Bevo Bonfire VICTORY Party

Last week John and I were really bummed that we weren’t going to be going to the OU/TX game in Dallas again this year. It is definitely my favorite Sooner football tradition and I miss getting to partake in it at the Cotton Bowl with other Sooner fans. Since Charleston is incredibly far from Dallas and plane flights are expensive, John had the great idea of throwing a victory party at our house on Saturday night instead.

So last week we invited all John’s co-residents over for a Bevo Bonfire on Saturday night. Several people asked us what we were going to do if we lost…those silly doubters. We didn’t have that problem because, of course, we won 55-17! John and I were jumping and cheering so loud during the game, I’m sure they heard us all the way from the Lowcountry.

Before I get into the awesomeness that was the Bevo Bonfire. Here’s a short montage of what I love about OU/TX from the five years we did get to go!

1. The student lottery for seats. My freshman year (and our first OU/TX game) we got tickets on the 4^th row! In the following years we learned how to sell those good seats, buy crappy seats and still make a profit to fund the weekend! Sooner entrepreneurship at its best.

Our first OU/TX game in 2005...on the 4th row of the stadium!

Second year in the nosebleeds. Still fun!

2. The crazy atmosphere of the West End on Friday night. One year we saw a Texas fan fall out of a tree…then get arrested.

West End with friends on the night before the game my junior year

3. Riding the DART train. To get to the Cotton Bowl, the DART is the fastest and easiest way. You park on the outskirts of town somewhere and ride the rail, now directly to the stadium. Oh the amount of people on those trains wearing crimson and burnt orange.

Where's that train?

4. The crazy fandom in the Cotton Bowl.

Crimson and burnt orange split 50/50

Sooners!

5. Fair food! Need I say more?

John loves him a turkey leg. My favorites are corny dogs and salt water taffy!

6. Family. We took my mom and my sister to their first OU/TX game. Now my mom is hooked and continues to go every year! I also have some cousins in Dallas who we usually get to visit when we’re in town for the game.

Though we weren’t there this year, the Bevo Bonfire turned out great! We fired up the grill in the backyard and had a nice little buffet of sides and appetizers. We had some Arkansas fans in the group (Woo pig!) so we watched the Arkansas game while we ate.

We roasted marshmallows, made s’mores and enjoyed sitting and talking around the fire in the backyard.

And we played cornhole by torchlight, which actually makes the game very challenging!

It wasn't the same as being there, but we had a great time celebrating our win with friends! Thanks for helping us celebrate everyone!

Beating up the 'Noles

Last weekend John and I took one of our first road trips from our new home in Charleston. We love weekend road trips and have several close-to-Charleston getaway spots on our list for this year (including Harry Potter world!!) We didn't do much sightseeing this time though because this trip was all about SOONER FOOTBALL!

We hadn't been to an OU football game since the 2009 season. When we lived in Oklahoma, we went to every game. So this long hiatus has been hard (especially on John). So when the Sooners traveled to Tallahassee to play FSU, we couldn't miss our only opportunity this year to yell "BOOMER SOONER!" in person.

After staying the night with John's cousin Jerry in Jacksonville, we headed into Tallahassee early Saturday morning so we could be at Game Day.

We're coming...to your city! (John's fav show)

Though you see a lot of crimson in this picture, don't be fooled. There were very few Sooner fans at Game Day and we were outnumbered by the 'Noles, who you can see were also excited to be there (cell phone pic!)

After sticking around to watch Corso pick the Sooners to win (yeah!), we headed over to the OU camp, the parking lot of the convention center, where Sooner tailgates and RVs were plentiful. We joined in on Chesapeake's tailgate, where they had three large screen TVs showing other games and were giving away free food and drinks (Thanks Chesapeake!)

We spent most of the afternoon there meeting other East Coast Sooner fans who were just as excited as we were to be there. Even the band stopped by the play "Boomer Sooner!"

So good to see the Pride of Oklahoma again :)

And we met Sooner, who also stopped by the tailgate.

Kendall and Blake, our friends from Birmingham who also went to OU, made the trip for the FSU game, too. We had a great time hanging out with them again at the Chesapeake tailgate!

Me and John outside the stadium heading into the game.

All the crimson and garnet makes it hard to tell who are Sooner fans and who are Seminole fans.

FSU's famous Osceola and his fiery spear during pre-game.

After a mix of anxiously biting my nails and victory dancing with the big Sooner fan sitting next to me, the Sooners (barley) pulled out the win! Phew! Sure glad we didn't have to hang our heads on the 7 hour drive home the next day.

There's only 1 Oklahoma!

(John loves the Sooners so much, he let the sun paint his face crimson)