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All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

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We would like to invite everyone to our tailgating group, the Krewe De Blue at the World Famous Hillbilly Hilton.

We have hosted some of your fans in the past, and we had a great time in Ft. Lauderdale last season (despite the loss).

At any rate, here is our website www.KreweDeBlue.com . We are located at RV Row near our football stadium.

Let us know if you have any questions– directions/thing to do/ places to eat, and we'll do our best to answer.

You cannot miss the "Hilton":

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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

Here's an article from last season:

Blue Raider, Ragin' Cajun fans just want to have fun
By BRANDON PUTTBRESE
[email protected]

When Cajun music is booming from the Hillybilly Hilton tailgating bus, you can count on finding Blue Raider and Ragin' Cajun fans having a good time.

As owners of the converted school bus, Dan and Dawn Farrer of Murfreesboro will be there, leading the party. You'll also meet Chris and Tiffany Dumatrait of Breaux Bridge, La., a suburb of Lafayette, which is home to the Ragin' Cajuns.

"It's something you don't expect," Chris said, "meeting someone who lives 600 miles away and becoming this good of friends."

The Dumatraits and the Farrers, along with Eddie LeBlanc, have been partying together for five, er, six, maybe seven years (the details don't seem to be important when this group is together), said Chris Groce of Murfreesboro, another of the revelers who met Chris Dumatrait on an Internet message board, dedicated to MTSU athletics.

"We'd been to games in Lafayette in the past, and we just really admired the way they tailgate for football," Groce said.

After speaking over the Internet, the tailgaters decided to meet in person for their teams' next gridiron bout.

"We were just amazed," Dumatrait said. "The Hillbilly Hilton is like nothing we've ever seen before."

The similarities drawn between their respective hometowns, schools and a passion for a good time drew the families together — forging a friendship that transcends football.

The Farrers married in Church Point, La., and the Dumatraits served as best man and matron of honor. Chris arranged for the newlyweds to ride on a Mardi Gras float to kick off their honeymoon.

"It's become like a big family," Dan said, standing underneath red flags and blue flags representing both universities.

Chris Dumatrait agreed, saying the "family" get-togethers have extended far beyond tailgating.

"They treat us like family, and we try to do the same," Dumatrait said. "We go out of our way to show each other a good time."

This Sun Belt Conference rivalry has almost become secondary to the tailgating when these unlikely friends get together. But a football game is just as good an excuse is any to throw a party, Dan said, adding that he's learning a lot about tailgate bashes from these Ragin' Cajun faithful, who traveled 10 hours for the game.

Cajun cuisine may be the most prolific addition to the Blue Raider party. The families enjoy sharing recipes and cooking techniques from both their cultures.

Without batting an eye, Dan quickly rattled off today's menu. "We're having trashcan turkey — best turkey you'll ever eat, imported Cajun gumbo, 'Lucky' Dan's Louisiana Stew and chili for the sissies."

Food is central to any Cajun tailgate, and the people there are always willing to share, Dan said. "You'll be walking to the game with your Blue Raider gear on, and someone will grab you, saying, 'We're going to beat your butts, but we're going to feed you first.'"

But Dan might be influencing the Ragin' Cajuns as well. Dumatrait says he and LeBlanc are trying to find an old school bus they could turn into a tailgate party zone. They already a have name picked out: "The Cajun Condo."

Groce said he loves visiting Lafayette for sports and he is happy to play host in Murfreesboro for his Louisiana friends. "Football is more than winning and losing, I consider these guys my best friends."
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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

Thats awesome.  Although highly unlikely, it's always been a dream of mine to customize an old school bus for tailgates.  Ya'll are livin the dream. ;D

FAU - We got Bowls!
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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

duder said

Thats awesome.  Although highly unlikely, it's always been a dream of mine to customize an old school bus for tailgates.  Ya'll are livin the dream. ;D

We've ridden her to Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Memphis and Bowling Green (for hoops in BG).

She (The Hillbilly Hilton) will be making a football trek to WKU this year.

Would love to take it to the New Orleans Bowl one day, and drive her down Bourbon Street ;D
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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

Interesting dish from the from the Menu for last game:

"Elaine Davenport - Terrapin Balls"

Yikes!

;D
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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

KAjunRaider said


You cannot miss the "Hilton":




That's amazing. You guys did such a great job with it!

How much did it cost to make this?
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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

Hope to see some FAU fans in Murfreesboro.

Let us know if you are coming in for a long weekend, so that we may direct you to places-to-see/things-to-do in the greater Nashville area.

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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

That's saweeet…Do you have any interior shots of the "Hilton"?  Does it have a crapper?
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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

Here's a recent story by a Washington Post writer (who came in for the Maryland game):

A trip to the Hillbilly Hilton - Washington Times

It has a grainy interior shot.

It has 4 bunk beds, a crapper, fridge, satellit TV's, cabinets, hardwood floor, etc.
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Re: All FAU fans invited to the Hillbilly Hilton for tailgating in TN

Here's another article:



A $1,500 investment changed the tailgating scene at MTSU athletic events.

In 1996 Danny Farrer decided he wanted a travel vehicle he could take to races in Talledega, Atlanta and Bristol. He found an old school bus in Cookeville and put up the money, and Nov. 8, 1996 he took the bus that would eventually become Hillbilly Hilton — a bus seen at MTSU football and baseball games — to the NAPA 500 in Atlanta.

"We had an idea that we were going to create a travel vehicle," said Farrer, an MTSU and racing fan who owns Precision Wood Products in Murfreesboro. "It was focused on racing. We knew we wanted to put bunks in it, a bathroom."

THE BEGINNING

Farrer needed a tailgating vehicle for racing, and he got it. Next, he had to decorate it and name it.
He works with wood, which made it easy for him to find decorations for the bus. He decorated the bus but needed a name. He knew of a tailgating vehicle called the Ogeechee Hilton — there's an Ogeechee River in Georgia — and liked it.

The name Hillbilly Hilton came to him.

"I liked it," said Farrer, who graduated from Georgia Tech but loves MTSU. "It didn't have any connotation with (MTSU). The university's embraced it."

He trademarked the name Hillbilly Hilton Dec. 9, 1996 in case he wanted to create merchandise. He's thinking about starting a Web site.

The Hillbilly Hilton first got attention in the '90s when he entered it in a Die-Hard Racing Contest held by Sears. It was one of the finalists, and he got a jacket.

Eventually, though, it wasn't enough to just take the Hillbilly Hilton to races.


MOVE TO I-A

MTSU's football program jumped to Division I-A in 1999, and Farrer decided it was time for Hillbilly Hilton to make a move.

He loves MTSU football and has friends who are also die-hard fans. They like to tailgate, which means the logical thing was moving the Hillbilly Hilton to the Floyd Stadium parking lot for MTSU home games every fall.

"About the late '90s I started to use it for football," Farrer said. "I still had the racing insignia with the move to I-A. A lot of my friends are Blue Raiders. The community welcomed me. What I want to do was make it an event, even when I go to races. It's an icon. People loved it had a bathroom. It was a meeting place."

Eventually the Hillbilly Hilton wasn't simply decorated with racing stuff. It soon became a shrine to MTSU.

A GATHERING PLACE

At first a few friends gathered at the Hillbilly Hilton before games, but soon it started to get attention. MTSU supported Farrer and gave him permission to park the bus in the grove in front of Floyd Stadium.

"The Hilton is probably something that everyone would like to do," said Danny Jones, a real estate agent at Bob Parks Realty who tailgates at the Hillbilly Hilton. "It's something everybody likes to do."

Every year a few more people gather at the Hillbilly Hilton, and now it's become the place to be on game day.

"The coaches, administration have started to recognize the Hilton," Jones said. "Coaches come every now and then. Everybody's always welcome. Everybody's created equal."

Farrer also takes the Hillbilly Hilton to MTSU baseball games. At the baseball games fans sit on top of the bus on watch the action, and, of course, they tailgate before the game.

CHOW TIME

Now MTSU fans start tailgating at the Hillbilly Hilton on Friday to prepare for the game, and on Saturdays fans can visit "the icon" to eat food such as chicken, chili, soup and ribs.

For MTSU's last home football game this season — Nov. 25 against Troy — Farrer said he might prepare soup because everyone will be "turkeyed out."

"Everybody falls into the hamburger, hot dog trap," Farrer said. "We decided we wanted to do a different thing. Sometimes it's related to the opponent. Last time we had rice."

Farrer said he learned about preparing various foods from Louisiana-Lafayette fans and hopes to make that food available at games.

"(Louisiana) people love life," Farrer said. "They have jambalaya pots. They're good for gumbo."

Everyone is invited, but Farrer asks that fans put money into a pot placed next to the Hillbilly Hilton because feeding hundreds of people can be expensive.

A FLEET OF TAILGATERS

The Hillbilly Hilton is the original — the classic.

"It's an icon, no doubt about it," Jones said.

Others have joined the party, turning what used to be a one-bus party into a fleet.

Bob Richardson, for example, has joined forces with Murphy Fair, Tim Tackett and Troy Festervand to create Raider the Lost Ark, which is part of the fleet at MTSU.

"We decided that we needed to step it up, be more professional," said Richardson, who works at Lincoln Financial. "People come over and start tailgating. It's been a genesis. We encourage lots of people (to tailgate). We want to try to keep raising the bar."

And it was the Hillbilly Hilton that set the bar.

"It was the anchor," Farrer said. "People related to that and developed their own degrees of tailgating."

OTHERS NOTICE THE HILTON

The Hillbilly Hilton is no longer a stranger to those outside Murfreesboro. It's been mentioned in Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine, and fans of other teams have visited "the icon."

When MTSU played Louisville Oct. 6 at LP Field in Nashville Cardinal fans noticed the Hillbilly Hilton and wanted to see it.

"A guy asked me if he could take a picture (at the Louisville game)," Farrer said. "Thirty people were on top of it. It's a magnet."

INSIDE THE HILTON

On the outside the Hillbilly Hilton looks like a shrine to MTSU football with Blue Raider decorations.

Inside it's more than an old school bus. There's a half bathroom — it has a restroom — bunks, a 12-foot galley, a generator and satellite TV.

There's no reason to go anywhere while tailgating because the Hillbilly Hilton is equipped with a bathroom, and a football game is always on TV.

"It's really interesting," said State Farm insurance agent Bud Morris, who's tailgated at the Hillbilly Hilton. "He's got blue and white flags on it. It's self-contained."

Bob Parks real estate agent Richard Lewis is also impressed with the Hillbilly Hilton.

"It's amazing what he's been able to do with a retired school bus," Lewis said.

What he's done is priceless.
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