Tempe, AZ

UGA vs. ASU on September 20th, the Bulldogs first trip outside the southeast for a regular season game in about 50 years and there was no way I was going to miss this one. I flew into Vegas for some work and made the 5 hour drive down to Tempe with a trip across the Hoover Dam and through the desert of Arizona. I was expecting a little more scenery from the drive, but was a little disappointed. There were a lot of saguaro cacti and small Joshua trees along the way, but that was about it. When I got into Tempe, I stayed just off campus at a small 4 Points by Sheraton. The hotel was very nice as it had just opened. The place was full of other Dawg fans that had made the trip from across the country. The bar of choice on the trip was the Library, check the website. Its basically a bar/restaurant with very scantily clad women. The beer choices were average with your typical beers on tap and in the bottle. The food was pretty good with your typical bar food. The burgers were good as was the appetizer sampler with the beef sliders. The main attraction at the Library is not the food, its not the drinks, its simply the girls. Other bars that we checked out were Zuma and Gordon Biersch, both of which are located along Mill Avenue. Zuma was more upscale than the Library. Gordon Biersch is your typical Gordon Biersch with good food and great beers on tap. The strategy of drinking one glass of water for every 1 to 2 beers is probably a wise one. I didn't use that strategy the first night and paid for it dearly the next day as I laid in bed for most of the day after trying to venture across campus when it was 100 degrees outside. Gameday was much more successful for me as I practiced this strategy the night before and throughout the day. The Tempe heat is nothing to mess with. Sun Devil Stadium is a pretty nice stadium, but fails in comparison to many of the SEC Stadiums that I have been to. The game was a lot of fun though as it was one of the few games that we actually came to play in during the 2008 season. We capped off the trip with a stop at In-N-Out Burger for a Double-Double with Cheese and some fries.