Missouri Roasts Hogs from the "Great SEC"!

The only thing missing at the 2008 Cotton Bowl was a pit to roast the hog in! The Tigers completely dominated Arkansas in every phase of the game winning 38-7. It was such a brutal beat down that most of the Arkansas fans had left before the start of the 4th quarter. Missouri's running back, Tony Temple, set Cotton Bowl records for most yards gained (281) and most touchdowns (4). His performance completely overshadowed Arkansas' Heisman runner-up, Darren McFadden. Although McFadden ended up with 105 yards, most of that yardage happened after Missouri had raced to a 28-0 lead and the game was basically over. It was the perfect ending for the Big 12 North Champion Tigers! The Tigers finished the season 12-2, and with 17 returning starters, will look to be a force during the 2008 football season.

There's nothing quite like the atmosphere of college football! Even if you're not really into football, there's the fun, traditions, excitement, and pageantry of it all. Add to this a January 1 Bowl game, with the tradition of the Cotton Bowl, and it's a great time. With over 75,000 fans in attendance, equally divided between Arkansas and Missouri fans, the atmosphere was electric. The bands, the flyover, and a great rendition of the Star Spangled Banner all added to the excitement.

When we arrived at the stadium RV parking lot in Dallas early Sunday afternoon, there were already about 50 RVs decked out in Arkansas colors and decor, some with flags flying. The Arkansas Razorbacks have a huge following of alumni (about 450 RVs) who travel to the games in their RVs and call themselves the Road Hogs. Many were already in fine spirit and had begun a 3 day tailgating fest! When we arrived, the parking lot attendant told us that we were only the 4th Missouri supporters he had seen so far. Think we got our numbers up to 8 by game time! But the Arkansas fans are fun and friendly, offering to share food and drink at a moment's notice. In the end there were about 200 RVs in the lot. Although the Arkansas fans were loud and boisterous before the game, after the game they sure seemed in a hurry to get out of town.

There was a group of 4 couples from Texas who enjoy traveling to all the local bowl games no matter who's playing and just go for the fun of it. Someone had put together a Q&A and scavenger hunt for the ladies to complete before their mini pep rally later in the evening. They had to get the answers to various Missouri and Arkansas team questions and then secure specific items from the fans.

There was also a group that had some huge speakers over which they played all types of music well after midnight, and since they had a karaoke machine, they were singing along most of the time. Nothing like a bunch of drunk karaoke singers! Definitely a party atmosphere and a great way to bring in the New Year!

Over the next 3 days we heard the Arkansas fight chant waaayyyy too many times! It goes "Woooo Pig Soiee!!", which they yell 3 times, then end by yelling "Razorbacks!" We wondered what Arkansas valedictorian came up with "Wooo Pig Soiee!" We also wondered if a hog could quite possibly be the worst mascot imaginable. If you were looking for a mascot, it would seem that an animal that loves to wallow in its own shit would be far down the list! Oh well.

We had contacted our friends, Kelly and Lynne Herring, who we've known for years and who currently live in Dallas. They picked us up at noon Monday to go to the Cotton Bowl parade downtown. The wind was whipping and the temperature was in the low 40s, but there was a good turnout with the parade lasting about 2 hours. We stopped by the Missouri Pep Rally at the end of the parade singing the Missouri fight song and joining in the cheers. Afterwards they took us to Dickey's for some good ol' Texas barbecue!

After two days of listening to the "Wooo Pig Soiee" cheer and fight song, on gameday we awoke all the Arkansas fans by playing our CD with the Missouri fight song! Most were probably already awake, and the sound didn't travel far because we didn't have those huge speakers that the Arkansas fans had, but we made our presence known by playing it several times! We walked over to the stadium about 9am to pick up our tickets and find our seats. Though it was a 10:30 game, we weren't sure how long the lines would be, but everything ran very smoothly and we were inside the stadium within about 40 minutes. I was very surprised that in this day and age they weren't doing any security check of purses or bags! On the way we encountered many more Hog fans and were getting a bit concerned as to how many Tiger fans would actually show up. But never fear, we arrived in huge numbers.

We had some concerns about spending 2-1/2 days without power, but it went off without a hitch. We had loaded up with fresh water and found that our batteries would support normal operation of the TVs, small appliances, and heat for about 8 hours without recharging. A couple times a day we fired up the generator to recharge the batteries and used that time to run the microwave and any other large capacity appliances. The refrigerator worked well on propane during the entire stay, and when we went to bed, we changed from electric to gas heat, keeping us warm and toasty. After this trip, we feel that we could easily stay for 6 or 7 days while boondocking out in the wilderness.

On Wed., Jan. 2, we packed up and headed for Baton Rouge around 10:30am. We planned on making it to Lafayette, LA, to spend the night, but after stopping for lunch in Natchitoches, LA, we noticed an RV park next door. It was nothing fancy but had full hookups and was only $16/night. Being tired from the previous few days, we decided to spend the night there and drive into Baton Rouge on Thursday arriving around 1pm. We are now set up in the local KOA in Denham Springs and working on getting organized for our stay. Doctors appointments, some warranty work on the RV, getting rid of some of the things in storage, and visiting friends are on the agenda for the next month. We haven't committed to when we will be leaving here, but right now it looks like in about two months.