Probably going to be lots of these diaries in the comings days, but here's my experience.

Planning: Thank you to all those that dissuaded me from flying out the same night.  The most convincing point was "what if the game goes into OT" and of course it happens.  I think I would have been able to make that flight, barely, but more on that later.

Pre-game: Thank you to the Alumni Association - coming by myself I opted for the alumni tailgate, highly recommend.  Includes lunch, drinks, snacks, so didn't even have to buy a water bottle for during the game (though I was too stressed out to eat any of the snacks during the game).  Thanks to the nice lady (with the uniquely spelled name) and the young man (who is far more mature at that age than I was) for letting me sit with them and chat.  I hope you have fun next week in Houston!

During the game: actual game stuff will be covered by others more capably (Thank you to The Team), but I sat in section 10-L, probably 50/50 Michigan/Alabama fans, which was really neat.

• Thank you to the Michigan family behind me for being nice and friendly, even if the Cowboys actually lost to the Lions.
• Thank you to the Alabama fans next to me for being my mirror - friendly, but stressed through the whole game, trying not to swear about the mistakes (for all our drops and muffs, who knows how those bad snaps killed them).
• Thank you to the Alabama fan a few rows in front of me with a "Roll Tide" collapsible banner for never holding it up during a play.  I can totally understand needing it to block out the sun during the first half though, quite scorching.

I ended up going down the superstition route after my first few attempts to film plays resulted in terrible Michigan results, so I missed out on more videos than I would have liked.  I started filming defensive plays instead and I like to think my bad juju had a hand in messing up Alabama's offense.

After the game: Basked in the glory, took some photos in the stadium, then walked around to the other side to get a selfie with the Rose Bowl sign on the south side of the stadium (saw it while driving in).  After that I bought a hot dog from one of the vendors, which I highly recommend since it took about 45 minutes after getting to my car to get on the highway (at 7:20pm).

Finding my car wasn't too hard, they had these cool numbered balloons marking the "lot" numbers on the golf course.  Getting out was crazy though, basically nobody directing traffic, no "lanes", cars on the walkways.  I probably could have made an 8:30pm flight at Burbank even with the extra time I spent, so I think if anyone wants to try same night flight in the future you probably can do it (though we had the benefit of a short OT).

Context: My last game in person was 10 years ago, watching limping Devin Gardner almost beat Ohio.  The last few years I went from not having the fortitude to watch the game at all (2021) to watching only after half time (2022) to finally having the willpower to watch the whole thing (2023).  I bought a ticket to this Rose Bowl after my spouse saw me looking at them (only out of curiosity), and telling me I should go.  Simple but important life lesson - if you're spouse tells you it's okay to spend more than a thousand dollars on yourself, you take that chance and don't look back.

It's probably apparent what I meant by the title - I travelled and attended the game by myself, but even from the moment I sat down at the gate to leave for LA, I was already chatting with other Michigan fans.  I got to attend this game with ~50K "family" members and it was great experience.

Go Blue!