So last week's Hawaii game was the first time I had the privilege of setting up my own OSU tailgate in a few years. I drove 2 hours round trip to pickup my parents SUV to use to haul everything down to campus (no way it was all fitting in my 4-door) and spent all night prepping food. Pigs in a blanket, beer, a crockpot full of chili, beer, hawaiian sliders, beer, hot dogs/brats, and of course beer.

We got down to our favorite tailgating spot on campus around 8AM and got everything set up with plenty of space to spread out. With it being much cooler than I expected for an early September non conference banger (thought we might catch some warmer weather given our opponent), my buddies helped me put a tarp up on one side of the tent (at the ladies request) to help block the wind. What I failed to realize was that they anchored said tarp down with the table of food.

Long story short, a brief but very strong gust of wind came through and blew the table of delicious tailgate food over. There is no 5 second rule for chili in a muddy grass patch. The food warmers we had just lit caught a few things on fire and all we were left with were hot dogs and an abundance of ice cold beer to fill up on.

An entertaining story to say the least... lesson(s) learned for next time!