Finally, our first road-trippers

When we pitched this trip to the T-U brass, we were under the impression caravans of Gator fans would be driving the same route we did across I-10 to Phoenix because of the price and lack of plane tickets coming out of Northeast Florida.

What we found is that generally Gator fans weathered the inconvenience or just didn't go.

And I didn't meet my first roadtrippers until last night- in Glendale.

Jill and Jennie Hornik (pictured at top left to right) made almost the exact same trip we did, with some other pit stops along the way, even leaving on the same day we did.

Jennie, 25, is moving to San Diego to start grad school at the Gemology Institute of America. Her sister, Jill, 21, a senior at Florida graduating in May, decided to kill several birds with one stone to help Jennie move from Miami to San Diego- a road trip.

Here's how the Horniks 2300-plus-mile trip played out, much of it was because they had friends in most of these cities: Miami, Orlando, Gainesville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Little Rock, Texarkana, Dallas, El Paso, Tucson, Scottsdale, and they are leaving today for San Diego.

When asked why they were partying at the promenade outside the stadium, Jill quipped, "We're on our 15th tank of gas, so we don't have any money."

They mostly saw the BCS National Championship as a stop along the way to San Diego, but were happy to be in Glendale anyway.

Jill's classes and an internship at Shands Gainesville have already started, and Jennie starts orientation Wednesday, which is when Jill flies back to Florida.

They celebrated the big Gator victory with several hundred screaming Gator fans- a great stop on a long road trip.

See photos of Gator fans celebrating the victory at the street party outside the stadium.