Pre-Game!

Angela and I slept in Saturday after an exhausting week in Waco. Our eyes are twitching again from either caffeine overload or too little sleep. Probably a little of both. But we were in MIAMI! Instead of meeting our friends out on expensive South Beach we went to Denny's for a late lunch and decided to explore a little bit. We drove through Coral Cables (WOW!) and out to Virginia Key. It was too windy to hang out at the beach for too long, but we got some great pictures of the Miami skyline. About 4 o'clock we decided to head to the stadium for some tailgating. After a brief stop in Little Havana for some chips and salsa we parked for 6 bucks at a court house a few blocks from the stadium. Bic and company had paid 30 bucks for a spot adjacent to the Orange Bowl, which was great for us. Also, we were glad we brought some snacks, as all they had was alcohol. The tailgate was awesome, to be surrounded by excited Hokies is something few people unassociated with the university would understand. Uncle Bob, Jesse Allen's uncle (our starting fullback) is from Miami and tailgated with us, buying us a pizza. We even met some cool Miami fans. Upon consideration, we decided that actual alumni of the tiny University of Miami are great fans, but the jerks in the stadium are random fans from the streets of South Florida. Lane Stadium is special for the fact that nearly every fan has graduated from the school or is a member of a Hokie family and feels an integral part of the game. In any case, four hours of tailgating forced Angela and I to search out some porta-johns. While in line outside the stadium, we ran into random Hokie fans. Two VT students got into a conversation with us, and it came up that we were currently in Waco. One guy totally flipped out as he grew up near Waco. His early memories of Waco were good ones and he remembers visiting the bears at Baylor as a kid. He made us go to his tailgate to prove to his friends that Waco is not as bad as its reputation is. We didn't have the heart to tell him our problems with the place as he was so excited, (or drunk!). From there we headed to the game.