1/3, Hotel

Gameday! We got out of the hotel around mid-morning and walked up Canal St. past the casino to the Riverwalk. After taking the mandatory Ocean's 11 picture at the fountain, we watched the Mississippi River for a while, looked at a huge cruise ship, and then walked around the nearby mall in search of the all-important New Orleans souvenirs. Tom had found this promising (but unpronounceable) Cajun restaurant in the French Quarter thanks to our handy-dandy Sugar Bowl Visitor's Guide. It turned out to be several blocks away from the mall, however, so we gave up, found the Café Gumbolaya instead, and had lunch with Susan and Beau. After a great taste of New Orleans, we wandered back towards Jackson Square and saw a break-dancing group perform on the street, during which an elderly Auburn fan felt it was necessary to flash the crowd! War Eagle! Next, we took a carriage ride through the French Quarter, which proved to be informative. Afterwards, our intrepid group wandered around the French Market, and Joe and Casey split off to do some shopping. The rest of us tried to find a place that served Dr. Pepper. Why does this town have every type of liquor but no DP?

-Matt

1/3, Written Post-trip

We ultimately had to give up the Dr. Pepper search and settle for a round of Cokes at O'Flaherty's Pub, a neat Irish place somewhere in the French Quarter. I tell ya, New Orleans is just an epicenter of pubs and bars of all shapes and sizes. I think the bartender was a little shocked that we only ordered the Coke, but what can I say? We have our fun in other ways.

After resting up at O'Flaherty's, we made our way back to our hotel in order to pick up the tickets. As with most of our walking trips through the city, we didn't get very far without seeing something interesting. This time, we came across a rapidly-growing crowd of Hokie fans gathered outside of the Marriott, where the players, coaches, and band were staying. We watched with growing anticipation of seeing some of the players climb into their buses, but we eventually found out that they wouldn't be leaving for another half-hour or so. Thus, we pressed on.

A few blocks from our own hotel, we witnessed our first fight of the trip, between two local high school girls. Looking back on it, it was probably pretty amusing, but at the time I felt a little nervous to be caught so close to the crowd as it happened. We crossed the street as quickly as possible and noticed one of New Orleans' Finest running over to the scene, so I'm sure everything got cleared up.

By the time we got to our rooms, distributed the tickets, and had a few snacks, Team Old People (aka Team Hangover) and Joe and Casey had all returned. United, we all piled onto a single Park Plaza Hotel elevator to make our way down to the lobby. We only stopped to let on one more Hokie fan - there wasn't enough room for any Auburn people, you see. It was a relatively short walk to the Superdome, although the streams of orange, maroon, and navy grew thicker and thicker the closer we got. We stopped for a few requisite pictures outside the arena, then we all headed our separate ways according to gate and ticket number. As it turns out, our seats were better than expected - still very far back, but the Superdome is arranged so there isn't a horribly bad seat in the place. We settled into our spots and anxiously awaited gametime!

You can check out TSPN's official take of the game on Tom's site (it's an official sponsor, after all). All in all, it was still exciting to be there, and while we didn't win, I was still proud to be a Hokie after the clock ran down. Indeed, even after witnessing the second fight of our trip on the way down the Superdome's main ramp. This time, it was between a twenty-year old Hokie and a sixty-year old Auburn Tiger. What was up with that? We may never know.

We were all exhausted after arriving back at our hotel, so there isn't much to report from there. Tom scored the last Dr. Pepper in the entire place, while Joe, Casey, and Rachel tried their hand at finding food in the Quarter. I hung out a little with the other group down on the fifth floor, which was great, since our paths didn't cross as much as we all would have liked. Shortly after that, we all crashed, knowing that we had a long drive ahead of us.

-Bret