The first UT game of the season.

You know what's even better about going to a Tennessee game?

Making a new memory of game day.

Drew and Allison sweetly invited us to join them for the first UT game of the year.

That's always one of the best games...  Everyone is excited about the start of the season and the tailgaters are in full force.  We were pumped!

It was about 400 degrees outside, so we waited closer to game time to make our trip to the campus.  After a quick stop to visit Allison's sister, we headed to the stadium.

So did everyone else.  Little did we know, there was a storm a brewin'.

and brewed it did!

About the time we made it under the stadium, a terrible storm came.  The sky seemed to open up and pour out the rain.  People who were already on the bleechers rapidly made their descent inside.  (Who can blame them for not riding out the lightning sitting on metal bleechers?)

Everyone crammed in to the tunnels where we were.  People touching on every side of your body.  Once all that touching started, so did the heat.  Out of no where it felt like the hottest place ever.  If you weren't claustophic, that place could make you that way.

So we did what reasonable people would and made our way closer to the exit gates.  The rain was still pouring so there were nice gusts of wind.  and thankfully less people.  The attendants had locked all the gates (not that we were going to leave in that mess) for security purposes.  At one point, I stiffled the urge to yell out "JACK!  JACK!  I'll never let go!"  The locking of the gates reminded me of the Titanic.  If I could remember a good line from when the people were trapped down below, that would have been more appropriate.

We amused ourselves by taking a few photos (as seen above).  You can actually get a glimpse of how many people were around us.  That was the part where we had space between us.

It didn't take long to discuss our next plan.  It was to get the heck outta there!  Who knew when the game would start, so we abandoned our probably-awesome-but-we'll-never-know game seats and made a break for it.  Dinner sounded better than what we were doing.

Since the lightning had past, we thought the rain had really slowed down.  News to us, it was still going pretty hard, but we were already committed.

There we were.  Running through campus in the rain!  Leaping over puddles (not that it matter), hand in hand with our spouse, laughing through it all.  (The hand holding was because Chris was a bit afraid of me falling.  Since I'm pregnant and we were running on slick concrete, that was a good caution to have.  For the record, he also just likes to hold my hand.)  The gentlemen dropped us off at one of the student buildings and made the rest of the trek to the car.

Once inside, the laughter continued.  We were soaking wet and remembering everyone's faces as they watched us take off through the stadium.  Most normal people were huddled under shelter.  and I'm sure normal people would have waited until the rain ceased.

but isn't it all about making a new memory?

Especially one we'll likely never forget!

*******

Thank you, Drew and Allison, for your sweet invite to the UT game!

Maybe next time we'll actually watch the game together.  :)