Going to watch the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide win over Mississippi State last Saturday was an experience I’ll likely never forget.

That was my second time to go see an Alabama game sitting in Bryant-Denny Stadium, where countless games have been played.

Before I delve into the day leading up to the game, I am going to start when my brother and I first talked about me coming up.

It was in October when he asked me, “When are you coming up for a game?”

My reply was, “I don’t know. Let’s decide when we meet for my niece’s first birthday party.”

That never happened. We e-mailed back and forth and I gave him the dates for the games I could come up and finally we decided last weekend’s game. From that point, which was late October when we settled on a date, I got really excited.

A week ago from last Friday night, Nov. 7, I had spent a wet and soggy night reporting on the first round of the playoffs.

A newspaper in Dothan obliged to let me use their office to write my story and send it in before deadline.

Well, a friend of mine works there and we got something to eat after the game. At dinner, he entertained the idea of going to see the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, which came out on Nov. 14.

I said, “That would be awesome, but it would depend on the time of the Alabama game.”

So, on Monday morning, I found to my surprise that the game was starting at 6:45 p.m.

To make a long story short, I drove to Dothan late last Friday night to see QOS with my friends and got up for a lonely and long drive to Tuscaloosa the next day.

I really don’t know how I managed to get up after only six hours of sleep to drive for four hours to see the game, but I did.

After a long drive, I arrived in Tuscaloosa where I found where my brother lived and changed real quickly into a nice shirt and tie because I would be sitting with the students, who were also wearing shirts and ties.

Before the game, I got to hang out and get to know my brother’s fraternity brothers and that was nice. The fraternity house had the same smell as any other fraternity house, stale beer and cigarettes.

At 6:15, with the threat of rain, we walked to the stadium, the beautiful structure with its enormity towering over us like the Coliseum in Rome.

If I were in Roman times, this I think is what it would have been like.

The most memorable moment of the game was when junior defensive back Javier Arenas ran the football 80 yards for a touchdown on a punt.

The crowd went crazy.

I’m just thankful that Alabama came out with a win and are now 11-0 overall and 7-0 in the SEC.

I am so glad that I went to the Alabama game last weekend and I know it will not be the last.