Back To School Blog From Tuscaloosa, AL

I knew this would be a good trip when I became smitten with an Alabama girl hours before I even arrived in the state.

She was on the first leg of my flight from Los Angeles, an absolute DOLL from the tiny dot of Opp, AL, who was in LA shopping for her family’s boutique store. She was bubby, chatty, had a wide-eyed look about her and that adorable Alabama accent. “Raul Tiiiiide,” she would say.
Plus, she was a college football fan – Alabama is her team – and that’s one of the great virtues of all Southern women.

So my trip back to school got off to a great start, and now I’m back in Tuscaloosa, were I went to college.  I live in  the “real LA.” While in T-town I must distinguish it from the LA they know here, which is Lower Alabama. I’m here for the Alabama-Ole Miss game as a guest of a friend who has not just a box seat but a mansion and a zest for live that surpasses even myself.

Upon arriving, we went straight to the bar, a cool place downtown called Five. It’s actually a restaurant/bar and while it was slow on this night, we slugged down drinks, shots with the manager and mingled with the manage of a really happening college bar called Innisfree Irish Pub,

I also met a table of cute blondes two of which, as it turns out, are from San Diego.

It was a great night and in the morning, I got up and took a run through the neighborhood. This included going by Nick Saban’s house which, Bama fans should be interested to know, has a “Rolling With The Tide” mailbox cover. If it said “Texas Longhorns,” then there would be cause for concern.

So now I’m ready for more: Campus tour followed by more Tuscaloosa nightlife. But up next: lunch at Dreamland Ribs!