Well, I commented briefly about my game trip experience for the Bears/Vols game in 2007, and TnH suggested a fan post going into more detail, so here goes.   I'm new to this whole fanpost thing, so if it sucks, I blame you.

I must start back in June of 2006.  I had just recently been stationed to a NATO base in Belgium.  Unlike stateside bases, or even Air Force bases overseas, this area is very short on Americans in general, let alone Air Force people.  I don'tknow what you may have heard, but for the most part service members traditionally segregate themselves, based on same service.  Anyway, I just so happened to meet another Air Force guy who had arrived about 2 weeks before I did, who also was a die hard Tennessee fan.  We would watch college football every saturday, starting with Cal @ Tennessee.

As some of the members here who live in Hong Kong (I believe that's it) have probably mentioned...the time difference for watching games sucks.  Another great treat is that in Belgium, there are no sports bars...at least with anything other than futbol.  So we had to watch the games on Armed Forces Network.  Unfortunately, the Cal game, which was the only match up of ranked teams that entire weekend, btw, wasn't being shown....until the tape delay at 9 am, the following morning.  Well, we were both new to being fans overseas and said, "Screw it." We shut off our phones, turned off the computer, and proceeded to get drunk and play video games that night so we could watch the next day "pseudo live."  This went on up until and during the game.  Not surprisingly, I drank more than he did after the 1st quarter. 

After the game, we both passed out, and awoke several hours later...our souls destroyed by an entire bottle of Jack.  We also discovered that after the game, we had drunkenly purchased plane tickets to California, hotel and rental car.  All told, it was about $1400 each.  By far, the largest drunken purchase for me, ever. 

Flash forward to 2007, we have been anxiously awaiting the trip(additionally, my friend had never been to Cali).  We fly into LAX(18 freakin hours with the layover in Atlanta), to see the fam, as I am from SoCal.  The next day we drive up to Berkeley(day before gameday).  Gameday is here!  We wake up at 9 am, not sure why (Anticipation, jet lag, whiskey are all possible reasons), and immediately start drinking (Its ok, it was afternoon in Belgium).  We see Michigan get beat by Appy St(I like to call that a 2fer), and then proceed to the stadium, Barnoculars in hand(a flask designed as binoculars, and whoever designed them, thank you).  Needless to say, a beautiful day, Cal got sweet revenge, and I achieved trash talk privileges for the rest of the year.  My friend also wanted me to say that Cal fans are the most cordial he has ever met.  Never has he been treated with as much respect after a loss as in Berkeley.

Hope you enjoyed the story.  Good talk...