Kyle and Kelsey got an earlier flight out of Birmingham, while Gunter and I had to drive to Atlanta and catch a flight to Milwaukee then onto Phoenix. As you recall the weather was little sketchy at this point. The snow and ice was going to hit Sunday night. So Gunter and I were just praying that we could get out of town in time.
We were flying AirTran to Milwaukee and then United Airlines to Phoenix. (We used our frequent flyer miles for our trip, so we had some crazy routes.) We had a little bit of trouble with AirTran. They had previously mailed us our tickets. Well we didn't understand/know what we also had to check in at the front counter when we arrived at the airport. We weren't checking our luggage, so we didn't think that there was a need. Plus the right side of our ticket said "Boarding Pass." We go through security and arrive at the AirTran gate. They begin calling people to board by "zones." Well of course our ticket didn't have a "zone" printed on it. So I went to the front desk and asked when we could board. They didn't even have us on the flight, because we had not checked in! The flight was full! We had to wait until five minutes before take off to see if everyone showed up for the flight. Luckily, a few people did not show up, so we got their seats! Praise God! But we did have to check our luggage :( We were nervous that it wouldn't end up in Milwaukee, but it did.
We were hoping our "bad luck" was over by then.... but oh no! There was more to come! When we landed in Milwaukee we had to go get our luggage (which took forever). Then to be sure that we were doing the right thing, we went and checked in with United. The lady working at the desk for United was very confused about why AirTran hadn't torn off the top portion of our ticket. She sent us to their counter to talk to them and get "proof" that we were on their flight (Who cares! Just let us fly!). We waited for 45 minutes at AirTran and never talked to anyone who could help us. By this time I was getting really nervous that we were going to miss our flight to Phoenix. Finally the United lady came and found us and cleared everything up. It ended up that it was her fault and she had not read the tickets properly! So we raced back through security and to our gate with a few minutes to spare.
We landed in Phoenix at 8:00pm. We checked into our hotel, the Scottsdale Cottonwood Resort, ate a quick bite, and headed out for a night on the town in Downtown Scottsdale. Downtown Scottsdale was really pretty! Of course I didn't make it long, it had been a very tiring day!
Monday morning we woke up ready for game day! Mom and Dad had booked us transportation from the resort to Glendale where the game would be played. But we didn't have to leave until 1:45. So we shopped around our resort ate lunch and practiced our cheers!
This was outside of our "hacienda"/ hotel room.
That is the Camelback Mountains behind us.
It was beautiful!
Kelsey painted the sign for us before we left! I thought that it deserved to be on TV. That was a pretty catchy saying!
We took about a 45 to an hour bus ride from Scottsdale to Glendale. It was a beautiful drive. We got to see the ritzy neighborhoods of Scottsdale, where many of the movie stars have homes. One fellow Auburn fan on our bus was an Auburn Experience teacher at the University (That is a class for Freshman to learn about the traditions of Auburn, basically an easy A). He told us the history of Auburn and answered questions from the Oregon fans. Then a guy for Oregon talked, but he didn't stand a chance against our Auburn Professor!
A better view of the Camelback Mountains
Arizona was beautiful! I have never been to that state, but I loved it!
If you look closely you can see houses built into the side of the mountain!
Cacti everywhere! I have never seen a cactus this big!
On our way to Glendale!
Approaching the stadium! It was huge!
We unloaded the bus and decided that we wanted to go to the Tiger Walk first. I was blown away by how many Auburn people were there! Definitely more Auburn fans than Oregon.
At Tiger Walk, or should I say Tiger Drive-By.
The players just came by in the their buses.
Oh well! We did lots of cheers and bonded with our fellow Alum.
Since we had already walked half way around the stadium, we decided to walk the other half and check everything out.
Look who I found! Elizabeth Wyatt!
She had just gotten engaged the day before on a hot air ballon ride!
Part of the package that Mom and Dad got us was a Pre-Game Tailgate Party. That was our next stop. It was all you could eat and drink! They had a band and games to play.
We partied at the Auburn tent .... there wasn't even an Oregon tent!
This is Kelsey and I in front of the Auburn ice sculpture!
They had delicious food - shrimp, BBQ, potato salad, desserts... Yummy!
The four of us at the Tailgating Party with our awesome sign!
We are about to head in the game!
Auburn players warming up!
We were sitting in section 112 about 30 rows back.
We had great seats! We were mixed with Auburn and Oregon fans.
The Oregon fans were really nice.
Before the game started!
We win!
I can't even begin to describe to you the way I felt during the last minutes of the game. I think at one point I was almost hyperventilating! Mom texted me around that time and said "You better not go into labor!" But when we kicked that last field goal for the win I felt such a relief and so much pride at the same time. It is just an incredible experience to say that "I went to school at Auburn! I am proud of my school! We are the champions!"It was so great to hear Auburn recognize God and attribute their strengths and abilities to Him!
Gunter and I kept saying over and over, "I can't believe that I am here! I can't believe that we won!" A big thanks to my mom and dad who sent us! If Auburn ever gets the chance to go to the BCS again, I will not miss it! It was such a wonderful experience!
The four of us after the win!
Cheering on my Auburn Tigers!
So excited at this point! I'm still in shock!
Outside the stadium!
We boarded the bus and drove back to Scottsdale. We didn't get to the hotel room until about 1am. Our flight left at 6:50am, which meant that we needed to head towards the airport around 4:30am. On the way to the airport, Gunter said, "I sure hope this flight isn't as bad as our flight out here." Little did we know what laid ahead....
Our adventure home will be in my third post. Let me just say that it involves snow, a Ford Escape, and the throw up virus.
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