Ducks Fly South To The Crimson Tide

After an hour or two of shagging fly balls and playing basketball with kids in a YMCA camp, we took our showers and went back to Decatur on a hunt for gators. We went back to the same Subway, ordered the same sandwiches and put them on the same Subway gift card (lay off, we're travelers). The woman who made our sandwiches informed us that Flint Creek, a few miles down the road, had plenty of gators. In fact, a few weeks prior, there was a flood in the area and a gator wound up in an elderly woman's yard. It made the local news. We scarfed down our spicy italian and cold cut combos and went to Flint Creek. 

 We parked Black Sally on a gravel road next to the swampy Flint Creek and went separate ways in our search. We found clothes, beer cans, wrappers, rotting catfish, and even a turtle shell, but no gators. Our hearts skipped a beat when a car drove past us and then turned around and approached us slowly. Two guys rolled down their windows and stretched their tattooed arms out as they said, "Where y'all from?" Nervously we told them Oregon and of our intention to see a gator. They laughed and said "There a'int none here, y'all might see a hog though." Our nerves deteriorated steadily after talking with them for several minutes and they asked us how we liked Oregon and the West Coast. They said they would love to go to Humbolt County in California and pointed us to where the gators might be. They told us to take the sharp right turn after the second bridge. We only saw one bridge. We opted to save our search for New Orleans, where we heard was a gator paradise.

The drive to Tuscaloosa was beautiful. The forests were denser than we expected.

We arrived in Tuscaloosa. The University of Alabama has won three of the last four National Championships in football and we had heard this town revolves around its football team. As two diehard Ducks fans, we were anxious for football trash talk with Tuscaloosans. This is the intersection of University Street and Campus Drive, which unlike Knoxville, had sports bars on every block.

The first one we stopped in was called Houndstooth. They have a plaque of Playboy magazine declaring it the "Best College Bar In America Of 2010."Apparently they are proud of their football program. 

Ducks invading Alabama.

Scoducks!

Tennessee is going to have a tough time this year...

We were amazed at the prices of a pitcher of beer. $5 for a pitcher of Bud Light was common here, but $4 was more rare. We enjoyed several while playing a few games of darts.

We had a great conversation with this former University of Alabama offensive lineman. He asked us if we knew Oregon State's coach Mike Riley and we of course did. He then said he played as a freshman while Riley played defensive back as a senior. He had good things to say about Riley, but he and his wife gushed, in particular, about his former coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. Peter and The Wolf were well aware of Bryant as a legendary college football coach and to these people, he was their hero.

After Houndstooth, we walked next door to Rounders. We looked for football conversations all over, but there was a generally smug attitude from the fans, appropriately thinking they were better than everyone else from a football stance. In turn, we discovered a relatively spoiled and unchallenged fanbase. Here is Peter talking with a local, as he usually does.

The buildings on Alabama's campus are all pretty similar to this. Pretty cut and dry arranged in orderly rows of brick buildings.

Shout out to all our Kappa Kappa Gamma friends. And Wolf's mom, a former Kappa from the University of Oregon. 

We enjoyed a soup and salad at Buffalo Phil's. Coincidentally, our server was from Eugene and was a graduate student at University of Alabama. He's still a big Ducks fan.

 Here's Wolf sitting proudly underneath a framed Aaron McKey picture from his days with the Seattle Supersonics. Clearly Alabama is a football school.

It's a huge, imposing stadium. SEC Football. With a touch of Oregon in the foreground. 

Leading up to the stadium is a long brick path with every National Championship roster inscribed into the brick.

Paul "Bear" Bryant laid the foundation of what is now a powerhouse football school. Mike Riley had the pleasure of playing for him, which is a reason why he has had success with the Oregon State Beavers. If he won any more national championships he may need two statues... This could've been Chip. 

We misinterpreted the tour schedule. Apparently, the guide gives a large tour at 11am Monday through Friday. We assumed the tours started at 11 and ran throughout the day. 

It didn't stop Peter and The Wolf from slipping through the cracks. 

They were renovating the exterior of the stadium and we found an open gate. We were the only ones inside. An overwhelming experience. 

A panorama of the stadium. Too many teams to count have come here and conceded. 

Alabama coach Nick Saban, clearly applauding the future success of the Ducks and our road trip. We are now heading to Mississippi to meet up with some buddies we met back in Omaha. 

Neil Young - "Alabama"