Go Gators!
Day 42-43 –
Nov 11-12 – Clean up, catching up with Friends and Gator Football
Weather – All
over the place
There’s
been quite a bit going on for the last few days. Clean up after the hurricane
was actually pretty straightforward. The previous hurricane – Ian – had cleared
out a lot of the weaker branches, so there wasn’t too much to worry about. We
did have a couple of big branches that came down. Mac used the chain saw to cut
those up, and Rusty and I clearer them out by loading them up onto the golf
cart. The girls wondered around the driveway and cleaned up the debris there,
and Mac mowed the lawns, and in no time at all the house was looking good.
We had
planned to catch up in downtown Deland with Katies Friends for dinner and
drinks – our first night out in Deland for about 4 years. Deland has a pretty
lively bar and restaurant scene. One of Katies good friends – Jessica, picked
us up around 5 and we head into town to meet her husband Chris. Our first location
was on the corner of the main street and New York Av, and on a Friday night, a
whole bunch of very excited young Christians take over the 4 corners of the
intersection with signs like, “Jesus saves”, “Eternity is a long time if you
are wrong”… plus various biblical quotes – lots of hath’s, shalt’s and thee’s…
In amongst the clean cut, placard wielding missionaries, was one green haired lady,
sitting in prime position with a counter argument – “No fear, no guilt, no deliusion…”.
Everyone seemed to be very civilised about it, this all seemed like some sort
of regular Friday night thing. I imagine they all head off to Chick fil’a for a
chicken burger after all that effort. At least that’s how I imagine it. The Atheist
lady is probably a vegetarian though…
After a few
refreshing beverages, and some bloody strange local “beers”, and I use the quotations
there deliberately, one beer was peanut butter and jelly flavoured – I mean,
who does that? Anyway, we moved on to the artisan alley night time market around
the corner. Lots of little stalls and a few food trucks. We meet up with Kristen
and Rick, Kristen is another of Katies high school friends, and then proceeded
to eat and drink our way around Deland. It was a cracking night out on the
town, and didn’t actually get home until after midnight – not the smartest move
considering we had a long drive the next day. But after a stressful few days,
it was nice to let our hair down.
Saturday
was game day - Lucy was staying with Unkie Rusty and aunty Chi Chi, so we were footloose
and fancy free for the whole day and night! We had Kathy and Mac’s tickets to
the University of Florida vs University of South Carolina American Football
match in Gainesville. It’s about a 2hr drive North West of Deland. Game started
at 4pm so we left around 12pm and hit the road – the drive takes you through
some very rural country side. The kind of country where you could just about
hear those banjo’s playing. In Florida, the further north and inland you get –
the further “south” you get. And it’s pretty southern around these areas – the
kind of area where the word down is pronounced with two syllables. We stopped for
BBQ on the drive up at a place Mac recommended – Pearls BBQ – very good BBQ
pulled pork. Mac had suggested that we park at the Hilton in Gainesville and
then catch the shuttle from the hotel to the ground. We arrived just in time to
miss out on the last seats on a shuttle – it’s a supercharged golf cart really,
with a trailer – about 10 seats. The drive told us the next cart would be back
in 5-6mins, This turned out to be an inaccurate estimation on the part of the
driver. We waited about 30mins and still no cart. At this stage there were a
few other people all waiting, Katie had gone inside and asked the front desk
for the phone number of the driver and called through – only to be told that
they couldn’t give an “exact time”, and then I the same call, that “they were
just around the corner…”. Some people we were chatting with who were Gators
fans, down from New York, told us they had an uber on the way and we could jump
in with them. The uber arrived first, about 40mins after we had missed the
first shuttle. We jumped in – just as we were leaving we saw the golf cart
shuttle arriving… So much for 5-6mins. Unfortunately, the uber couldn’t get us
all the way to the ground as the streets were closed off, so we had a 20min
walk still to go to get in. The lead up to the ground is surrounded by student housing
and car parks – all filled to overflowing with people tailgate’n. The phrase is
derived from the tailgate on the back of pickup trucks. One can participate in
this by opening the tailgate on one’s pickup, so that one may sit on the ledge
and drink beer with one’s friends while awaiting the start of the football
match. Not unlike the Australian tradition of sitting on the back of a ute watching
a footy match – I wonder if they toot their horns over here after each goal/touchdown?
The gameday ritual of tailgate’n has evolved to include large marquee tents, camper
vans, live music, and plenty of beers and bbq. Some people get started early in
the morning, so that come game time, they are more than a little lubricated. Due
to our delay, we were unable to really appreciate any of the tailgate’n going
on, as we had to make straight for the stadium and our seats. Inside the stadium,
it’s very cramped – it’s a 90,000+ stadium, but very small – the bleachers are
stacked on top of each other in a way that makes you feel very close to the
action and very close to each other. Good thing we’re not in the middle of a
pandemic anymore. Thankfully our seats were in the shade as it was 85F when the
game started. The game itself was interesting, a very entertaining first half, where
Florida was out to a commanding lead by the main break. I would say the highlight
was the marching bands performance at half time – spectacular is how I would
describe it. I have no idea how they could possibly form patterns such as a
moving space ship, that took off and went through the clouds that then turned
into starts, that transformed into a map of the USA – all the while playing
music in fully outfits, and while cheerleaders and dancers ran throughout the
formations. Standing ovation from me that’s for sure. Surely some people come
along just to see this performance! The rest of the football game was a bit disappointing.
For someone used to Aussie Rules, the constant stops, time outs, video reviews
etc… made it drag on a bit. About half the crowd of 90,000 had left mid way
through the final quarter with the game result no longer in doubt – Florida won
quite easily. So for a game of 15min quarters, we started at 4pm and finished
not far from 8pm… I’d say I really enjoyed the first half, but I need to build
my understanding of the game if I am to last a full match. Katie and I had
decided to drive home, but we were quite hungry, so we stopped for dinner on
the way home. Bonefish Grill if anyone was wondering. Not bad. We got home a
little after midnight. Thankfully Katie drove so I napped most of the trip
home.
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