After a visit to the gym Saturday morning, Sarah and I loaded up the car and lit out for Greenvegas. It was quite two hours. We checked in early to our hotel (thanks, Hampton Inn!), grabbed some lunch, and drove down 85 to Clemson (where the 'P' is invisible).

I'd only been to Clemson once before, back in 1994 to see Pink Floyd. I'd forgotten how in the middle of nowhere it is, although College Station is the same way. We missed much of the pregame traffic. After a lucky break on a parking space, we wandered around a bit and found a fellow Winthrop faculty member who had invited us to her tailgate. Although we were decked out in our maroon, we were welcomed and fed. I had never really tailgated before, but had a great time just hanging out and eating. We went to the stadium early to watch the Clemson band march down the hill, then found our seats. We were smack in the middle of the Clemson section, of course, but everyone was pretty nice.

The game, if you were an A&M fan, was not that great. Sure, it came down to a last second field goal, but I didn't feel good about the way A&M was playing all night. They beat themselves. There was a holding penalty that called back a touchdown, lots of dropped passes (including one on the one-yard line), and they gave up a punt return for Clemson's only touchdown. The defense looked like it was playing "prevent" all night -- giving up 4-5 yards every rush, then stiffening inside the 30. Well, that strategy does not work when you have a decent kicker who drills a school record six field goals. Not a good indication of the A&M season; I hope it was just nerves caused by the first game away from home in a very inhospitable stadium. Death Valley was loud.

The game ended about 11:30. Sarah and I walked back to the tailgate for a bit, then got to our car about 12:30. Although traffic was moving pretty well on the roads, nobody was moving at all in our lot. We broke out the laptop and watched an episode of "Firefly" while the traffic cleared. Things turned out well, because by the time the episode ("Out of Gas" -- which I liked a lot) was over, people were slowing getting out of our lot. We got in the car at 1:30 and made it back to the Hampton Inn about 2:45, dead tired.

We slept in until 10:30, missing the free breakfast. After a shower, we headed out to Furman. The waffle house in Traveler's Rest provided some breakfast and some memories before we went to campus. Things were still quiet, since students don't come back until next weekend. There was a new building -- Hipp Hall, between Riley and the student center -- which I didn't really care for. Inside was very "office building" like, with not much scholastic feel. They've also renovated Furman Hall. It's now totally different, with dark wooden columns inside and lots of new furniture. I liked it. Sarah and I recreated the "walk of shame" from the girls dorms by the dining hall before getting back into the car and heading home. We'll be back at FU in October for homecoming; this time we're actually going to the football game.

I'm taking off from the office early today (as soon as I finish this, actually) to do some things around the house. Sarah and I are going to buy paint, then I'm going to cut the grass and clean. Ah, home ownership.