Geauxing to Baton Rouge!

We’re calling an audible this week! Neither of us could resist the gravitational magnetism of Garth Brooks and his beckoning chorus “Callin Baton Rouge”. As such, we are heading into the heart of Cajun country to check out one of the most revered gameday experiences in all of college football: LSU.

This will actually be my first ever SEC game, and what better way to experience it than to see #1 Florida vs. #4 LSU. This may very well shape up to be the biggest game in the SEC this season. Once we glanced at a map and realized it was a mere 6 hours away it was settled. Of course, it had been almost two weeks since we visited a capital city (Austin & Madison thus far) so we were long overdue.

As you may recall, we had originally planned to go to Arkansas this weekend for a solid matchup against unbeaten Auburn. As big a draw as that game may be however, it might as well be a Pop Warner game compared to the hoopla surrounding LSU vs. Florida.

Fear not Razorback fans, the Arkansas game has been rescheduled to November 7^th against South Carolina. Forgive me if the story line of “Hogs vs. Cocks” was too much to resist.

This week, however, the thought of 92,000 extremely well lubricated fans playing a night game in what is widely considered the loudest venue in all of College Football, and you have one potentially electric atmosphere. Tiger Stadium is oft referred to as “Death Valley” and has recorded crowd noise levels of 130db. I can tell you from my hard won minor in architectural acoustics that is well….pretty loud. Add in the inevitable media love fest for Tim Tebeaux (err…Tebow), ESPN College Gameday, and Baton Rouge is a powder keg ready to explode.

Now all I have to do is sell a kidney or three, and I should be able to afford tickets. This may be the toughest ticket negotiation all year.

Finally, LSU brings a LIVE Tiger into the stadium as a mascot. A live Tiger. Which on the scale of “Mascot Accidents Waiting to Happen” ranks a full 10 out 10.

http://www.mikethetiger.com/

In addition to the game itself, there are a handful of local establishments that have come highly recommended by our resident LSU diehard Shyrl.

Among the local hotspots that I have been told I “must do”:

-The Chimes Restaurant – Rest assured the “fried gator tail” will not go untried. I also foresee a nice Poboy and couple of their fine beer selections in my future.

http://www.thechimes.com/

http://www.thechimes.com/s3web/1001931/docs/menu.pdf

-A Daiquiri at Daiquiri Café (I am not sure how well my ego will handle this slap in the face to masculinity). I can’t believe this is on here. But Shyrl put it on there, and one does not question Shyrl.

-Schlitz and Giggles (worth it for the name alone). Be sure to check out the rather impressive selection of dirtneck beers on the menu. I think they have all their hipster swill covered.

http://www.schlittzandgiggles.com/menus/schlittz-menu.pdf

-Boudreaux and Thibodeaux’s – mostly for the extraneous X’s alone.

http://www.bandtlive.com/

Well I’d say that lays out a pretty solid agenda for the weekend, and I am confident there will be plenty more adventures in store waiting to be discovered, just a matter of getting in the car and getting there.