OSU Tailgate Party

Each day I wake up with excitement wondering what adventures are in store for me. Keeping a positive attitude is one of the things I strive to do daily. I try to look at thing optimistically, and I'm always ready to learn or try something new. I'm not really an outgoing party animal...quite the opposite in fact. I tend to be shy around people I don't know or don't know well. That said, can you imagine me actually attending an OSU (The Ohio State University) Tailgate Party? See my grin...I did it! I really did it! I've never seen anything like this in my life. I've never ventured close to the "horseshoe" on game day. Shucks, they turn over cars and set things on fire around campus on game day. **shudder**

My adventure today started when I asked my daughter to accompany me to the Great American Tailgate Party hosted by Jack Daniels. We headed off with our tickets in hand with no idea what we were in for! Where would we park?

Surely there would something fairly close to our function. So we turned down Lane Avenue and immediately found ourselves in the worst traffic jam I've ever seen. The streets were crowded with students proudly wearing their colors and they were packed tightly shoulder to shoulder! An hour later we finally parked in a shopping center about one and a half miles away. It took us a half hour to walk back and we found ouselves jammed into an area where everyone was screaming and drinking and we couldn't budge an inch. To top it all off, we are both around five feet tall, and these hunks were six feet and over. We finally managed to push and shove our way toward the Jack Daniels Tent where we were invited only to find we couldn't get in that way. Sooooo we had to make our way back out and up to the next gate.

I won't bore you with all the details, but I can now say I attended an authentic OSU tailgate party. Great food, good drinks, and a big screen TV for those who didn't have tickets and wanted to watch the game there. We left with our loot as soon as the game started and made it back to our car just as a tow truck was busy loading up two car next to ours. Yep, they tow away cars of people who park there and head off to the game! Five minutes later and we wouldn't have had transportation. Home again, home again and now I'm limping around with padding over the blisters on my feet. I'm sure this day will find it's way into a book before long. Isn't it fun the things we will collect? I wonder when I'll ever wear the Jack Daniels T-shirt and the plastic necklace, let alone drink something again from that plastic cup?