It is the day of the season opener..... Your alarm goes off at a time so early that on any other day if you had a hammer you'd smash the alarm clock into a million pieces but not on this day. Instead, you're in the shower almost immediately. You've packed the car the night before to where the only thing not in the car ready to leave yet is you and that part you're working on. You consider getting a cup of coffee there at home but think better of it and decide to hit a drive through on the way with the rationale being, "At least I'll have the comfort of knowing I'm on the way when I stop. Making a cup of joe at home will only delay my departure." After only a few miles on your journey, you see one of your comrades with his car decked out much like yours: Flags, magnets, maybe a shoe polished slogan on the back window. You give him the and move on. The closer you get to your destination, the more cars like that you see until finally, EVERY CAR LOOKS LIKE YOURS! Then, there it is. You see it up ahead and as you get closer it becomes more and more clear until you can read it plain as day: A sign that reads, GAINESVILLE CITY LIMITS. Now you're seeing grills everywhere, tents, the smell of charcoal making its way across campus, and the scenes of kids who live for the day when they can play for the Gators tossing a football around as well as old fart has beens tossing the football who were sure fire blue chippers coming out of high school (just ask them!) if it "hadn't a been for this bum knee of mine." Finally you find "your spot" where the rest of your gang is waiting. The unloading of the car begins. Flagpoles up, chairs and coolers out and the tailgating begins. You start watching Georgia and Clemson mix it up at noon while keeping an eye on Vandy and Ole Miss as well because although you know Ole Miss is gonna win, you'd laugh like hell if Vandy did. The ribs go on the grill. The Tailgator show comes on. You drink that one last beer for the walk over and there it is....THE SWAMP! THAT MAJESTIC TEMPLE OF ORANGE AND BLUE WAITING TO BE FILLED TO CAPACITY. You make your way in and buy one of those pretzels the size of a tractor tire....or a large glass of that awesome lemonade(don't know about the rest of you but there is a lemonade stand right near my seats at section 63 that is to die for)....or a couple of Lykes ('Cause when it's Lykes, it's gone!) hot dogs. You get to your seats and it's hugs all around for the folks who have become like family to you even if it is only six days a year. Then you hear, "As the chimes toll the hour....The Alma Mater.....then the guy who WILL NEVER GRADUATE IT SEEMS LIKE rambling on, "Lemme hear the Big Orange one time!" ORANGE! OUTSTANDING! Yes, he seems a little annoying but can you imagine a Gator game without him? Then the moment we've been waiting for since January of '03. The big screen lights up....Gators are crawling all over the Swamp until Albert's jaws open ready to devour the victim de jour and Jim Finch's (may he rest in peace) immortal words are uttered...... HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE COME THE GATORS! and you think to yourself as they say in the South, "That's what I'm tawkinbout!"