It’s Iron Bowl day in Southwest Virginia, and I feel like I’m in a foreign country.<\/p>\n
It’s a long way from Tuscaloosa, but I talked with Number One Son a few moments ago and he’s there, primed and ready. He promised me that he will have no voice at the end of this game and that regardless of what happens, he will probably cry.<\/p>\n
Here’s to tears of joy.<\/p>\n
My heart stopped this morning when I looked at the TV listings in the sports page of The Roanoke Times<\/em> and saw the Houston v. Rice game listed on CBS instead of the Iron Bowl.<\/p>\n What the…?<\/p>\n I immediately went into crisis mode. I called Buffalo Wild Wings in Roanoke and was reassured by the very nice hostess there that “Yes sir, even if the game is blacked out here, we have a satellite and will find it for you.”<\/p>\n With Plan B in place, I called WDBJ Channel 7, the local CBS affiliate, and spoke with a pleasant, elderly receptionist who looked at her schedule and said that yes, she has Alabama v. Auburn, not Houston v. Rice and that the newspaper must be wrong.<\/p>\n That made me feel somewhat better, but I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. I redialed the TV station and made my way through the automated phone tree to the sports department and talked to a younger and presumably more sport-savvy twenty-something male manning the desk. I explained to him that I was stuck in Virginia for the Iron Bowl and I absolutely Must. See. That. Game.<\/em><\/p>\n He understood the gravity of the situation and excused himself for a few seconds, promising that he would return shortly with the definitive answer. After a few more anxious moments, he was back on the line. He had spoken with the master programmer, the person sitting at the console controlling the network feed, and the answer was yes, the Iron Bowl would be broadcast, despite the schedule listed in the paper.<\/p>\n We then considered the ridiculous scenario of broadcasting Houston v. Rice on Iron Bowl Day, and we both shared a hearty laugh over that one.<\/p>\n I’m now safely ensconced at a Bojangles (a regional fried chicken chain) not far from my mother’s house. They have free internet and a 42 inch plasma which is broadcasting the Va Tech-UVa game. I’m wearing my Alabama sweat shirt, but I’m surrounded by Hokie maroon and Cavalier blue, and nobody even seems to care.<\/p>\n I’m feeling a little lonely, and what I’d give to be able to offer up a “Roll Tide” to another crimson-clad kindred spirit.<\/p>\n I’ll stop at the Kroger on the way home to pick up a little tailgate fair and then plant myself about 6 inches in front of my mother’s 10-year-old, 19 inch TV to watch the Tide put an end to the last 6 years of foolishness.<\/p>\n The car will be gassed up and ready for the mad dash to Buffalo Wild Wings–just in case.<\/p>\n Roll Tide, Roll. And don’t stop rolling until the deed is done.\n<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s Iron Bowl day in Southwest Virginia, and I feel like I’m in a foreign country. It’s a long way from Tuscaloosa, but I talked with Number One Son a few moments ago and he’s there,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,48,46,42,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alabama-crimson-tide-football","category-family","category-holidays","category-sports","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9247,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions\/9247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}