(Link for the pics http://community.webshots.com/album/224630389vuwRiB)

Friday 11/26

After Maryland's tough loss to Virginia Tech, Surn and Brian agreed to accompany 
my brother and I on a roadtrip to the lovely city of Athens, Georgia for the 
rivalry game between the Georgia Bulldogs and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.  
Known as Clean Old Fashioned Hate throughout the South, it is a very bitter 
rivalry that splits familes and has been played for close to 100 years and I 
thought it would be a great game for the Terps' fans to experience.  Though not 
as big as a the games against Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, and LSU and Clemson as 
of late, it still is great game to attend and it's always great to be in Athens.  
92,000 people in Sanford Stadium in the middle of campus, beautiful women, cheap 
beer, and even a fight was added to our road trip resumes.

Our trip took about 9 hours, and special thanks goes out to Surin's father for 
letting us use the family minivan, even though we quickly found out that it had 
some troubles with the transmission.  But that didn't stop us from completing 
our journey.  When we arrived to Athens, we immediately hit up Zaxby's for some 
delicious chicken fingers, fries, slaw, and texas toast and after we finished, 
we went to the liquor store to stock up for the next day's events.  We then 
decided to hit the town.  For those that don't know, downtown Athens is similar 
to Chapel Hill in that it is not very large, but has about 2-30 bars all within 
4 blocks of each other.   Just like any other college town, the beers were 
cheap, $5 a pitcher at once place and we took in 4 bars the first night.  Tons 
of beautiful southern girls and good times were had by all.  We even met the 
Outback Bowl reps who told me they would choose UGA if we beat Tech; it was at 
that time that I decided that a Bowl rep is the greatest job ever as these two 
guys were wearing their Outback Bowl jackets, had a hot girl with them, and 
drinking on the company's dime.  I wish they had a major for that in college.  
After the bars closes, we made it over to Little Italy, which ranks up there for 
"the best late night food that doesn't taste very good when sober."  We even saw 
the clerks refuse to sell pizza to some Auburn fans that were talking the entire 
time in line.

Game Day: November 27, 2004

We got up early, ready to go and out of the hotel at 9:00; however, we did not 
prepare for the weather very well, as it was freezing.  Gametime temperature of 
about 48 degrees with rain; luckily, I had packed enough shirts to insulate us, 
but no gloves or ponchos.  Surin decided to be "that guy" and wear his Maryland 
sweatshirt, so you Terps were well represented 560 miles from home; he even got 
a few questions about the Terps' game.  Surin did manage to find us ponchos, and 
bought himself a UGA one, which he wore proudly and drunkly during the game.  We 
set up shop near the dorms and my friends all met up with us; by the end of the 
day, we were about 20 people deep at our spot.  The weather contributed to the 
atmosphere not being as crazy as usual, as the lot wasn't as crowded as it 
usually is.  We did the typical tailgate food, sausages, brats, chicken, and 
burgers, as well as cold beer, rum, Beam, and Bloody Mary's.  

We managed to get 4 tickets together in the middle deck for $40 each about 3 
hours before gametime, so that gave us more time to concentrate on tailgating.  
Some of us played poker, while others recruited 18 year old girls to our 
tailgate.  "No matter how old I get, the girls stay the same age."  

Gametime

Well, it was Senior Day and the last day that David Green, David Pollack, Fred 
Gibson, and Reggie Brown would ever play at Sanford Stadium and against Tech no 
less.  The Dawgs came out smoking, but Greene got hurt and the rain started to 
fall, as did the temperature.  DJ Shockley (who almost transferred to Marlyand 
after the 2002 season) played well in the first half as Greene's replacement, 
and built a 16-0 lead.  The rain continued and about 30,000 fans left, with 
about 60,000 devoted fans and Maryland alumns remained to cheer on the Dawgs.  
By this time, Surin was incoherent, going aginast his motto of pacing himself 
for the long day and did 5 shots of vodka before we left for the game.  He did 
manage to lead himself, and himself only, in a makeshift rally for the Dawgs, as 
evidenced in the pictures.  We were able to sneak in about 4 or 5 pints of Beam, 
so that kept some of us warm for a little while.  Shockley struggled in the 
second half, but the defense played strong, lead by Pollack.  Tech cut the lead 
to 16-13, but David Greene reentered the game after begging Coach Richt and 
subsequently killed time and got us 3 points.  Tech has the worst quarterback in 
Reggie Ball, and if you haven't seen, he threw the ball away on their last play 
on 4th down, thinking it was 3rd.  The scoreboard did say 3rd down, but the down 
markers all said 4th and Reggie, being the great leader that he is, blamed his 
mistake on being a human and "home cooking" of Sanford.  The scoreboard guy got 
our MVP by the way.

Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting

Started off well, met my friends out for post-game celebrations.   Saw the 
hottest two bartenderettes ever.  Drank more cheap beer, talked up cheap women, 
and enjoyed ourselves until some asses with beer muscles wanted to fight two of 
my friends for bumping into them.  If you guys though Brian played a role in 
starting the fight, you are wrong; but, you may be right in that if Brian is on 
a roadtrip, a fight involving him or someone he knows will happen.  One took a 
swing at my buddy Tyler, starting the melee, when I grabbed the guy in a 
headlock.  Tyler then proceeded to punch the other guy, while the crowd broke 
them up.  My friend Chris tackled the guy I had to the ground, splitting his 
hand open on the guy's head (we think) and getting escorted out by the bouncers.  
I went to grab the rest of the guys and this is where Brian's role comes into 
play, as he was walking with my friend Tyler out of the bar when one of the 
guy's took a swung at Tyler.  Brian then beat the guy in the head 3 times with a 
beer bottle, but the bottle didn't break.  Lesson:  It's good to know Brian Lee, 
it's not good to make him mad.  Nobody went to jail and everyone was fine, we 
don't know if the same can be said for the other guys.  They were lucky we were 
split up in the bar or it would've gotten uglier.  Chris told me that he picked 
one guy out of the three and decided he would hurt him.  "Only thing worse than 
getting hit in the head with a beer bottle, is watching a Clemson game."
Overall Trip Rating: 8.5

The weather hurt the tailgate and game experience, and the game ended up being 
too close for my liking.  The big damper was the fight, but I only wish we were 
all together so that we really could've done some damge.  The best thing is that 
nobody went to jail and nobody was hurt.  Brian and Surin were already talking 
about going back before the trip was over and it is an open invitation to anyone 
that reads this.  We have Auburn and Arkansas at home next year, as well as the 
World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville against Florida.  Athens 
will always be my second home and I had a great time.  Go Dawgs!!