Simple Pleasures

When you're 7 and 4, it's the simple pleasures that make life grand. There was a time for all of us when we didn't worry about $700 billion dollar economic bailouts, presidential politics, or the price of a gallon of gas. All we needed was a bicycle, a good climbing tree...or a dancing fountain on a hot, sunny day.

I give my kids a lot of credit for not being whiners about long trips in the car or sitting in a hot football stadium with the adults behind you hitting you in the head every time they sit down. It never fails, though, that we always seem to find a way to reward them for their attitude. I guess they've come to look forward to when it gets to be "their turn" to have a little fun.

In this instance all they needed was a courtyard at the University of Florida with a fountain they could play in. An hour out of my day for them to indulge in a simple pleasure was all it took to satisfy them for the rest of the day. An hour well spent!

More pics from the Ole Miss-Florida game...

My Rebels upset #3 Florida at The Swamp

It has been quite some time since I've posted to the ole blog. Unfortunately, we haven't had many roadtrips in the past year worth writing about. We've had a few long weekend trips, but I have not been diligent about writing about those trips or taking pictures.

Every now and then, though, something special happens that rekindles the desire to sit down and put together a post to share with family and friends. This past Saturday was one of those moments. As many of you know, I am a bit of a college football fan (yes, a gross understatement). In particular, I follow the Ole Miss Rebels and I've got quite a streak going. In fact Saturday at The Swamp in Gainesville, Florida I took in my 55th consecutive Ole Miss football game.

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is the last SEC frontier for me. I've seen a game in every other stadium in the SEC, so I was particularly looking forward to taking in this gameday experience. And it didn't disappoint. Take, for instance, the pageantry of the Florida Marching Band taking the field in pregame.

We arrived in Gainesville about two and half hours before the game. We had plenty of time to walk down University Avenue and take in some of the atmosphere. I am always surprised at how all these other great schools with decades of football tradition have NOTHING like The Grove when it comes to tailgating. Folks at Florida just seem to gather wherever they can...parking lots, front yards of houses where they pay up to $30 to park, sidewalks and bars along University Avenue. It is a very pretty campus, though. We stayed primarily around the athletic facilities, so I'm sure there are lots of things that we missed about the campus.

The truth is we started to walk around campus and discovered a surprise that my daughters could not resist...a dancing fountain in a courtyard between two buildings. That pretty much took up the last hour prior to kickoff. As evidenced by the photo, this was the perfect pregame ceremony as far as they were concerned. The Florida sun was beaming down, so it didn't take long for them to dry off. After watching the Florida band parade in front of us and into the stadium we shuffled through the gate and to our seats in the southeast endzone.

We were blessed with great seats about 20 rows from the field right on the goalline. I'd estimate about 3,500 Rebel fans in attendance. Considering the announced attendance was over 90,000, we did our best to be a very vocal minority. As it turns out we ended up having a party that lasted more than an hour in the stadium after the game.

And to their credit, Florida fans were extremely gracious in defeat. Almost everyone we encountered on our way back to the car was congratulatory and very complimentary of our team...unlike the classless behavior of certain fans in places like Tuscaloosa, Fayetteville and Starkville.

In the end it's all about the scoreboard and the celebration that ensues, so to all who stumble across this blog...Jerrell Powe and the Ole Miss Rebels say Chomp on this Gator Nation!