Gather 'round for a tale of APM's epic trip to G-d's country

Nov 18, 2018, 7:47 PM

Welp Lungites, APM has made it back to ol' Virginny from a too-quick trip down to G-d's country. Let me regale you with the blow-by-blow.

First, me and lil'APM headed down on Thursday morning. The significance of which is that for the first two hours of the trip we were driving through a winter storm with ice on the roads and crap visibility. The longest, but actually shortest, way to get to Clemson from Roanoke is to go through far SW Virginny, then East TN, Asheville, then the upper Upstate. More on that later, but bottom line, we got to Seneca and to our airbnb after a hailuva drive down.

Friday we get up and go to campus for lil'APM's Clemson tour. Now, I know every Clemson generation has said roughly the same thing, but LAAAWD Clemson done changed from back in my day. I seriously did not recognize where I was at one point when I was near the intersection of College Ave and Tiger Blvd. The new stuff. The traffic. On a frikkin' Friday afternoon. Then there's the construction on campus and buildings I didn't even know existed. We had to park at Clemson Presbyterian and take a shuttle bus into the Visitor's Center for the tour due to the construction, etc.

Anyhoo, did the tour and then headed to Pendleton to hit the Smokin' Pig. Surprisingly, although they had folks outside directing traffic, etc., we did not have to wait and I had my first SP 'que. Tasty.

Then came satdee and gameday. It was hard to gauge when to leave given the traffic, the time of the game, etc. lil'APM knocked out some Eagle Scout requirements that morning while I supervised a bit. We sat around and watched some sorry football and eventually left around 3pm.

Had a smooth drive in from the back side of campus. Right onto Perimeter Rd and found our lot just off of Williamson. Walked around the LDR tailgaiting areas on our way to Bowman Field. Man, has tailgating changed since my day. If you ain't got a tent and a TV, you ain't sh it, apparently. And LOTS of yankees. Now I know what y'all mean about the Ohio thing. Lots were on the campus tour too. Sakerlina is more like South Ohio. It's not just the beach any more.

We made it to Bowman and saw a helicopter take off. That was pretty cool. Then over to RH Tig's tail gate spot among the LDR. Met lots of you degenerates, including zettner, Lakebum, ryanadidas, TOTE1, and sat with dark side of the moo. Fine fellas one and all.

I tried Death Chili. Served to me by TOTE's very nice SO, Amy. I survived. RH Tig gave me a beer. A MAN's beer. A Miller Lite. He also had frikkin' Schlitz on ice. The man knows what's up. Thank you RH Tig. Dilly Dilly.

Now on to the stadium. Ah, the travails of the UDP. First, it was cold up there. Only 44 degress but felt cooler to me. Secondly, it was a long, steep hike to my seats. Third, there was a flood under the stainless steel pee trough nearest my portal and I had to walk a quarter mile to get to the next-nearest spot to pee. That said, there was a line for Dippin' Dots even with the cold weather. Next time, it's go LDR or GTFO for ol'APM.

Then the game. I sincerely hope it was a combination of 1) Duke being well-coached and having a good game plan on offense 2) just some uncharacteristic dropsies by WRU, and 3) a collective brain fart among of Co-OCs. Because otherwise, the coots and Pitt and our CFP opponents scare me.

That brings us finally to dis mawn. lil'APM needed to be back early so we left G-d's country by 9:00ish. I wanted to take 85 and 77 home because there are more places to stop for food, etc. But my map said going through Asheville and TN was still the fastest way. Now I know why. I had no idea that 85 is a frikkin' construction zone from Greenville all the way to the other side of Statesville. Dang.

As we got closer to home, we saw the remnants of the winter storm. In Floyd there was still snow on the ground in shady spots and LOTS of trees down.

Anyhoo, a challenging long weekend in G-d's country is better than the best weekend awy from G-d's country.

RH Tig
zettner
Lakebum1®
dark side of the moo®
ryanadidas
TOTE1

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Daughter of had a meeting in NYC so dear ol dad picked her up at Charlotte airport about 4. BTW, she met the ad guy that made up "Dilly Dilly" and heard him speak. Anyways, leaving airport, Google Maps sez go south to Rock Hill and drive through the boonies to Clemson. Wut? Twas then I learnt about the massive jam from the haz mat spill between Spartanburg and Blacksburg. Rts 11 and 29 were parking lots. Waze said 74 through NC to 25, slip over to Easley just outside Gville. Good Times. Going through Shelby, northbound 74 traffic wuz aweful, tons o' trucks. But our route was surprisingly decent, considering.

Came back yesterday through Asheville, all smooth until the obligatory fender benders coming down C'burg mtn and mystery gridlock passing Salem.

Gather 'round for a tale of APM's epic trip to G-d's country

never done anything but 81/77/85

Yep. No Intro turned me on to the route last year.

I probably should know, but could you remind me

You ain't tryin' to cougar him are you? I keed, I keed.

is this the same lil boy that went to hoops with us

Yep, with his sign, etc. Done growed up. Sniff, sniff...***

#### he old enough to really enjoy

Just 4 short years then you can take him back

You give co-eds way too much credit

:) *****

Wait, wait, wait

Yes, I fit that description. We left a little after 6:00.

We were #soclose

I was across Bowman from you. With a super high def

Be glad you weren't on 85 late Friday afternoon.

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