The question then became, where should we eat? Because the hockey game was downtown, we settled on a local place called Nacho Mama. It very much reminded of me of Taco Mac in downtown Athens which we frequented during our time at UGA. They have specialty burritos and quesadillas, etc. along with a nice little bar to mix up any drink you can imagine, and it’s all packaged in a rustic and open atmosphere right off of Broad Street in downtown Augusta. Now, I like supporting local places, but I always wonder why they always have to be downtown where parking is always a challenge. Normally, I wouldn’t have cared but considering that it was pouring down rain and about 37 degrees, walking a few blocks did not sound appealing. Fortunately, I did find a space within a block or so from the restaurant, so Laura and I got only a little teensy-weensy bit wet. Turns out, when we walked in, lots of other people had a similar idea, because I saw a lot of classmates of mine, and even saw some friends that weren’t going to the game so that was exciting. After eating a pulled pork and black bean quesadilla and downing some ice cold water, we braved the disgusting conditions to head to the arena and meet up with the rest of my classmates (shout out to DPT 2012!) at the game.

The game was really fun. We all got to hang out, chat around, and most importantly cheer on the Augusta Riverhawks! It was pretty comical actually, because most of us had no clue as to how hockey works – the rules, strategies, etc – and that makes sense because we are in the south and in the south the 100 yard grass field where a pigskin is tossed reigns supreme. But the guys played well and eventually won the game. They even gave us some great fights during the game which ended up getting more cheers than the goals. I wish I would’ve gotten a picture of the whole class, but I didn’t so here are some of the pictures from the surroundings and the game.

So you’re probably thinking…Ok, I get the hockey and friends, but deja vu? Well, the whole experience was kind of like a deja vu moment for me with a few subtle changes. If you move the location to Gwinnett Georgia, change the restaurant to Steak and Shake, turn the class of DPT 2012 into 20 friends from our junior year of college, and rename the Riverhawks to the IceDogs, then see the similarity! Yes, it was my junior year in college and Laura and I and a bunch of friends decided to support the IceDogs in their game against Tennessee. It was super fun even though we were practically the only ones there except for some parents and girlfriends of the players. What made it really fun is that we as the students brought all of the big time cheers and were really loud and obnoxious. We like to think we really pumped up the Icedogs when we were doing the traditional “gooooo Dawgs, sic em” cheer before the puck dropped instead of just before the kickoff of a football game. I think we also got under the Tennessee players skin a little bit with our “sit down” cheer when they went to the penalty box which we stole from the basketball games. And you can’t forget “blue britches!”  Despite all of our energy, I don’t think the IceDogs pulled out a victory.  Anyway, that was also a very fun night and here is a look back on that day.

Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing about a recent event that mirrored a by-gone day.  Walking down memory lane can definitely be fun.  Hope y’all have a great weekend!