This is my very first guest blogging post. I was able to talk my wonderful husband into sharing about his recent trip. Enjoy!
So it all started with a phone call from "Puddin'" over the summer. He asked me if I wanted to go to a Notre Dame game in October. Me, being a big fan of the movie Rudy and knowing some of the famous places in South Bend, said OF COURSE!
So the football season starts early September and I'm pumped about Auburn football. It's going to be a great season and we're going to finish 3rd in the SEC West. We lose our opener to Clemson, but it's okay because they have a really talented quarterback and running back. Then we lose to Mississippi St., but that's not too big of a surprise because they've been getting better each year under Dan Mullen. Then we pull off the overtime win against Louisiana Monroe. But it's not time to worry yet because they just came off of a win last week against Arkansas who is supposed to awesome this year... just like Auburn. Then we play a very close game to LSU and only lose by 2 points. So it's still not all that bad. But then comes Arkansas, who is obviously struggling. So this should be an easy win, right? Not so fast my friends. The team doesn't show up and Arkansas runs all over us.
All the while, Notre Dame is having an undefeated season. And so is Standford (who Notre Dame was playing for the game we went to). I'm keeping up with them, somewhat living vicariously through them for my Auburn Tigers. Stanford loses to Washington three weeks before they played Notre Dame, but it's okay because ESPN's College Gameday will be there for the show down of the undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. the 5-1 Stanford Cardinals! I AM PUMPED!!
The weekend finally gets here and Puddin' and I take Friday off from work to start our travels. We left that morning at 7:30. Went through Atlanta, Chatanooga, Nashville, Louisville, and finally stopped in Indianapolis for the night. Saturday morning couldn't get here soon enough!
We wake up at 6am, get ready, eat breakfast, and hit the road towards South Bend. In case you've never been on Indiana Highway 31, it's A LOT of farms and corn fields. On the way, we're checking the weather and realize that the chances of us getting in the car at the end of the day without wet clothes are the same as Auburn going to the SEC championship game this year.
We arrive in South Bend and find a guy who's selling parking spaces in his front yard for $20. It was right next to campus and was $10 cheaper than every other place we drove past, so we pulled onto his front yard and headed towards campus.
At this point I was pumped, because I knew I was about to see one of the most iconic college campuses in America. Then, in the distance we can see the famous Touchdown Jesus. And it is HUGE! Then we see the golden dome and the stadium. I can't wait to see them up close.
We go to Touchdown Jesus first because we saw that College Gameday was set up in front of "him" the night before. Here's a shot of what we saw.
After seeing game day and actually going into the building that Touchdown Jesus is on (which is actually the campus' library), we went to see the golden dome. It's the administration building for Notre Dame.
Right next to the golden dome was the cathedral. I knew they had a place for Mass on campus, but didn't realize that it would be a cathedral that matches the size and elegance of the National Cathedral. Inside had many rows of pews, painted ceilings, golden chandeliers, and architectural masterpieces.
After visiting the sites of campus, and waiting around inside for about an hour because it was raining, it was finally time to enter Notre Dame Stadium! Once we got in, we started finding our section and seats. Puddin' and I were both surprised to find out that our seats were 23 rows from the field and dead on the 50 yard line! There's not much room between the field and where the seats start. When the teams were warming up (seen below), we could hear every word the coaches were saying. I couldn't wait until the game started.
Another part of the trip that I couldn't wait for was to hear the Notre Dame marching band play "the best fight song in America" (according to the announcer). I'm more partial to War Eagle myself. But it was awesome to hear it live!
Once the game started, I kept the camera under the poncho most of the time because it never really stopped raining. To recap, Notre Dame struggled to move the ball offensively most of the game. Stanford started looking good in the 2nd quarter, and I was kind of worrying that the (probably) only trip I make to South Bend, Notre Dame was going to lose. They were behind 17-14 and had the ball with 5 minutes to go. They started driving down the field when the starting quarterback was taken down hard. He had to leave the game and the backup came in. Now I'm really worried because from what I've experienced from backup quarterbacks this year from Auburn hasn't been good. But this kid comes in and takes Notre Dame down the field to get them in field goal range. The kick is good and we're going into overtime.
Notre Dame gets the ball first and the backup quarterback throws a beautiful touchdown pass to give them the lead. Stanford gets the ball, and the stadium finally gets LOUD. Being from Auburn, I'm used to the home crowd getting LOUD almost every time the opposing team has the ball, but this was the first time the whole game that the stadium sounded like they wanted their Fighting Irish to win.
Stanford moves the ball down the field and makes it to the 4 yard line for a 1st down. They have 4 really good chances to make it into the end zone. But Notre Dame's defense steps it up and stop them 4 plays in a row to get the victory!!
This trip was a dream of every American male who follows college football. I never thought that I would get to experience it, but then again, I never thought that I would have as great of a father-in-law as I do. A big thanks to Mike Petty for the trip of a lifetime! GO FIGHTING IRISH!!
