Notre Dame Tailgate Bus

This sweet tailgate rig is a 1997 former school bus for the city of South Bend.  Dale Luers, Steve Lindhorn and Larry Knefely took this bus from start to finish in 7 weeks, 10 days of which was at paint.  This work was done for Mark Smith, owner of Great Lakes Forest Products.  They have all been tailgating at Notre Dame for many years.

The exterior of this bus sports a custom paint job as well as 2 Margaritaville bumper grills welded together, an 18’ blue and gold awning, a 46” LED TV on a custom swing arm bracket and a TwinVision Mobile Light sign.  

The interior is completely loaded with 2 15” LED TVs over the bar in back and a flip down 26” LED TV at the front.  It has an Astroturf floor with blue and gold vinyl from floor to ceiling.  There are 2 flip sofas, 2 reclining euro chairs and three bar stools in blue and gold vinyl.  The bar and coffee tables are topped with LG solid surface countertops.  The bar is equipped with a Kegerator, a microwave and wall mounted stereo / DVD player.  The bus is satellite ready and has a powered digital roof mount antenna for local TV coverage.

All of this is powered by a Yamaha 6300w inverter generator.

This bus can be seen at All Notre Dame home games and look for it at the Notre Dame vs. Michigan game this year tailgating at "The Big House"......."GO IRISH"!!!!!!!!!!

Texas Woman Wins Taylor Morrison Ultimate Home Tailgate Party

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Lori Alvarez and her family can now hold Texas-sized tailgate parties in style, now that the Houston resident has won the Taylor Morrison Ultimate Home Tailgate Party sweepstakes.

Alvarez won a football prize package worth $20,000 after entering the Taylor Morrison sweepstakes. But she almost didn’t believe her good fortune.

“At first, when Taylor Morrison called to tell me I had won, I kept thinking it was a joke,” Alvarez said. “The Taylor Morrison representative said ‘No, no, no. Don’t you remember entering?’ Of course I did but I just couldn’t believe that I had won. I was really excited.”

Taylor Morrison staged the contest late last year, enticing football fans like Alvarez to register for a chance to win the massive tailgating prize package.

Alvarez learned this month that her prize package includes a 55-inch LCD TV with satellite receiver (a $5,000 value), $10,000 in furniture from clubfurniture.com, a stainless steel gas grill worth $1,500, a catering package of $1,500 in food from her favorite restaurant, another $1,000 in groceries and $1,000 worth of her favorite team’s (the Houston Texans) apparel.

Since winning, Alvarez said she feels a lot luckier, even buying a lottery ticket the day she was notified.

“You never expect it,” she said. “You know someone will win. You complete the entry form thinking ‘What are the chances?’ It’s always someone else who wins.

“But from now on I’m entering a lot more contests,” she said.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110316005051/en/Texas-Woman-Wins-Taylor-Morrison-Ultimate-Home

A Final Four first: Houston to bring tailgating to basketball with Barbecue Town

http://culturemap.com/newsdetail/03-15-11-a-final-four-first-houston-to-bring-tailgating-to-college-basketballs-showcase-with-barbecue-town/

Tailgating and college basketball have never really gone together. But maybe that's just because the Final Four hasn't been in Houston for 40 years.

With college basketball's biggest event set to make a big Bayou City splash, CultureMap has learned that there will be officially endorsed tailgating at the Final Four for the first time.

College football no longer gets to have all the fun, pageantry and parking lot hanging out. Final Four ticket holders will be encouraged to show up to both the April 2 national semifinal games and the April 4 championship game early to partake in some of the fun that in many ways really helped build Reliant Stadium's reputation.

Tailgating at Houston Texans games at Reliant became such a hit that Forbes named Houston one of the Top 10 tailgating towns in America — and it eventually became so popular that the Texans decided they needed to place restrictions on the practice during the 2010 season to keep it under control.

The Final Four tailgating will not fit the traditional image of an RV pulling up in a lot and a crew of friends setting up a portable grill to cook up homemade takes. Instead, Barbecue Town will be a special area in the Reliant parking lots where barbecue is available for purchase and a not-quite-impromptu party-like scene with music is set up.

The thinking behind that decision is that a large majority of the Final Four-ticket holders will be coming in from out of town and will not be able to lug tailgating equipment to the game, NCAA and Houston Local Organizing Committee officials told CultureMap.

So the barbecue will be cooked by professionals. The plan is to create an almost festival-like pregame atmosphere, the type of thing that's never really been associated with the Final Four before. 

There is a very practical aspect to that goal as well. A successful parking lot party could mean less roads around Reliant turn into virtual parking lots.

"We want to make sure people get to the games early to prevent any major traffic issues," said Doug Hall, vice president of game, facility and LOC management for the 2011 Houston Final Four Local Organizing Committee. "So that's part of it. But the NCAA and Local Organizing Committee are also committed to making this a Houston Final Four. We really want the local flavor and barbecue just seemed like a natural.

"Because it's Houston. If you're from out of town and you're coming into Houston, what's one of the things you want to try?"

Don't expect to be noshing on Goode Company Barbeque or another iconic H-Town institution though. While the vendors for Barbecue Town have not been finalized yet, Hall says they are expected to be much less well-known and distinctive than the four restaurants that won their way into serving food at the Big Dance Concert Series in Discovery Green (Original Ninfa's on Navigation, Max's Wine Dive, the Tasting Room and the House of Blues).

Barbecue Town fits into the NCAA's vision of building up the events around the Final Four and making it more of a happening rather than just the three biggest games of every college basketball season. The Final Four may never morph into the Super Bowl where a good chunk of people fly in for a week of partying and then fly out right before kickoff (and the NCAA probably wouldn't even want it to), but college basketball's governing body still sees room for growth.

"The Final Four seems to get bigger every year," NCAA's associate director for the Division I Men's Basketball Championship David Worlock said during a Houston visit. "Just when you start to think there can't possibly be any more interest than there already is, a new milestone or record is set."

Sometimes it's even something as simple as barbecue. What was one thing college basketball's biggest event was missing? Tailgating?

Houston will take care of that.

"It's full speed ahead on Barbecue Town," Hall said.

Fire up the commercial grill.

Monday Morning Wakeup Call: LSU 2

Geaux Tigers!

 

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ACC Tailgaters Continue 11 Year Tradition

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=166027&catid=57

Greensboro, NC -- We all know the ACC has the country's most storied basketball history. But  WFMY News 2 found its tailgating prowess isn't far behind.

Everywhere you turn at the Greensboro Coliseum the parking lot is packed with people ready to party.

There's never a shortage of food, drinks and plenty of games.

But wait until you see the Labonte U.

"You might as well just live here for the weekend," said NC State fan Steve Mangum. "My truck hasn't moved an inch since Thursday morning and I haven't left the premises."

For more than 11 years now, a group of friends with ties to Terry Labonte Chevrolet has made a tradition out of camping at the coliseum.

For 2011, their five RVs form a 'U' and WFMY News 2 spotted them setting it up back on Tuesday. Forget the people who tailgate under tents. These folks have the tournament figured out.

"It's a great time, the tournament's a great time," said Mangum. "Greensboro does a great job putting everything together. I think we'd rather come here than any other venue for the ACC Tournament it's perfect."

And so is their setup.

We got a tour in and around their RVs early Saturday morning before the crowd or the grill fired up.

They can entertain as many as 125 fellow fans inside the U and Saturday's menu will probably make it a popular place.

"We're going to have chickens, lamb, salmon, that's to start," said Mangum.

The only thing better than the food or the setup might be the company.

Enemies inside the coliseum, red and Carolina blue mix well here in the U.

And the comraderie is why they keep coming back year after year.

"How could it get more perfect than that?"

Forget the people who tailgate under tents.

Atomic Buffalo Turds

Atomic Buffalo Turds are a great appetizer at a tailgate (or anywhere).  The true ABT has the bacon wrapped around the pepper, but laying the bacon on top saves a lot of time and yields the same result.

INGREDIENTS

• 20 large jalapeno peppers
• 20 pieces of thick cut bacon
• 1 package of little smokies (your choice of flavor)
• 2 cups fine shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 package cream cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix cream cheese and cheddar cheese together in a bowl. 
2. Cut jalapeno peppers in half, leaving stems in, and remove all seeds and core.
3. Fill jalapeno half with cheese mixture, put a smokie in the middle and top with a half piece of bacon.
4. Secure bacon with a toothpick thru the center of the smokie and pepper.
5. Put on a grill or smoker over low heat until the bacon is to your liking.  The peppers will look over cooked but that is the way they should be. 

We are back!

After a long absense, TailgateLot.com is back!  We look forward to providing great content, and showing some of the great tailgaters that are out there.

If you have a great recipe, tailgate rig, Monday morning wake up call, or something cool to share, please let us know!

info@tailgatelot.com

Go Big on Beer Pong

If you've mastered beer pong, and are looking to take on something a little bigger, you need to check out BEARPONG ($65).

BEARPONG is an oversized portable Beer Pong set that can be played anywhere. This set is great to thrown down at the beach, tailgates, poolside, cookouts, and yards.

My first thought when I saw this product was, you're going to need a helluva lotta beer to hold those cups down. Actually, they use a patent pending weighted system to hold down the cups...err...buckets. The deluxe set comes complete with 12 buckets, 3 balls, ball pump, and a unique carrying case to get you started.

You can check them out for more information at BearPong.com.

Monday Morning Wake Up Call: Auburn 2

Auburn (8-0) rose from No. 5 to No. 3 in both the Associated Press and the ESPN Coaches polls and from No. 4 in last week’s initial BCS rankings to the top spot after Saturday’s 24-17 victory over LSU.

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Weber Ranch Kettle Grill

With a cooking area clocking in at just over 1,100 square inches, The Ranch ($1,100) is the Weber Kettle Grill on steroids. This mammoth of a grill is able to accommodate multiple turkeys, roasts, chickens, or up to 19 Cornish hens! Originally designed for caterers and country club chefs, the Ranch Kettle is perfect for extremely large tailgate crowds.

Rugged, yet easy to use, this 37-1/2-inch-diameter grill features a patented tuck-away lid that slides conveniently into its holder. Two weather-resistant thermoplastic handles remain cool to the touch when you move the lid. A hinged cooking grate gives you easy access to coals and a removable ash catcher assures easy cleanup. With the same solid construction of all Weber grills, the Ranch Kettle has locking casters that allow for easy movement and the porcelain-enameled coating to prevent rust.

Best of all, the massive cooking area lets you have any number of different heating combinations, such as high heat for searing meat, a medium area for cooking it, and a low area for keeping food warm on the grill.