tuscaloosa, i love you.

if you know me, you know i love the university of alabama and tuscaloosa and pretty much anything associated to those two. crimson and white, bryant denny, paul bear bryant (“I ain’t never been nothing but a winner”), denny chimes, tuscaloosa, the houndstooth, tailgating on the quad, our fight song (we’re dixie’s football pride, crimson tide), the beautiful campus, rammer jammer, the restaurants, bear bryant, roll tide, the million dollar band, and well alabama.  I graduated in December 2006 and 4 years ago this month I was wrapping up my last semester at Alabama and enjoying my last football season.

my old college roommate got married yesterday and I of course wanted to celebrate her becoming Ms. Johns (and finally meet the infamous Mike) and it was a great reason to get back to the town that I do not go  back to often enough.  The wedding was beautiful, the bride was gorgeous, it was great to see so many familiar faces and catch up.  I am so so so happy to see my Stacey Faith with a great guy and so happy!  Other than seeing my old roommate and friends who I miss dearly, I had a few things on the agenda…

1. run around the campus, downtown, and my old neighborhood. tuscaloosa will always hold a special place in my heart and i wanted to see it by foot.  (ran part of campus and my old neighborhood and no dowtown}
2. i HAD to chow down at as many of my restaurants as possible.  {I ended up eating at mugshots – still great and Newks – um not as great as I remember. I wanted Pita Pit, but I was out of town before they even opened.}
3. pick up kyle a new alabama polo shirt since his is 2 years old and had a hole in it. {I ended up getting kyle a polo, mulligan a toy, and me a garter for my wedding!}

i decided to make my run fun and low key and decided to run the city and take pictures of my favorite spots, places I lived, and old stomping grounds and share them with you.  I really do love Tuscaloosa and wish I could get back there more than I do.  One day I will be a season ticket holder – I promise you that!!

 Total miles run around T.Town: 2.03 honestly, I was hoping for more, but I woke up late and needed to get back to  Atlanta so I just ran the quad, by the stadium and my old house on 13th street.  I was amazed how hot that city was (at 9 AM) and even thought there was a huge tinge of jealousy since everyone was moving into the dorms & their houses off campus as I ran, I remembered just how brutal it was walking to class in the late summer and early fall.  Campus was still pretty dead so I pretty much had the quad to myself, which was change from when I was in school.

My run was super easy and slow – just the  way I had planned it to be since I wanted to take pictures.  I parked next to our massive stadium and headed off campus towards my old neighborhood, took a picture of the house I lived in, and then headed back to the quad.  Cut through Sorority Row and landed on University Blvd. I had all the intentions in the world to run down to New Fraternity Row, loop around but when I drove by it yesterday it looked as if a lot of the roads were blocked off due to new construction on Frat houses (wait, PIKE has a new house?! since when?! and what is going up next to SigEp??)  So, I cut that out of my run and I also cut out the run up to Temerson Square – I am sure 4th and 23rd is still there along with new bars.  I know I already said it but it was crazy to see how much had changed.

It was the first time I had been in Tuscaloosa and did not go out to the bars (which was a very different feel) but it made it easy for me to wake up, run, and drive home.  The campus was SO different, frat houses got bigger and prettier, the stadium grew larger, new dorms went up, roads were created, restaurants and bars changed names and locations.  I guess that’s what happens 4 years post graduation.

I do want to get back there for some football games.  Kyle has been to Tuscaloosa and did the bar hopping thing, yet he has never be INSIDE Bryant Denny and well, if you’re gonna be an Alabama fan you go to experience the stadium on a game day!  

27 DAYS TILL KICKOFF!!!