not being prepared before I left. I had been to several Duke games before the Stadium renovations but had not been in several years. My past experience had been parking in a half full parking lot and having a nice stroll through the Duke Campus and into the stadium and watching Tech destroy the Dukies 50 to 7 or there abouts with no problems leaving after the game. Saturday I made an early morning decision to go to the game from the Charlotte area but had some things I need to do before noon.

Once I got into Durham, I agree the cops funneled traffic to the parking garage. I knew, once I entered the structure, I was screwed. On the way, I saw several places where Duke fans and some Tech people were parking but was not sure if they had a pass or I was going to be lead into gaint parking lot like I had been in the past. Bad part was the game ended at night and my landmark was a crane beside the parking structure, which was not visible after dark Stupidity on my part but I also didn't realize how far the parking structure was from the stadium. It was a good walk probably close to a mile. Needless to say I ended up at a different parking structure after the game and discovered Duke had thee (3) of them. Some Duke locals informed me of this fact and gave me ride over to the right structure so I can not say anything bad about their fans. All the I met and talked to were super nice. They were not alumni but worked at the hospital. They mainly talked about all the injuries the Duke team had this year and I didn't really say much about the game except it was excitingly close and wished them luck against the Tar Heels telling we had a common dislike of them.

Once I got to the right parking structure, I had to wait another hour before the line of cars on my level started moving. I should have probably walked down the street to a local restarant and got something to eat instead of waiting it out. Point is now I know. Once outside the traffic was light and I stopped at a greasy KFC leaving town that seemed more intersted in making tacos then chicken.

I will definitely go back but will be better prepared. The tickets are inexpensive and all the seats in the place are really good as far as seeing the action. The players seemed to really appreciate the Tech fans presence at the game and that is what is most important. If your down low in the crowded part of the stadium, where all the Tech fans are located it will be a while before you get out. I didn't hit the bathrooms so I can not comment if they were sufficient. $4.00 for a 16 ounce bottle of coke was mildly excessive.

Overall, I would say Duke was not efficiently prepared for the larger Hokie contingent that made it to the game, which is bad considering they have a 40,000 seat stadium but with some planning ahead much of this can be avoided by the smart visiting fan. It was an awesome day weather wise and Tech is 7 and 2 with GT and UVA at home and still the lead dog to represent the Costal Division in the ACC Championship game.