Advocare V100 Independence Bowl Visit
After the Music City Bowl was over we drove back to our hotel room South of Nashville. We got a little under 4 hours of sleep and had to get up and leave for Shreveport, home of the Independence Bowl. It was a 538 mile drive that took almost 9 hours. We did drive a few miles out of the way around the city of Texarkana so my brother could say he has been to Texas. We also were looking for some sort of fast food TexMex type of place, but apparently such a thing doesn't exist around there. We wound up stopping at a Popeye's in Shreveport.
The part of Shreveport where the Independence Bowl is is not exactly prospering. Tim Brando may love his home town, but I can't say I would move there. Most houses had fenced yards, some with barbed wire on top and when driving around, we ran across a domestic dispute that resulted in the cops showing up.
Parking was interesting. The radio was reporting that the lots were filling up so you should park at the mall and get bussed in. Reports are that the line for the shuttles were wrapped the entire way around the mall and it was about 1 hour and 15 minutes from when you got in line till you got to the stadium. A fair portion of fans didn't get to the game till well into the 1st quarter or even the 2nd. I would not recommend using the shuttle system.
Luckily we didn't try the shuttle system, and instead drove around looking for a closer place. Parking ranged from $5-$20. Most parking was $10 and located in peoples yards. The problem was they were parking people up to 4 deep, so you were stuck there till the other cars left. Our drive around led us to Jewella Drive where the local Fox TV station is located, about 2 1/2 blocks from the Stadium. They offered paved parking for $5 and an easy walk to the stadium. Even more important, it was just a few blocks from Lakeshore Drive, which leads right to I-20, the road we needed to take to get out of town.
We already had tickets to the game waiting at the Georgia Will Call. Face value printed on the ticket was $35 but Georgia sold them for $30 each, although they did tack on a standard (yet ridiculous) $15 transaction fee. The Independence Bowl was a sellout because the schools are forced to buy so many tickets up front, but Georgia never did sell all their tickets. If I had to do it over, we would have just scalped.
Independence Stadium is an average stadium. It had odd bathroom arrangements with different rooms set up a bit like a maze. One room might have urinals and toilets, while another had sinks and urinals, etc. They were plenty big for the size of the stadium however. Concessions were your standard stadium foods along with a local pizza chain with $7 personal pizzas and of course there was beer.
The game itself was very good at the beginning, but Special Teams bit Texas A&M multiple times. The game was 0-0 well into the 2nd quarter thanks to a blocked A&M field goal. Finally A&M got on the board only to give up a kick return to Georgia to tie the score at 7-7. Then Georgia blocked a A&M punt for another score before half. At the end of the first half, Texas A&M employed some Les Miles time management and cost themselves a FG attempt. After that, Georgia came out and finally realized their players were bigger and stronger than A&M and just ran the ball down their throat. While the game got out of hand score wise, the Texas A&M fans stayed till about 10 minutes left in the game. The final score was 44-20 after A&M scored a late TD.
The halftime show featured a short show by each teams band, followed by some presentation that featured Archie Manning. The lady who spoke before Archie sounded like me speaking in public, which resulted in a soft boo from the crowd. After that, I lost interest to be honest.
Attendance was pretty good, announced as 49,653. Our section was pretty much an even mix of Georgia and A&M fans with A&M fans dominating the stadium. The Georgia fans around us were real nice and wished us safety on our trip to DC. There was also a nice flyover to start the game.
Posted By: JGuiher
