This will be a pretty short post. On my bucket list I've always wanted to see a bonfire in the flesh, to feel the intense heat of a flame larger than myself. When I looked it up however there were very few places in the whole world that had such bonfires. So you can imagine my surprise when I learned that there was going to be a bonfire a few hours away from me, in a city of my own name, Bryan, Texas.
Turns out the Bonfire represented the A&M "burning hate" of UT, which would make this trip extra exciting since I was a UT Longhorn. I was able to make the trip useful as well, since my Uncle flew in for Thanksgiving and someone had to pick up my brother from A&M. This was practically on the way!
We arrived about an hour before the actual burn. However, the whole event was a bit of a festival so we passed the time by visiting the surrounding tents. We got particular enjoyment out of the funnel cake tent where the lady had clearly woken up on the wrong side of the bed and bossed Nick around into waiting in a particular place and not moving a muscle until he received his funnel cake.
Soon enough our wait was over, and what followed was glorious.
Turns out the Bonfire represented the A&M "burning hate" of UT, which would make this trip extra exciting since I was a UT Longhorn. I was able to make the trip useful as well, since my Uncle flew in for Thanksgiving and someone had to pick up my brother from A&M. This was practically on the way!
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 Bonfire before the burn |
We arrived about an hour before the actual burn. However, the whole event was a bit of a festival so we passed the time by visiting the surrounding tents. We got particular enjoyment out of the funnel cake tent where the lady had clearly woken up on the wrong side of the bed and bossed Nick around into waiting in a particular place and not moving a muscle until he received his funnel cake.
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 Nearby tents |
Soon enough our wait was over, and what followed was glorious.
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  The Bonfire! |
Aggies had built several fires in the past, and my Uncle reminisced about back in the day when the pile was almost twice as high, before when the bonfire was school sponsored. However in Novermber of 1999 there was a terrible accident where 12 Aggies died in a terrible accident while the bonfire structure collapsed. Afterward the Bonfire was halted until 2003 when a new volunteer student body resumed construction with a safer design.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole night was the tradition of somewhat UT-hate-fueled chants and group swaying that accompanied the bonfire. Made me feel like even more of a spy.
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| Hidden Longhorn hand guesture, Hook 'em!! |
I'm fortunate that there were folks passionate for the bonfire that it was re-instated. Most items on my bucket list fall under this category - awesome, somewhat dangerous things that I feel like might not exist 100 years from now. For example, in my next post I will be showing off another dangerous bucket list item - get ready to hear about my trip to Munich!
