  It should be a good one.  The Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech will be in town for a crucial ACC match up, so be ready to drink!  Until then, don’t forget:

• Apparently bees can fly as high as the last row of Rutgers Stadium
• Rolling 3 “C”s in LRC isn’t as rare as I originally thought
• Matt is the luckiest SOB this side of the Mississippi
• October 20^th is the debut of “Edward 40 Hands” and if you don’t know what that means, you should be more intrigued than you already are…..

Now let’s BEAT GT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!