19 producer

I'm back at work today, fresh off a weekend at the Iron Bowl. This year we scaled back our coverage because of the late game and it being carried on ESPN instead of CBS, but it doesn't make the work any less grueling.

So here's a little bit about this year's Iron Bowl experience.

Thursday (Thanksgiving): Eat turkey, fall asleep watching the Detroit-Green Bay game, then go to work and put the finishing touches on the Iron Bowl special rundown for Friday evening.

Friday: Our director Tater and I piled into a Jeep and left WHNT about 8:45. After stopping in Alabaster to get Tater some gloves (he couldn't find his) and some Chik-Fil-A, we continued on to Auburn. Arrived outside the basketball arena on campus about 12:45. It was chilly, but not freezing. We put up our setup, ran cables and I spent about an hour trying to get my laptop to log back into the news server at work so I could make changes to the rundown. Finally got everything printed, did our show at 6:30 and everything went off without a hitch.

After eating some pizza we had delivered to campus, Tater, Carson and I went to check out a place called Bar 51. We heard about it through a couple of folks. This bar is on College Street and has a special room for drinking shots. It's 35 degrees, they have a wide variety of drinks in there and the shots are served in shot glasses made of ice. Too cool, right? We each tried a shot in an ice glass and then realized after standing out in the cold air for roughly seven hours, the last thing we wanted to do was go stand in a room that was actually colder than the air we had been standing out in all day. So we went and checked in at the Motel 6 down the road in Opelika. I got back on the computer to check out the rundown for the preshow on Saturday morning, made some changes and sat back to watch a lot of Adult Swim and Telemundo. My new favorite bad show that I will never watch again is Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

Saturday morning we have a crew call at the arena at 8:30. We set up, get scripts and do the show. We had interviews with the Auburn athletic director, Seth Harp from 730 The Ump, and some fans who had made it out of bed already. It was a good show.

After the show, we packed up everything but the stuff we needed for the 10 p.m. newscast. Then we hooked up a 13-inch monitor outside the satellite truck and turned on the Tennessee-Kentucky game. If you didn't see it, this was an awesome game to watch. By the second overtime, we had a crowd gathering around the truck to see what was going on. By the third overtime, there were about 25 people standing there and watching. As a Tennessee graduate, it was really hard to watch with a bunch of Bama and Auburn fans (mostly Bama) standing around talking about how much they hated Tennessee. One even said "If Tennessee played Iraq, I would pull for Iraq." I just kept quiet, since only Tater and Seth knew I was pulling for the Vols. I also thought it was kind of funny that they were all standing around a 13-inch TV when there was a 42-inch plasma 50 yards away at the Honda generator tent showing the game, and they had heat.

After that, it was time for the game. Most everyone took off for the stadium except me, Alex the truck operator, and Greg Screws. Screws and I went and watched the first half at the Honda tent, then started working on what we were going to do at 10. As we sat in the truck fans would stop by and ask who won the Tennessee game; when they found out, they would unleash lots of unkind words. It got to the point where one person asked, and when I told them, they just made a disgusted face and walked off. I said "Thank you for not cursing." Greg commended me on my cool head.

After the newscast (which was fantastic), we loaded up and went back to the Motel 6. There was a Subway at the other end of the parking lot, but the dining area was closed. The drive-thru was open til 1, so we walked to the other end of the parking lot, got our Jeep and decided to see what else there was at our exit. There was a McD's and a Waffle House and both were packed, so five minutes later we were in the Subway drive-thru, where an employee told us they had closed down, even though they were supposed to have the drive-thru open until 1. We protested, and after a huffy response, we decided to find somewhere else to eat and not run the risk of someone spitting in our food.

Let me just take a second here to mention that there's not a whole lot of things open after 1 a.m. in Opelika, Alabama. We tried six fast-food places before finally finding a Sonic that was still open. We bought one of everything on the menu, went back to the motel and ate it all except for one piece of deep-fried macaroni and cheese.

Sunday morning we hit the road and got back to Huntsville about 2 p.m. We stopped one time in Alabaster to get a Whataburger, which, if you get a chance to try, is absolutely fantastic.

That's about it. I went home, put up the Christmas tree and played Call of Duty 4 until I basically passed out.

I have to say, I've been to three Iron Bowls since I started working at 19, and this one may have been the most stress-free and pleasant, weather wise (even though I did get some wicked windburn on my face the night of the game).