so this is what 108,625 people looks like

That was the look on Sara's face when she turned to me and said, "whoa, Dad!" as we walked into Neyland Stadium Sunday night.

She'd been looking forward to this for a long time. Sara loves UT football, and I don't know where she gets that from (yeah, right). Chris and Landon picked us up at Mom and Dad's around 3:00, and we were in Knoxville by 4:30. We headed for the strip and walked around, watching the sea of orange all around us. Sara was mesmerized by it all. After a quick supper, we headed towards campus. In front of one of the party places before games, the Vol-ette's were performing a routine with a live band. Smokey Jr., one of the mascots, was out front shaking hands. He saw Sara, put his arm around her, and walked up the street with is for a little while. She loved it! After that we showed her some of the dorms and the library, and she couldn't believe how big everything was. Sara always says UT is where she is going to college. Alot could happen over the next 8 years, but she seems pretty sure of it. We headed up to "the hill" to watch the "Vol Walk", where all the players and coaches file down to the stadium to dress for the game. Sara and Landon were on the inside, so they got to "shake hands" with alot of the players and coaches. Her favorite to shake her hand? Brent Shaeffer, freshman QB phenom. (Meg said that the other freshman QB phenom, Eric Ainge, was REALLY cute.) There were also about 300 former lettermen on campus for the game, and they did the walk, too. Tee Martin, Willie Gault, Bill Duff, Bill Bates, and alot more. We walked around some more, went down to see the "Vol Navy" on the river, then finally into the stadium.

She was into the whole game. She was completely enthralled with the players running through the "T" onto the field; she loved singing "Rocky Top" over and over; she loved participating in and watching "the wave" as it went around the stadium; she loved the fireworks after every Vol touchdown. I thought she might want to go to the concession stand about every 10 minutes, but she didn't. She even said, "thank you, Daddy" when we did go, and that was nice. She couldn't believe that a bottle of water cost $3! Ah, yes, I'm raising her right.....

We got home around 1:15 Monday morning. As we were walking up the driveway towards the deck, Sara looked up at me and said, "that was so cool!" And she was right, it really was. Chris was nice to invite us to share his tickets with him and Landon, and we really enjoyed ourselves with them. 11th row in the South endzone makes for a great view, especially when UT scores in that endzone. But being with my daughter, my best friend and his son, that's even better. Here's to a great season for the Vols......