A Shade of Gray: UGA Picture Day

Saturday morning at around 4 am, and without having gone to sleep, Uncle Rick, Henry's dad Jon, and I set up three tailgating chairs outside Sanford Stadium and waited. We were waiting for 9 am. At 9 o' clock, the UGA promotions department would begin to give out tickets to reserve a spot next to Uga VII at picture day. This year will be only this Uga's second football season, and he was so new last year, that he didn't attend Picture Day. So we expected a crowd. 150 tickets were going to be given out, and when we got there I counted our spot in line. I calculated around 50th, so we felt satisfied and tried to make the best of the wait. I woke up two hours later. The sun was up, and there were approximately 100 more people behind me in line down East Campus Road. The time finally to stake our claim to a spot finally arrived, and we inched our way toward the booth. In the other direction was Coach Richt's line. Uga and Coach Richt are, by far, the most popular picture takers on this day. They are the only two with the need for prearranged tickets to get pictures. So we finally got our Uga ticket and thought we would just go get in the fast moving Coach Richt line, and try our luck. 250 Coach Richt tickets were given, and after Rick, Jon, and I GOT OUR TICKETS, the guy right behind us got the last one! We were lucky and exhausted. We headed home to tell everyone the good news, and we were to come back to the stadium with wives and children to take some pictures.

We got to the stadium around 1 pm, and did our best to track down Mr. Uga. The promotions staff did an excellent job of herding us all through as quickly as humanly possible. Everyone we encountered working this event were friendly and made the experience great. We finally got to see Uga VII, and he seemed pretty worn out and sleepy. All the kids did great with him. We then headed to see Coach Richt. Once again, we waited in a line. The Coach Richt meeting included one autograph, so his line moved a tad bit slower. Even waiting in line, we were all entertained. While waiting, the football players came through, and we got to see a glimpse of some of our favorites. We met with Coach Richt, and he was a pleasure. Heather mentioned that Gray's Uncle Brandon was in the Army, and Coach Richt wanted to send him a personalized message. He said Sgt. Byers, but the camera only caught the "Byers" part. So Uncle Brandon, here you go:

The day was long, but well worth it. Jon, Rick, and I can claim all the Daddy brownie points, but it was gratifying to us as well. We had a great time. Jon was the driving force behind the entire event, so I'd like give him a special "thank you." Here are a few pictures. There will be more to come. Getting Brandon's message didn't allow us to take a picture of the family with him with our camera. Aunt Kelly and Ashley were taking pictures though and the professional one was snapped, so we'll have it eventually. Enjoy the pictures we have, and an edited video of the day. I'm going back to sleep.