LSU football fans couldn’t ask for a better day to start their fall break.This year’s four-day vacation coincides with the LSU football team’s most daunting road game before the bye week, a 600-mile trip to Athens, Ga., to face the Georgia Bulldogs.For many of the 1,500 students making the drive, this week’s vacation eases the strain of traveling more than 1,000 miles before school resumes Monday.”Thursday afternoon, we’re going up there, and we’re going to go out, then we’re going to tailgate and have a long weekend,” said Jennie Schmidt, communication disorders senior.Schmidt’s attitude is reflected by many traveling Tiger fans, who normally have just Friday and Sunday to travel across the South to reach road games.”We’re driving up at 6 a.m. Friday morning, so we’ll have more time to hopefully enjoy Athens because it’s a great party town,” said Bridget Cloud, mass communication senior. “It kind of gives us more time, and we can prepare for it better because we have Thursday to get our stuff together.”Athens’ proximity to Atlanta is another reason for excitement among students making the trip. With a large amount of hotel rooms and attractions available, many LSU fans will likely stop off in Georgia’s state capital before continuing to the game.Lee Daquanno, communication studies senior, and several friends are staying in the Atlanta metro area, though work constraints will keep them from taking full advantage of it.”I kind of wanted to go to downtown Atlanta,” Daquanno said. “I wanted to hit up the aquarium and the Coca-Cola museum — just something to change the scenery.”Other students have managed to schedule very elaborate vacations for themselves while waiting for kickoff.Alyssa Winter, elementary grades education junior, is leaving Thursday to go whitewater rafting with 15 friends on the Oconee River. “We wanted to go to Six Flags [in Atlanta], but it’s closed during the day on Friday,” Winter said. “We’re sleeping in Athens [on] Thursday night, then we’re driving about three hours on Friday to get to the river. I went once when I was a kid, but it’s the first time for pretty much all of us.”Winter said the extra days off give students a better chance to make the most of the trip.”It’s pretty much perfect timing,” she said. “Without fall break we wouldn’t have had time to go whitewater rafting. We went to Georgia last year just for a weekend, and it was too short for a nine-hour drive.”Chelsey Laborde, mass communication senior, said the combination of fall break and Athens makes the Georgia road trip one of the year’s most appealing travels. ”We won’t be rushed on Friday, and we’ll get there early,” Laborde said. “And it’s a 2 o’clock game, so we’ll be able to be there and have a little bit of tailgating time.”And even if the Tigers’ road trip doesn’t go so well, the students who go with them seem determined to get their vacation’s worth.”I’m going to enjoy Athens to its fullest,” Cloud said. ——Contact David Helman at [email protected]