What is better than college football? Not much, especially if you’re watching it live with thousands of your closest friends and in the luxury of a motorcoach. This can take your experience from amazing to epic.
If you have an RV or want to rent one, here are our top 5 tips for making sure your tailgate is the best ever:
1. Plan ahead: Depending on your destination, you may have to stock up before your arrival. Not all college towns have the same variety and selection of food, beverages and accessories. Regardless, planning what you’re eating and drinking ahead of time makes enjoying the game that much easier.
Always plan to make extra food and bring a large supply of beverages as meeting new people and being neighborly (especially to the “enemy”) is part of the fun. Being in an RV gives you a leg up on the competition with a refrigerator and freezer, stove top and BBQ grill. But remember that if you’re planning on hosting a lot of guests, you may need to supplement with coolers, ice and card tables.
2. Empty gray and black water tanks completely: Another part of planning ahead is to arrive with empty tanks as most tailgates take place in parking lots that are not equipped with RV dumping stations and the like. Since we are talking about staying one to two nights maximum, you should be fine, but you may want to be cognizant of taking shorter showers and not wasting too much water on doing dishes…use disposables or just save them for the dishwasher when you get home. And use the stadium “facilities” when you can because you and your friends will likely have to “go” a lot.
3. Pack some games: Whether you have an early kickoff or a battle under the lights you’ll want to have plenty of time to enjoy the day. Bringing outdoor lawn games is a fun way to enjoy your tailgate. We love cornhole and ladder ball as they are both simple games everyone can play and pack away quite nicely. Bonus points if you decorate your cornhole set in team colors! Which leads to…
4. Show your spirit: Run your team’s flag, wrap your motorcoach in school colors, or simply put a blow-up of your mascot on the roof. Whatever you do, make it distinctive, so you can stand out and your friends can find you; and tasteful, so no one gets the wrong idea and decides to take out their frustrations from the game on your rig. This is especially true if you are with the visiting team. Also, don’t forget your team gear! The beauty of an RV is that you have room to bring your school hoodie, fleece, blanket and rain-slicker…just in case.
5. Take your time and skip the hotel (or drive home): One of the worst parts of any football game is when it is over. Yes, you can enjoy the thrill of victory or maybe the agony of defeat, but either way, you have to stream out of the stadium, walk to your car or ride a shuttle, wait to get out of the parking lot and then battle traffic back home or to that peak-priced hotel…yep the two star motel with the four-star price tag.
With an RV you get to head back to your coach (or maybe even the couch in your coach), which is ideally in the parking lot. Fire up the grill, open a cold beverage and hang out or watch the next game on the satellite or projector you set up outside.
It may be hard to beat a tailgate, but it is impossible to beat tailgating in an RV when you plan ahead and pack right!