We drove to Jacksonville in preparation for the Florida vs. Georgia football game, aka "The Worlds Largest Cocktail Party." This rivalry has gotten so big over the years that they've had to move it to the this neutral site with lots of room for RVs and other tailgaters to party for the several days leading up to it. After picking up some supplies from American Tailgater for the weekend at the UPS store, we got provisions (read: beer) and located the perfect spot for us to set up camp: "Lot Double D." Already there were hundreds of RVs in various lots near Alltel Stadium (where the Jaguars play). We went over to the Landing, which was to be the focal point of the partying, an area of restaurants and bars on the waterfront with a stage set up for live music. We met our brethren doing mobile marketing for Jack Daniels (same family of companies as Appleton Rum), and they gave us VIP passes to their gameday party (sweet!)
Friday, October 31, 2003 - Halloween! Jacksonville, FL
Our good buddy (and sponsor from American Tailgater), PJ, showed up around 2pm without Luke, who was super-bummed out that he couldn't come because of a work emergency. This being prime marketing territory for American Tailgater, we went canvassing the campsites, taking backpacks full of catalogs, and a few items to sell (like the Florida and Georgia logoed trashbags).
Around dark we got a visit from our friend, Sky, who recently moved back to Gainesville, home of the Florida Gators. She was looking super-cute in her Halloween costume (Catholic school girl), but decided to change (into something different but equally cute) before going out to the Landing with us. Needing some stomach coating (aka food) before going out drinking, but being too lazy to fire up our own BBQ, we bummed around the parking lot until we found some neighbors with a hot grill and a fun vibe and asked if we could fire up our kebabs in their grill. We convinced several of the girls to hitch a ride with us on one of the ubiquitous modified golf carts (read: "death traps") that were running around. Scared for our lives (Sky was practicing her yogic breathing and thinking happy thoughts the whole ride), we ditched the crazy driver about halfway and cabbed it to the Landing.
The place was PACKED! I've never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but that's what it reminded me of from the TV coverage I've seen. We got separated almost immediately, and Sky and I were calling Phil to find out where they were. We never really hooked back up with them, and we wanted to go somewhere less congested, so we headed for the exit to catch a cab. We called Phil, who said PJ was too banged up to continue and he was sending him to meet me to get the RV keys. After waiting 20 minutes for what should have been a 3 minute walk to find us, we called Phil back and told him PJ was MIA. "Just go then, PJ will find his way back to the RV and he'll be passed out in the folding chairs when we return." So we left and found a club called the Leopard Lounge with good music and pool tables. We waited a bit too long to catch a cab (they were all at the Landing), and were stuck out in the boonies without a way home. Eventually we convinced a girl who was being pursued by two drunk suitors to give us a ride back to the RV, helping her out in the process of helping us out.
It turns out that the night before was much more epic than either Sky or I could have imagined. As Phil explained, when he got back to the RV, PJ was indeed passed out in the chairs outside (see pics). Phil tried to get PJ to come into the RV to sleep, but PJ wasn't cooperating and told Phil to leave him alone. Fine, Phil says, sleep outside in the cold all night for all I care. About an hour later, there's a knock on the door, and Phil figures PJ is finally sober enough and cold enough and wants in. Nope, it's someone from a neighboring RV whom Phil did not recognize. "Are y'all missing' someone?" "Yeah, PJ, but he's passed out in the chair over the--" (PJ is missing). "I think you'd better come with me." So Phil follows him down a row of RVs and into the neighbor's RV where PJ is passed out, on the floor, rolled up in the neighbor's throw-rug. "I woke up to go pee and noticed him laying there. Recognized him from earlier, he was handing out catalogs." Phil and the neighbor unrolled PJ and carried him back to our RV, depositing him on the couch. There's more to the story, but because of PJ's mob ties, we'd fear for our safety if details got out. Trust us there's a lot more to the story but for that you'll just have to ask PJ yourself!
Nursing hangovers all, we decided to do some canvasing and check out all the tailgating setups and elaborate displays of school spirit. The most common form was a defiling of the the rival's mascot. Lots of people from Georgia brought their actual bulldogs, some of whom had trained them to ravage anything approximating a stuffed gator. Other folks set up "cafe's" with the rival mascot all over the menu, or graveyards with game-appropriate epitaphs. What was most impressive to me was that even though there were hundreds of thousands of spirited (in both senses of the word) and utterly partial fans taunting the opposition, I didn't see one fight break out or signs of ill-will. It was all one big party, and everyone was there to have a good time. This is in stark contrast to the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry we had just witnessed in the ALCS recently, where there was nothing jovial about it.
We made our way to the Jack Daniels party where there was a band, free drinks (like we needed them at this point), and some games and contests, including a football toss. Sky immediatly took up the challenge and after five tosses or so, nailed the target before any of the rest of us. One of the guys who was watching muttered "lucky shot," which he would soon regret. Playing innocent, Sky negotiated 2-1 odds in money match with him and proceeded to clean his clock for the next hour. Although the guy was too proud to play even up, Sky never needed the odds to win, and should have been giving him odds. Batting her eyelashes, she collected her winnings and we left to go to the game. Phil wasn't feeling so hot and neither was PJ, so both of them went back to watch on TV while Sky and I went in by ourselves. The energy was amazing the entire game and the game itself was worthy of all the hype. It was cool to see the stark dividing line in the stands based on ticket sales: one half of the stadium was dressed in Georgia's red and black while the other was in Florida's blue and orange. Our tickets were (randomly) on the Florida side, which was good for Sky since she was sporting her Gators cap. The Gators beat the vaunted Bulldogs in an exciting finish, putting a big smile on Sky's face for the rest of the evening.
When we got back to the RV, PJ was feeling recovered and seemed to be basking in his newfound celebrity in our RV lot as "that dude who passed out in somebody else's RV." If they only knew the rest of the story, they'd probably build him a shrine at next year's game.
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