A State Championship Road Trip

Last Thursday my dad, brother and I went down to Auburn to watch Madison Academy play in the 3A state football finals. It was a long and tiring but extremely fun day!

They picked me up at 6:00 a.m. and we hit the interstate, arriving in Birmingham just about rush hour. The traffic wasn't too terrible as we were going against the flow most of the time. At one point, when we were in traffic on Highway 280, we noticed some police lights up ahead. When we got to area where the patrol car was, we notice a black mustang with parts falling off of the front. A minute or two later, we looked up and a girl in an SUV was driving down the road with the front bumper of the mustang attached to her trailer hitch and she didn't have a clue. I really don’t even think I have the words to describe how bizarre of a situation this was; we don’t know if the accident had just happened and she just drove off or if they were wrapping things up. Whatever the case, she didn't have a clue that she was driving around with another car’s bumper on her backside.

Once we were outside of Birmingham, we stopped for breakfast at Bojangles and then were on our way again. I have only been to Auburn once in my life when I performed with a drama troop with my church youth group and that was a drive there, perform and drive back trip and knowing me I slept the whole way there and the whole way back; so, I didn't realize that it was such a long drive down to Auburn.

When we arrived in the town, we had a difficult time trying to find a place to park as none of the people in security attire could provide us with accurate direction. We finally found a place to park and arrived in the stadium about 30 minutes before kickoff.  

The game was very exciting and the Mustangs were up 17-7 at the half which still made my dad nervous as he wanted a big lead to secure the win. MA went on to score two more touchdowns in the second half and won the first ever state title in football for all of Madison County by a score of 31-7. My dad, who played at MA, and has put a lot of blood, sweat, money and most of all heart into the program was overcome with emotion and just as I suspected, had a hard time holding back tears. It was a great win for the school, county and city.

After the game we were back on the road and made a stop at the Russell store in Alexander City on the way back where I got an Alabama shirt for all of $7. When we got to Birmingham we hit traffic again and while it seemed to take forever, it was probably only about 30 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic. We stopped downtown at The Fish Market which as you may recall is my favorite Birmingham eating spot and had a delicious meal that my brother gave 10 out of 10.

After dinner we were back on the road and were all extremely tired at this point. I think it’s the first time in my life where I've been in the car with my family and no one has said one word. My brother was driving and at times I feared for my life, but we made it back in one piece a few minutes before 8:00 p.m. It was a long and exhausting day, but so worth the trip. We had a great day and saw history made and most importantly were able to spend time together enjoying a game we all love.