{Welcome To The Swamp}

Hi friends!  I am a little behind {what's new?!}, but 2 weeks ago we went on our annual football road trip!  This year we were Florida bound!  I was super excited because I had never been to Florida before...so I can now check another state off my list!  Not going to lie, it was a LONG, boring trip.  I am pretty sure I-10 looks the exact same from Texas, to Louisiana, to Mississippi, to Alabama, to Florida....all 15+ hours of it!

We packed up & headed out around 9am Thursday morning.  Someone was not happy about me leaving.  But, don't let that face fool you...my mom & dad stayed with her the entire weekend {their idea, as my mom was certain she would not like being boarded}.  To say she got spoiled while I was gone is an understatement.  

First stop - Buc-ee's!  I mean, hello!!  What would a road trip be without a stop at Buc-ee's?!  

We finally made it out of Texas...geez why does that take forever?!  We made a few pit stops & had a picnic in a gas station parking lot.

Our halfway point was Biloxi, Mississippi so we stayed there Thursday night.  We put our feet in the Gulf, had dinner & drinks on a patio over looking the ocean & left a little money in Harrah's Casino.  We were back in the hotel, in our pj's watching football by 10pm.  We are a bunch of party animals aren't we?!  Ha!

We got up Friday morning, lost a little more money in the casino & then hit the road....after a stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch of course.  Yes, we drive halfway across the country & eat at Cracker Barrel.  Y'all, it's kinda our thing.  I think we ate there twice on this trip, at least.  And have you ever shopped there?!  They have the cutest stuff!

After what seemed like f-o-r-e-v-e-r, we finally made it to Florida!  We checked into our hotel...and then hit the road again.  Seeing a pattern here?  We spent A LOT of time in the car.  We stayed about an hour north of Gainesville in Lake City so we headed down for supper & Midnight Yell.  We found a delicious, but crazy packed, pizza place/sports bar.  We finally got a table & enjoyed a few hours of pizza, drinks, shots & the Houston Astros.

Shortly before 12:00, we headed across the street to Midnight Yell.  Y'all, the Aggies represented in Florida!!  It was a full house.

We made the hour trek back to Lake City, crawled in bed around 2:00am...then got up & headed back to Gainesville Saturday morning.  We lucked out & finally - THERE WAS NO RAIN!!  Woohoo!!  Those of you who have been following me for a while know it rains every single time we go on a road trip.  Don't get me wrong, Florida takes hot & humid to a whole new level, but it really was a gorgeous day.  We walked around campus, checked out the Blue Bell tailgate & even spotted a gator!  Y'all, they roam freely around campus.  There is a lake in the middle that is home to lots of them, but we ran out of time & never made it over there.  A security guard warned us to be on lookout & not to get too close if we saw any.

Kick-off was at 7:00 & y'all - The Swamp comes by it's name honestly.  Hot & humid was an understatement.  But we survived & that place can ROCK IT!  The whole gator chomp thing is quite possibly my favorite thing ever.  It's a close race between them & Alabama for having the best game time experience.  In typical Aggie fashion, there were lots of highs & lows and fortunately, we pulled it out in the end with a thrilling interception to end the game 19-17.  

Because it was a 15 hour drive home, we decided to get a jump start on Saturday night after the game.  We drove about 3 hours & around 3am, pulled into a hotel in Midway, Florida & slept for a few hours.  8am came way too early, but we were back on the road again. Rain & LOTS of traffic made the trip home way longer than it should have been but we finally pulled back into Brenham around 9pm.

We ate too much, we drank too much & we gossiped too much, but y'all - we had a blast!  People often look at us like we are crazy when we say we are driving, but the road trip is my absolute favorite part!  Another epic road trip in the books & another SEC stadium checked off the list.  Let the planning for South Carolina 2018 begin!