ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 TAG: 9612310102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCHOLS STAFF WRITER
THE FIRST WAVE OF TECH TAILGATERS rolled into the parking lot at Pro Players Stadium with a weak battery, but a strong will to party.
At noon Monday, 31 hours before the big game, seven guys in a beige RV pulled into the rear lot of Pro Players Stadium.
They clambered onto the roof of the 30-foot motor home, hauling lawn chairs, a cooler and stereo speakers. Then they stripped to their swim trunks, donned sombreros and settled down to catch some sun and begin a tailgate party that won't end until 1997.
The first fans had arrived for the Orange Bowl and they were, of course, Virginia Tech fans.
"We're pretty proud," said Rob Boumann, who just graduated from Tech. "We're the first fans here. Period."
The group consisted of two alumni, two juniors and three fifth-year seniors.
Boumann led a tour through the RV, which was strewn with gym bags, bottles of whiskey and rum and a girlie magazine with a blond in lacy white underwear on the front. There was a keg of beer in the shower, and the stereo cranked out Steve Miller, Grateful Dead and Dave Mathews Band tunes. A paunchy Buddha was taped to the dash.
"He got us through finals," said Jeff "Bus" Donlon, a fifth-year senior from New Jersey whose nickname has something to do with the school bus he rode to high school. "We figured if we rubbed his belly we wouldn't get lost."
The RV lot is a sand-and-gravel area with picnic tables and trash cans, but no electric outlets. It costs just $25 a day to park if you make reservations, $30 if you pay at the gate.
Still, Boumann and his friends expect to spend between $200 and $300 each before their trip is over. They haven't bought tickets yet, but hope to get some cheap today.
"We initially started to do this because it was cheaper, but we're having a hell of a time," Donlon said.
It's cheaper than the airline travel packages, which most fans paid more than $1,000 to get.
The RV trip is over budget because the seven rambling Hokies are paying more than expected for gasoline. They have to keep the RV idling because the battery is weak.
"We can't turn it off for more than a half hour at a time," Donlon said.
The motor conked out in Ryan Johnson's front yard Sunday evening, shortly after they rented the RV near Richmond. They got it jump-started and on the road about 7 p.m. and drove all night to Miami.
There were several pit stops along the way. They bought sombreros at South of the Border between North Carolina and South Carolina. They stopped to let Johnson call his girlfriend.
"He called his girlfriend at every stop," jeered Matt Lanihan. "She owns him pretty much. What was the rule? Every 100 miles, or every state?"
The Buddha notwithstanding, they got lost in Fort Lauderdale when they followed signs directing them to a high school stadium.
Once they finally made it back on the road to Miami, a storage compartment flew open, spewing battery cables, spare hoses and a grille onto the highway. A passing motorist flagged them down to alert them.
"Some guy came up beside us and started yelling at us," Johnson said, "and we thought he was going to shoot us, but he was real nice."
After about an hour of sunbathing and whooping at every car adorned with Virginia Tech flags, the group looked for other entertainment. They threw a Frisbee back and forth. They lined up along the fence at one end of the lot to look at a ground owl that had dug a burrow nearby.
Julio Fernandez, the parking attendant for the RV lot, brought his only guests the sports section from the Miami Herald. He chided them for their team's 21 arrests, but assured them he was cheering for Virginia Tech.
"Julio is cool," Lanihan said, and all his RV mates bobbed their sombreros in agreement.
Next it was time to make out a shopping list of necessities they forgot to bring: soap, washcloths, chili powder, ice and charcoal. Oh, and another keg. They debated whether they should pull the current keg out of the RV shower or bum a shower from a friend staying in a hotel, which required a hike to the stadium's pay phones. Two set off to find a phone.
It's no accident there was no food on their shopping list. They're surviving off barbecued venison from a deer Johnson shot over his Thanksgiving holiday. His mom cooked the meat for the trip.
"I'm donating it to the cause," Johnson said.
The group had been there about an hour when a second RV arrived. The man behind the wheel drove by slowly, sizing up his neighbors with apparent trepidation. He selected a slot that put about half the lot between him and the sunbathers. As soon as they saw the Virginia Tech logo on the back of the new RV, however, the seven were off to meet the fresh arrivals.
"Hi ho, neighbors," Johnson said as he peered through the lens of a video camera.
Charles and Carol Floyd smiled and explained that they were from the Cape Charles area of Virginia, as the camera rolled. After a brief chat, it was back to the rooftop for more sunbathing.
"I think we'll have to do this again for spring break," said fifth-year senior Adam Kaufman.
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