In the last month or two (when I dropped of the face of the blog world) the most exciting thing that I did was take a cross country roadtrip to the National Championship!! Now I know I have been going on and on about this football season since October, but let's face it, I clearly had something to be proud of!! So let me tell you about this trip that took four southern football fanatics across America. (P.S. I am now officially crossing off "1. Take a cross country road trip" from my list)
On Friday, January 7th Mom, Dad, Aunt Carolyn, and I loaded down mom's CR-V and headed west. That night we made it to Shreeveport, Louisiana in no record time. Let me tell you what happens when you road trip with three other people, you go stir crazy. It seemed like we stopped nearly every hour and a half for food, bathrooms, or general stretching. Since I had snacks, don't use public restrooms, and am 22, I saw no use for any of those stops. But still that's the way it went. In my opinion, the only legitimate reason for a stop on a road trip is to take pictures at say, a state sign!!
Yep, there's Louisiana. And by the way that sign is only a few inches thick and easy to fall off of, not that I did.
After crossing 3 states in one day I felt like we had really accomplished something. We'd had light fun conversation and I had an iPod. ha ha. But really we were having a great time and making good progress when we ran into Texas. (bum bum bum)
It seems harmless enough, but you see the middle portion of that state? The largest part? We drove across that. And though it took 2 days, a minor amount of my sanity due to no phone service (thanks verizon...no, I cannot hear you now!), and many tanks of gas, there were all kinds of adventures to be had in the state where everything is bigger...or is it? First of all we went to a restaurant recommended on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (that's two on my list for this trip!) A little place, definately classified as a dive, called Fred's Texas Cafe and boy was it Texas-y!! By the way we made up a new word, Texas-y, I'll show you what it means soon!
Also, while at Fred's we found our first cactus of the trip! We wanted to find the big cacti you hear about being out west...that was not it. And the Texans thought I was insane taking this picture. But anyway, at Fred's we got to sit outside and listen to live music by a man who told dirty jokes that did not impress my mother, and a girl whose legal name was Sunshine.
Now this could've been all the Texas I needed, but little did I know that we would find the man with the Texas-y mustache...and get a picture with him, thanks mom. :)
Also while we were in Texas we decided to hop the border to Mexico, but apparently border patrol doesn't appreciate sponteneity and said that if we crossed without passports that Mexico would keep us, which we certainly didn't want! But we did get darn close to the border, close enough to park in border parking for 5 minutes.
After exiting Texas we made it to New Mexico. While New Mexico was beautiful, it was not my kind of place. Allow me to explain. My biggest fear is snakes (I mean it's a paralyzing fear) and the first thing I saw at the welcome center was this...
Now let's think about this. Alabama has all kinds of interesting creatures, but I figure your state has to have a real problem to have a sign AT THE WELCOME CENTER!! I cannot emphasize this enough. It took a lot of coersion to get me out of the car at all. I still believe they made it up, but mom and Aunt Carolyn told me that during the winter the snakes hibernate under ground. That sounds about as likely as buffalo not being extinct. haha. But anyway, while at this welcome center we found a bigger cactus than we had already seen...
Still not what we were looking for, but good try New Mexico.
We only spent a short time in New Mexico, and finally made it to Arizona (where there is not a welcome center with a state sign...step it up Arizona!) But their welcome center did have some interesting cacti though.
By the way, that thing stuck me like 30 times...it was a ninja cactus. Also, I know this post seems cactus heavy, but it was a fun game part of our trip. And we did finally find what we were looking for in Arizona.
Now that is what I call a cactus, and you should look at that beautiful background with the mountain. The whole state was that gorgeous!! It was amazing.
Now after we got into Arizona it wasn't long until we were in Phoenix for the night, and before we knew it, it was gameday!! We headed out pretty early and the rest of the day was amazing!! It can only be explained in pictures, with a brief narraration.
This is from our seats, mine and Andrew's that is. Mom and Dad were down below.
It just so happened that our brother William was one section over and one row down from us. We were on the top row. haha But the view was great!! And I love that this is a once in a lifetime photo op for the 3 Avant children. :)
Just after we WON the National Championship!!!
We were both crying and freakin out...for good reason!
Mom and Dad were too...
And the best part of this whole experience is that we got to do it as a family.
Let me tell you how angry the Arizona cops were that people were rolling their trees. haha They just didn't understand.
I don't even have words for that night. It was truly one of the best nights of my life and I honestly can't believe I was fortunate enough to be there for it.
After coming off of an amazing night like that it's hard to realize that you have 30+ hours of driving ahead of you, but we did. And to make that even better Andrew's flight was cancelled on the way home so he joined the carpool!! Since we were comfortably cramped on the way to Arizona, we decided to rent a car for the trip back. So again we took on New Mexico (and its snake problem), we conquered Texas (all 2 days of it and no cell service), and we made it home. The rest of the trip can be described in picture. :)
Home, sweet, home!!
Overall this was the trip of a lifetime and I'm so thankful I got to see the sights, share in the memories, and witness Auburn win the National Championship! To sum up the whole thing the best part (besides winning and hearing the alma mater played) was coming out of the stadium and finding my parents. After hugs and exchanged "War Eagle"s my dad just looked at me and said "hell of a senior year". I couldn't agree more. This has been such a dream, I still can't believe it.
War Eagle!!
