Recap of exciting things that have happened in the last couple weeks:
1. Mullet Man became Buzz Man. I did take pictures and wanted to post some of them but decided he looked like a cancer patient. So I did not. Because I love him and I want him to not hate me. Let's just say the hair was very, very short. Like, there was almost no hair. It has since grown and he no longer looks completely bald.
2. We went whitewater rafting last weekend with some guys from Mullet Man's work. It was a beautiful day on a river that went through the Smokey Mountains. I couldn't take pictures because...we were on a boat...fighting our way through rapids. I had to pay attention people! Despite wedging my feet deep into the boat, when our guide steered us into a large rock, I flipped out into the river. One of the guys had a video camera on his helmet and caught the action. Awesome. I do have some sweet bruises to show for it. It was smooth sailing from there on, we had a blast!
3. Yesterday we went to the University of Tennessee football game in Knoxville. This was quite the event sponsored by Kiewit, Mullet Man's place of work. It started bright and early in the morning, where we met up at 11am to take a couple charter buses to Knoxville. At this time, it was raining. We prepared ourselves with layers of clothing and ponchos. At our arrival to the tailgate site, the sun came out. Scorchingly. Kiewit provided a massive camper, large screen tvs, never-ending drinks, and a delish tailgate spread from Calhoun's (bbq and tons of sides). Tennessee fans love football. Seeing seas of orange and hearing obnoxious chants of "Its great to be...a Tennessee Volunteer!" made us miss KU. Oh the Rock Chalk chant, waving the wheat, that beautiful KU blue...*Sigh.*
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| A good example of UT spirit |
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| A UT decked out car...impressive |
Anyway, after roasting for a few hours and gorging ourselves on food at the tailgate, it was finally game time! We headed to Neyland Stadium with the masses and found our seats...literally at the top of the stadium. Which is significantly bigger than KU's Memorial Stadium. I kind of wanted to vomit when looking down. But I gathered my strength to sit down and enjoy the game. UT does put on an impressive pre-game. With the largest marching band of any University and the releasing of doves in honor of September 11th, I was thoroughly impressed. (All these pictures are taken by my phone, since I didn't want to subject my camera to intense weather conditions.)
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| The players running out onto the field through the marching band. Please note all the orange everywhere. |
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| The jumbotron....please note how high up we are. |
Well, we were having a grand time until about 8 minutes into the first quarter. We we noted all the players running of the field. And there was an announcement, "We have received notice of inclement weather including lightening within 6 miles of the stadium...the game will resume after this weather has passed...please take shelter....you will be allowed back into the stadium with your ticket stub."
What inclement weather? We didn't see any lightening. Come on people. Lets play football. Since Mullet Man and I are hard core (ha!), we decided to stick it out with all the other Kiewit people. Surely the game will resume in a few minutes. But check out these storm clouds...
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| See how that once full stadium is now looking much emptier? |
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| "Oh look how the storm is moving past us...it's not even going to hit this stadium." |
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| Note how the storm seems to be heading straight for the stadium. |
After this picture and about 5 more of the same announcements, I saw the lightening. Not far from me. And I was at the highest point of the stadium. Surrounded by metal. And flag poles. More lightening is noted. People are now in mass exodus of the stadium. Kiewit people are still holding their ground. I calmly and rationally suggest to Mullet Man that we perhaps take shelter. He agrees. We start for the exits. And then the monsoon starts. Sheets of rain come down. *Note: we left our ponchos at the tailgate site because the sun is scorching and there would be no need for ponchos.* We are now immediately soaked. There is no more picture taking at this point.
We finally get out of the stadium and decide not to wait for the game to resume. We head back to the tailgate site where a bus comes to take us home. We ride for two hours in our wet and now cold clothes. Once arriving home, we take hot showers and put on dry clothes. It is now midnight. We decide that after our ordeal, we are starving. So we go to McDonalds and get two nutritious Big Mac meals and find that "Date Night" has arrived from Netflix. So we spend the wee hours of the morning enjoying being dry and warm. Ahhh.
Dear UT: We enjoyed your game day experience. Maybe next time we will bring sunglasses, sunscreen, a change of clothes, and a better idea of what the weather will be. We enjoyed your stadium, your marching band, and learning "Good Ol Rocky Top." We think your chant "It's great...to be... a Tennessee Volunteer" is a little silly. We are glad we had the chance to see you score six points before you ended up being beat by Oregon. Good luck in the rest of the season! And as always, Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Love, The Bakers
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