Tittle Tales

On November 16 my family and I had the privilege to visit Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to watch Ole Miss dominate Troy. We were graciously given tickets by the pastor of our church and we were thrilled to be able to experience the excitement and the opportunity to support one of our great football teams here in north Mississippi. We have and are planning to continue to support Ole Miss and are excited about cheering them on in the coming seasons.
We asked around about where to park and the best way to get to the stadium with somewhat of a low stress level with three kids and game day traffic. When we woke up the morning of game day it was cloudy, so I immediately started watching the weather and the Doppler for our area to see what kind of adventure we had in store for the day.
I knew by the looks of the percentages of precipitation it was highly likely going to rain, so I prepared for a day of football in the rain. Regardless, rain or shine I was determined we were going to the game and I was going to make the best of it–drenched or not!
So, with my somewhat forced, but hopeful smile, I gathered and prepared all the rain gear we owned. We all piled in our truck and threw our ponchos and umbrellas in the back and headed to the field for some serious football action. We eagerly parked and quickly walked towards the cheering crowds and sound of the bands.
As we got closer I decided I wanted to walk through the Grove. I have heard of this place since moving here and wanted to see what everyone was talking about. It was beautiful and I plan to hopefully visit again. Many of the Rebel fans I saw in the Grove had great front row seats watching the game on huge flat screens under their tents where they could monitor their hotdogs, burgers or steaks on the grill. Those fans know how to tailgate in a serious way.
We finally reached the stadium and I could see my kids growing more and more excited as the bands and cheering grew louder. As they scanned our tickets, I tried to focus and listen over the screaming cheers as the lady gave me directions to our seats. We managed to find them and all sat down with our eyes fixed on the beautiful football field.  My youngest little boy loved the band and my daughter was thrilled to watch the cheerleaders and tumblers and, of course, my oldest son was over-the-top delighted with how close we were to the end zone.
After a while I noticed that I could not find our friends that we were supposed to meet. After several humorous and confusing texts with her, I began to realize we were sitting in the wrong section. Because of the sparse crowd, there were handfuls of empty seats and we were able to stay in the section we were in.
As noon approached, the kids began to smell the food and see all the people sitting around us with tasty burgers and nachos. So, I got everyone’s order and made a food run. When I returned I quickly handed out all the burgers, pizza and cokes and continued watching the game while enjoying my Bruiser Burger.
The entire experience from receiving the gift of the tickets to the time we left was unforgettable and we hope to return very soon to cheer on Ole Miss. Although the weather was iffy at first, it ended up being beautiful by the end of the game and we had a great win over Troy.
I was one happy, happy, happy Ole Miss girl.