Famous RV City getting cranked up for Florida-Georgia game, the last in Jacksonville before moving away for 2 years
Sports columnist Ryan O’Halloran makes his first visit to RV City ahead of Florida-Georgia
What is the atmosphere at RV City, the campground for Florida-Georgia Week? The Times-Union talked to Gator and Bulldog fans ahead of Saturday’s game.
- The annual Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville is preceded by a week-long tailgating tradition in a makeshift lot known as RV City.
- Fans from both sides express disappointment over the game’s temporary two-year move to Atlanta and Tampa due to stadium renovations.
- Many Florida fans at the event expressed a desire for the university to hire Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin as their next head coach.
They drove down from Atlanta like the last 20 years. They drove up from Gainesville like they have for the last 10 years. And they drove over from Orange Park and other parts of the Jacksonville area like they have for as many as 30 years.
There are college football traditions nationwide — it’s what makes it a great game that isn’t played to this level anywhere else on Earth. But then there is this tradition.
Georgia vs. Florida in Jacksonville on a Saturday afternoon is the main event, but the undercard running from Tuesday-Sunday is the party in RV City, the makeshift motorhome lot across the street from EverBank Stadium, near the Hart Bridge and a short walk from the St. Johns River.
I just had to get over there.
During my first tour with the Times-Union (September 2012-April 2018), my duties covering the Jaguars kept me out of the Florida-Georgia game loop. Sometimes, the Jaguars were on the road, like 2012 in Green Bay. Most of the time, the Jaguars were on their bye week and I would dash out of town for a quick vacation. I saw the RVs assemble in the parking lots in the days leading into the game, but kept driving. I didn’t attend the game, either.
Not this year, though.
Back in Jacksonville as the sports columnist has opened additional doors – games to attend, people to visit with, traditions to experience, etc. That included my first trip to RV City late Wednesday afternoon, about 70 hours before Saturday’s kickoff.
“Want a beer?” a Georgia fan asked.
“Want a Jell-O shot? We’ve got 500 of them,” a Florida fan asked.
I politely declined, but the tone was set for my visit. These folks, with their motorhomes hunkered down since Tuesday morning and their golf carts to get around the grounds, love college football, love their teams and love the camaraderie of RV City.
Fans admit this year hits different, though, and it has nothing to do with Florida entering with a 3-4 record and playing for interim coach Billy Gonzales after Billy Napier was fired on Oct. 19. Georgia is 6-1, ranked fifth nationally and still in contention for the SEC and national championships. The Dawgs are rolling and the Gators floundering.
But no, that’s not it. Because of stadium renovations, the Florida-Georgia game will move to Atlanta in 2026 and Tampa in 2027. The rivalry will return to Jacksonville for at least 2028-31.
“We hate it – it’s our family tradition,” Georgia fan Debra Reynolds said of the two-year move away from Jacksonville.
“We’re not going to Atlanta and I’m not going to Tampa,” Florida fan Joe Clark said.
Here are more stories from my first visit to RV City.
’This is the best rivalry’
Gators fan Cassandra Thompson is my first stop after walking onto the grounds. Her group, which includes three other campers, arrived from Gainesville on Monday night and rolled in when the gate opened Tuesday at 8 a.m.
“I know everybody in this entire row,” she said, pointing down to the campers owned by the Harris and Ayers families and also a man called “Master Chief,” and a Georgia fan named “Eric.”
Thompson said her family has been coming to RV City for 10 years, but her friends for “much, much longer.”
“You have all of your rivalries and everybody thinks they have the best rivalry,” Thompson said. “But my question to those people who say, ‘Our rivalry is the best and biggest,’ is who tailgates like this for a week before the game? Who does that? That would be Florida and Georgia. That would be us.”
It was calm on Wednesday as the golf carts zoomed around and a heavy police and security presence was on-scene. But later in the week?
“Friday is when everybody throws down,” Thompson said with a laugh. “Right now, it’s chill and cool and it’s more about, ‘What are we having for dinner tonight or let’s hop on the golf cart and go for a ride.’ Friday, the music is turned up.”
I asked Thompson, who plans to travel to Atlanta and Tampa the next two years, about the future of Florida football. Since winning its last national title in January 2009, the Gators have rolled through Urban Meyer (who left voluntarily) and fired Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen and Napier. The Gators are headed toward a fifth consecutive year with at least five losses.
Thompson wants the Gators to hire Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin.
“I think you’ll hear a lot of that around here,” she said. “I just think he would bring a lot of passion to the job. I thought we should have gone after him last year, but I was also a fan of keeping Billy — I hate that we’ve hopped from coach to coach so much. I was a fan of giving Billy a chance, which I think we did. I’m glad we kept him for another year. It was clearly not working out so now I’m Team Kiffin all the way.”
Mardi Gras feel
Next up were two Georgia fans whose motor coach was away from the main drag of RV City … completely by design.
“We were on the (main) aisle last year and I said, ‘Let’s get away from that a little bit,’ because it was a lot,” Dawgs fan/Atlanta resident Robert Allen said.
Like a lot of people? A lot of noise?
“Friday night in here is mayhem – it’s like Mardi Gras,” Allen said. “There are people shoulder to shoulder. Everybody is nice and cool, but it can get a little hairy.”
Allen, who was sitting alongside friend Matt Storey, said he has been coming to RV City “off and on for 20 years. I came down here and you could tell this was the place to be.”
This is Storey’s seventh consecutive trip to town, and he has stayed with Allen for the last four years.
Allen will have 4-6 people staying in the motor coach and another six friends in town at another location. On Saturday, he expects about 24 people to tailgate before walking across the street to the game.
Storey admitted this year’s game is “bittersweet” because of the move out of Jacksonville and Allen said the atmosphere will be “completely different.” But they’ll get the home game in 2026.
“That works out for us and we might try to make it to Tampa,” Allen said. “But I think it will be completely different.”
Girls Week in RV City
Reynolds was preparing her grill for bacon-wrapped chicken from Buc-ee’s when I introduced myself. She then took over the introductions of her crew this week.
“Well, it’s like this: She’s my sister. She’s my sister. She’s my cousin. She’s our friend. This is my camper,” she said. “Our husbands dropped us off and it’s a girls/sisters week.”
The Reynolds group is from Jacksonville and many attended Paxon High School, or as they like to say, they’re Florida girls, but not Florida Gator girls. They started staying in RV City 20 years ago.
“This is a great thing,” said Sharon Reynolds, one of Debra’s sisters. “You make friends, you see people and you might not even know their names, but you know their faces.”
The Reynolds sisters said they’re “not real partiers. Yeah, we may take a shot, but we’re people watchers.”
A golf cart of Gator fans drives by the Reynolds camp and start doing the chomp-chomp-chomp.
“That’s why we come – to talk trash,” Debra said.
Celebrity visitors
My final stop close to the overpass that leads off the Hart Bridge is the motor coach organized by Clark of Jacksonville and Corey Patterson of Orange Park. The libations are lined up on a table and there are several coolers full of Jell-O shots to get through the weekend.
These guys, these Gator guys, they’ve got stories.
Tim Tebow and Vanilla Ice stopped by two years ago. Same for Gov. Ron DeSantis and his hulking security guards. They bought a folding chair for a friend to sleep in this year after he slept on the ground under a table last year.
Clark has been doing this for 30 years.
“We started at The Landing in a boat but then 2018 came and we bought the RV and got rid of the boat,” Clark said.
Their motorhome can sleep eight, but they expect 30-50 people in their area tailgating Friday and before the game. Hanging on the exterior are the Gators’ three championship flags (1996, 2006 and 2008) and a framed certificate honoring the Clark/Patterson group for a spirit award in 2021.
“I thought we should have won it the last couple of years, too,” said Patterson, pointing to the two tall inflated Gators that flank the motorhome. “They seemed to give it out to people who have Halloween decorations.’
I asked the guys what’s next for Florida football after Napier.
“If I could pick anybody, I would say Nick Saban but that’s not going to happen,” Patterson said. “Right now, it’s probably Kiffin.”
And with that, I declared victory for my first visit to RV City. It is a slice of Georgia football, Florida football, city of Jacksonville, family, friends, partying and trash-talking rolled into one week.
Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com