The Mecca

On Saturday, Ashley and I drove over to Auburn University aka the greatest place on Planet Earth.  We arrived promptly at 0900.  A thermometer on a bank showed the time, and also the temperature:  91 degrees.  We loved it.  We parked, and first walked to Toomer's Corner.

Ashley showed me around the campus, and I will admit it's quite beautiful.  We even stopped in the Hall of Champions and got Ashley's picture with the 2010 BCS trophy (although my camera did a poor job of focusing)...

The highlight had to have been the stadium.  It's the big building behind Ashley with that "moderately-sized" A-U on the front.

The gates were open and the doors were unlocked, so we didn't ask any questions and just followed a nice walking path out onto the field.  Very cool.

We were about to leave when we tried this one set of doors.  To our amazement, it led to the team's locker room.  We, of course, took some pictures.

We decided not to hang around too long, lest someone start to ask questions.  We remained in Auburn for lunch and ate at Momma G's, one of Ashley's old haunts.  We stayed with Cathy and David Bledsoe Saturday night and are now back at home.  Barkley has gotten very large--still small compared to full-size, but much larger than we remember.  The dogs did great--didn't tear up anything, and they seemed happy to have us home (although I'm sure they wonder where Bode is).  I'll post some pictures of them this week.  We are happy to be home, but also still want to be on vacation :-)  Pleasant week to all, and only 48 days until Auburn's first game!